Everton on fire

When last we looked in on Everton, the club had just lost the Merseyside derby, thanks to horrible refereeing. Since then (Oct. 20), Everton has reeled off six victories in seven matches, the latest being today’s 7-1 thrashing of Sunderland. The only “blemish” was a draw at Chelsea, a team that hasn’t lost at home in recent memory. Three of the victories have come in the Premier League, two in European play, and one in a domestic cup competition. Most of these successes came while several key players were hurt. Now we just about at full strength.
I managed to miss today’s match because I was working. However, this deprivation is more than compensated for by the pleasure I experienced watching our victory over Nurnberg in the company of Everton fans a few weeks ago.
I watch most of my matches at the Lucky Bar on Connecticut Avenue in Washington, D.C.. The bar is paradise for soccer fans, and draws lots of Arsenal, Man U, Chelsea, Liverpool, and Tottenham supporters. Only once every few years does a stray Evertonian turn up. But a few minutes into the Nurnberg match an English family (brother, sister, and mother) walked in and began pulling for Everton.
The brother turned out to be a die-hard season ticket holder who travels to Liverpool from Oxford for nearly every match. He was so delighted to meet an Everton supporter in the U.S., and one who sympathized with his rant against the club possibly leaving Goodison Park, that he paid for my drinks. The sister is a lawyer now working in Washington. The mother is a Liverpool supporter (a “Kopite,” as her son put it), but was backing Everton against the foreign opposition.
In view of this, and email I’ve received on the question, I asked the two offspring whether they root for Liverpool against European opposition. The brother said he never does, as Liverpool has sold its soul to the devil. The sister said she supports Liverpool only when the opposition is German. The mother said she intends to disown them both.
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