Fans turn out in droves to see Galaxy’s Gerrard against FC Dallas
Two hours before kickoff, a sea of red jerseys had gathered outside the player entrance at Toyota Stadium. Perhaps not unusual, given FC Dallas wears red at home.
These jerseys, however, lacked the familiar AdvoCare logo of the home club, and the majority of them had “Gerrard” written across the back.
Former Liverpool star and captain of the England national team Steven Gerrard signed with the LA Galaxy last month. The move, which was announced in January, was one of the biggest in league history — arguably ranking with David Beckham’s move to MLS in 2007.
It’s probably no coincidence that Gerrard’s presence in Frisco on Saturday coincided with FC Dallas’ first home sellout of the season. It was the team’s fourth-largest crowd all time at Toyota Stadium.
Some traveled for hours to get a glimpse of their soccer hero — such as Sean Knowles and his girlfriend, Jess Perkins. Knowles, originally from Philadelphia, is stationed at Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls. Perkins, originally from Australia, drove up from Austin to meet Knowles and make a weekend of the match.
“I don’t follow MLS much, but I follow the Premier League and Liverpool, so he’s the reason we’re here,” said Knowles, who was among the many wearing Liverpool’s famous red jersey and clinging to small hopes of landing an autograph. “I’m competing with a bunch of cute little kids, though, so I don’t know how successful I’ll be. It’s hard to be pushy when you see all these little guys wanting to meet him.”
Young Gerrard fans were not in short supply. Full squads of kids adorned in Liverpool replica uniforms huddled together in anticipation of pregame warmups. Jimmy Gregg of Flower Mound was among the chaperones for Liverpool Club of America, a team of U-12 boys.
“My son was already a huge Gerrard fan, so when he found out he was coming to MLS he was super excited,” Gregg said. “He couldn’t wait for him to come to Dallas. I know a lot of kids, and you can see it around here — there are a lot of kids wearing Gerrard jerseys — you see the impact he has. It’s pretty amazing.”
It wasn’t just kids making a special trip to Frisco to see Gerrard. Bobby Roberts moved from Liverpool to Texas in 1966, settling in Bedford. The lifelong soccer fan has been to a few MLS matches, but there was no chance he was going to miss this one.
“It’s all about Steven Gerrard for me,” Roberts said. “He’s been a player for my team for 17 years.”
But it was another former Liverpool star who inflicted major damage against FC Dallas on Saturday night. Irishman Robbie Keane, a teammate of Gerrard in the 2008-2009 season, scored twice in a five-minute span of the second half as the Galaxy left with an important 2-1 victory over their Western Division rival.
And while his impact on this particular match wasn’t as significant as the thousands of Gerrard fans in attendance may have wished, it’s likely he will have a significant long-term impact on the league.
This story was originally published August 15, 2015 at 10:49 PM with the headline "Fans turn out in droves to see Galaxy’s Gerrard against FC Dallas."