LONDON — In little over a month from now, Steven Gerrard, one of the most genuine players England has produced, will move with his family to Los Angeles.
His farewell to Liverpool, where he has played for 17 years and made more than 700 appearances, did not go according to script Saturday.
Liverpool lost, 3-1, to Crystal Palace on its home turf at Anfield stadium. It was not the Hollywood ending that people would have hoped for, but the game had something more precious: the integrity and competitiveness that makes the English Premier League one of the most compelling competitions on earth.
The Palace players lined up as an honor guard for Stevie G before the start. They allowed Liverpool to lead midway through the first half. And then, proud upstarts that they are, the lesser-known men of Crystal Palace outplayed, outran and outscored Liverpool.
Obviously, it was a big day for Steven Gerrard, said Jason Puncheon, the first scorer for Palace. But for us, it was a game that we wanted to win.
He is an inspiration to me. When I was a kid, I used to watch him and try to do what I could to try to get close to him.
Puncheon, 28, is seven years younger than Gerrard. His goal — a free kick dinked over a defensive wall infiltrated by two Palace players who had to duck to let the ball through — was right out of Gerrard’s own armory. Wilfried Zaha poached the second goal just moments after he came on as a substitute, and Glenn Murray scored the final one by knocking in the rebound after his penalty kick was saved.
All three goals were opportunistic and full of eagerness. Those, and a whole lot more, are traits that Gerrard had made his own in a career that actually began when Gerrard joined the Liverpool academy when he was 9.
The Los Angeles Galaxy of Major League Soccer — once the home of David Beckham — is going to get possibly the most hard-working and loyal player there is in the modern era. Gerrard is leaving Liverpool because he could not countenance running in a red jersey during his final, declining years. He still has versatility, commitment and some power. But, like every athlete, he cannot hope to be at 35 what he was at 25.
He was in his prime in the summer of 2005 when, in a Champions League final against A.C. Milan in Istanbul, he conjured up the comeback of a lifetime.
Milan was three goals up at halftime, but moments into the second half, Gerrard soared above the Italians’ defense to head in a goal and then rallied the Reds to a 3-3 tie by the end of normal time. Liverpool won the penalty shootout.
Gerrard not only led by example, he carried his team in what remains the most inspiring act of leadership I have seen on a soccer field. I can give 11 reasons to argue that point — the 11 players of Milan that night.
Milan’s starting lineup was Dida in goal; Cafu, Jaap Stam, Alessandro Nesta and Paolo Maldini in defense; Gennaro Gattuso, Andrea Pirlo and Clarence Seedorf in midfield; and Kaká, Andriy Shevchenko and Hernán Crespo in attack.
Every man was a world-class performer. And every one that I have subsequently met swore that Gerrard was the opponent they just could not subdue.
Kaká is now with Orlando City, and he said Saturday on Facebook that he cannot wait to reacquaint himself with Gerrard in an M.L.S. match.
They could have been teammates once because Kaká played for Real Madrid at a time when Madrid tried to sign Gerrard. Real, Inter Milan, Chelsea and Manchester United all coveted him, but none could entice him to leave his beloved Liverpool.
I wanted to win trophies, he summed up, for my own people.
His people are Liverpudlians, and some of them apparently paid $2,000 for tickets with a face value of $60 for his final match at Anfield.
Those fans felt they had to be there for the final fling of possibly the best, and by far the most devout, player to ever represent them. Stevie G, read one accolade. The best there is, the best there was, and the best there will ever be.
Few cities do sentiment quite so fervently as Liverpool. Few players have so closely represented the bond between fans and their team.
The Anfield crowd stayed true to its principles on Saturday, even in defeat, and even in an atmosphere that was choking with emotion when Gerrard was accompanied by his three small daughters before and after the game.
The fans, and their departing captain, acknowledged that the better team won the game.
When Yannick Bolasie, a Palace player whose speed and industry constantly destroyed Liverpool’s defense, was replaced with 10 minutes of the game left, the Liverpool fans applauded him off the field.
Here was a player so swift and so intent on beating Liverpool that the home crowd recognized his tenacity, and perhaps wished Liverpool had it.
The team had someone like him last season when Luis Suárez led the Anfield attack before he departed for Barcelona.
Bolasie — a 25-year-old French-born Congolese player who started to play in London as a child — is in an exciting phase of his career. Like others on Crystal Palace, he displayed a raw hunger Saturday to win a contest that will make little to no difference to where they finish in the league standings. It was a hunger, perhaps, to be noticed. Certainly a hunger to win the points, regardless of the fact that this was Steven Gerrard’s last night on the Anfield grass.
Once the game started, the sentiment stopped. Crystal Palace won at Anfield for the first time since 1991, spoiling Liverpool’s party but preserving the professional honesty of English soccer.
This isn’t, yet, a Hollywood ending. That will come soon enough for the Gerrards.
