THE LIVERPOOL FAN  is part of a special soccer fiction supplement that ran in Plastic Pitch‘s Autumn, 2016 edition…

When he first arrived in Vancouver, Marco Bustos was a homesick teen. After a few months in the Whitecaps Residency, he was told by the club to get his act together. Now, years later, he is one of the Whitecaps’ brightest prospects...

This is simply a statistical look at how the teams have performed. But it is compelling. Outside of the Habs, the North American sports teams have a history of slumping badly once their owners go and invest in the world’s most popular league, the EPL. And, for Red Sox fans, Avalanche fans and the like, it’s absolutely justified to have a case of little man syndrome — based on the stats.

“Unfortunately due to FIFA regulations surrounding mandatory vacation dates post-international tournaments, Liverpool’s squad in Toronto will not feature internationals Steven Gerrard, Glen Johnson, Martin Kelly, Jordan Henderson, Stewart Downing, Andy Carroll, Pepe Reina and Fabio Borini, who all took part in last month’s UEFA European Championship,” read a statement today from TFC.

But these ticket prices beg the question — now that the Montreal Impact gives local soccer fans MLS action on a weekly basis, will we see the same kind of “friendly fatigue” there that’s become so evident in Toronto, where so many of these international games are now greeted with cynicism?

Adding Liverpool to the schedule means a stretch of six games in 17 days. That would be ridiculous.

If, last July, someone was to predict that Toronto FC would be the last MLS team standing in the CONCACAF Champions League, they’d have been offered some pretty sweet odds.

Stefan Frei can now say he has gone from the Reds to the Reds. Toronto FC announced Sunday that the Swiss goalkeeper will train with Liverpool FC until Dec. 18.

Glen McNamara had hopes that his young son would follow him as a soccer professional. The former All-Canadian goalkeeper from York University began work with his boy, Taylor Mikael, when the kid was a three-year-old. Twenty years later, the younger McNamara has hit the professional circuit like his father – just not at the same position. “When I was young, he always wanted to get me the ball at my feet but every once in a while, he gave me some hand drills,” says McNamara, a midfielder with Dayton Dutch Lions FC of the United Soccer Leagues’ Pro division. “He realized that I wasn’t growing fast enough to be a keeper.”

It was a fascinating exercise to go through a couple of hours worth of tweets after Arsenal’s stunning 2-1 win over Barcelona in the first leg of their Champions League round of 16 tie. The pundits are one thing, but when the tweets come from players or, in the case of Eskandarian, recently retired players, it’s amazing to see people who are (or recently were) paid to play the game become fans.