CREDIT: ANDREW VIDLER
Andrew Vidler made the pilgrimage to Anfi eld, home of Liverpool Football Club in England.

The final whistle has been blown and I am sitting in an old wooden seat, watching 22 men file off a soccer field which has stood where it is for over 100 years. Ninety minutes has been played, there have been zero goals scored, no highlight reel moments, and the loudspeaker announcements are drowned out by the sound of 2,000 people in blue shirts shouting at me, and anyone else who may be a tourist, to ‘Get back on your airplanes,' yet I'm sitting there wearing a smile, because there is no place I'd rather be.

I am sitting in Anfield, the home of Liverpool Football Club, one of the most successful teams in soccer history, and the team that I fell in love as a 10-year-old looking to expand my knowledge of the sport I was playing. It began as an arbitrary choice in team, one that in time and with research grew into a consuming passion for a team that I had no real reason to support, yet I found myself caught up in the culture surrounding the team from a world away.

Being a soccer fan in Canada is a unique experience; we are a relatively small percentage of a sports community that is completely dominated by hockey. We are joined every four years by hundreds of Canadians who are suddenly mad with support for the countries of their heritage yet remain completely unaware of the nature and culture surrounding the sport throughout the three years in between tournaments. The sport has seen a notable rise in popularity, especially with the addition of Canadian teams in Major League Soccer, North America's top professional league, but when compared to the brand of soccer that is on offer in Europe, it is easy to see why this is the only place to truly experience soccer culture.

The most obvious difference when observing the sport's supporters in North America compared to those in Europe is the nature of the crowd within the stadium. When watching professional hockey and basketball played on television, the sound of the crowd is a roar, 10,000 fans screaming different words at different times, effectively creating a cauldron of noise. What is seen on television, and what I was a part of in the stands at Anfield, was thousands fans singing in one voice songs that have been sung for decades, showing a love and bond to the club that I have never witnessed among my many hockey fan friends. The team is more than just that to these people — it is a family.

It is this passion for the club, and the brotherly love between the supporters, that caused me to fall in love with Liverpool FC. I could hear the pride for the club in the voice of every cabbie, club shop worker and tour guide I spoke to, and it was an almost physical feeling in the air at the stadium during the match. The entire atmosphere was boosted by the nature of the game we were attending; Liverpool FC was playing against Everton, a smaller team also based in Liverpool. It is one of the fiercest rivalries in English soccer. While recent seasons have seen this match become much more competitive, Everton has never been able to match the success of Liverpool as a global club, with the fan-base fiercely against anyone who is not of the city; this was their game and their town and we could not be a “true supporter” if we did not live in the city. Thankfully this was not an attitude shared among the Liverpool fans, who welcomed me with open arms.

The game may have ended with the score at 0-0, but it was an extremely exciting match. The atmosphere was electric with songs and chants ringing out both from the pocket of Everton supporters in one end of the stadium, and more movingly, echoing from all sides of the stadium, starting quietly in one end, swelling in volume as the rest of the stadium heard the call and took it up themselves. People have since told me they're sorry that I travelled so far and spent so much money just to not even see a goal scored, and some of my hockey friends expressed their bewilderment that a professional league allows a game to end in a tie. They are right in their own way, of course; I would have rather seen a goal scored, but in the end it didn't matter to me, at that point just being able to soak up the atmosphere that I had been craving all my life was enough.