The 4:30 AM Kickoff
Makes 7:30AM ET feel like child’s play
When the schedule comes out every season, or there’s a mid-season adjustment due to our commitments in other competitions, there’s always one time that many of us on the West Coast dread- the noon kickoff. The ability to wake up so early on a weekend is exhausting. However, it separates the devoted fans from the casual ones. Watching the Reds before sunrise is somewhat of a badge of honor.
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Noon in England, for us in California, Washington, and Oregon, means 4:00 AM. This also means the drink of choice is usually not beer, but coffee. Of course, this all depends on whether you are watching from home or your local spot and local liquor laws.
A Schedule-Busting Kickoff
For some, like myself, the unease of the 4:30 AM kickoff is further compounded by work schedules. For reference, I work nights with a long commute home. This generally means that I’ll more often than not get up long enough to put the game on, plug my headphones in, and fall back to sleep. The hope is that I’m awoken to the sounds of a Liverpool goal. Living at home, those headphones are necessary out of respect for those I live with.
Also, these fixtures can play havoc on our usual venues’ schedules. As much as certain places would love to open for every match, some can’t swing it. That forces us to watch from home regardless of our desire to be with other supporters.
Liverpool in that sense, have the distinction of being the team with the most noon kickoffs coming back from international breaks by far. Hopefully, future schedules will offer us better parity and more accommodations for those who aren’t always able to wake up in the pre-dawn hours.
