'We'll create the Boston Kop'
Liverpool confirmed on Wednesday they'll face AS Roma in a prestigious pre-season friendly at Fenway Park in July – and we caught up with LFC Boston chairman, Tim Treacy, to gauge the reaction of our American fans.
The match against the Italian giants will take place on July 25 and will form part of the Reds' North American pre-season tour presented by Standard Chartered Bank.
Speaking to the club's official website, Tim explains why the news of Liverpool visit has caused great excitement in Boston and how local fans are planning to recreate their very own Kop at Fenway Park...
Tim, what's the response been like to the news Liverpool will play in Boston this summer?
It's been absolutely off the chart. I'd say 95 per cent of our LFC Boston members, and even other Liverpool supporters in Boston, have never seen Liverpool live before.
Everyone is excited. On our Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, web forum and blog, there have been so many people posting since the announcement, and I was getting phone calls, emails and texts all day on Wednesday - I must have had maybe 100 emails from people wondering if I was selling tickets!
It's been a great response and everyone has said these tickets are going to be like gold dust. It's going to be a great day. People are so happy.
What will it mean to people in Boston to get the chance to see Liverpool live?
It will be an incredible experience for them. I remember the first time I ever went to watch Liverpool, it was a very emotional thing. They're a team I've supported forever, but I'd only ever seen them on TV - then there I was standing on the Kop.
It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a lot of people. A lot of them are students and right now would not be able to afford to go to Anfield. Even people in their late 20s and early 30s still wouldn't have the financial resources to make it to Anfield yet. Once you include plane tickets, getting to Anfield for just one person costs around $3,000 - $4,000, so this will be great for them as they'll be able to get a ticket for $50.
We'll also have what's already been called the 'Boston Kop' at Fenway, which are probably going to be the bleachers inside the stadium.
Even this morning, I woke up to more text messages and Tweets - it's absolutely great news and people are so excited.
What sort of atmosphere can we expect from the Boston Kop, then?
I'm hoping it's going to be a fantastic atmosphere. I don't know how Anfield-esque we can make it, but we're planning on getting a section of the stadium just for supporters who are flying in from other parts of the US.
We already know we'll have guys flying in from LA and there's a big group coming in from Toronto. There will also be people from Florida, Texas, Chicago and New York, so we're hoping that if we can get all the supporters' groups together in one spot, we'll be able to sing our hearts out for the whole game.
Hopefully that will transfer to the TV cameras and it will look a great spectacle and sound like a mini-Anfield for those watching at home.
Is this a chance for American fans to show the rest of the world how passionate our fan base is in the States?
I was only talking about last summer's Asia tour yesterday. It was incredible and even the training sessions were absolutely mobbed with people. I think it will be the same here.
Football is slowly growing in the States. I've been here seven years and the difference in that time is incredible. Seven years ago we had just six members in LFC Boston, but through social media we kept finding people and getting them interested in Liverpool. Now we've got an email list with a couple of thousand names on it. We're even too big for just one bar now to watch Liverpool games - now we have two and three bars that people go to.
It's definitely growing and I've noticed in the last two or three years, it's really begun to pick up pace. Even the Fox Soccer channel over here have started carrying games on regular Fox - which is like big games broadcast on BBC or ITV in the UK instead of Sky. That reaches 350m Americans and they put it on in primetime positions.
The game is growing here and I wouldn't be at all surprised if by 2014 there were absolutely millions and millions of Americans interested in soccer.
What can Liverpool fans expect from Fenway Park?
This is it's 100-year anniversary, so it's a special time for Fenway Park.
It's a very different stadium as it's not a football stadium - it's a baseball stadium. At the side of the field, there is a giant green wall called the 'Green Monster'. Fenway is an incredible place and watching a baseball game there is like no other.
It's got an aura in American baseball. It's the oldest ball park in the States and it's magical.
Celtic played there recently and I went to that game. It was alright, but for a lot of people it was their first football game they'd ever seen, so they weren't really supportive. But for the Liverpool game, I'd be very surprised if the majority of the crowd were not passionate Reds fans singing and chanting.
Roma will be our opponents at Fenway Park. That will make the occasion that little bit more special given our history with them...
Yes, definitely. We're planning for all the supporters' clubs coming into town the day before - and anyone else who wants to - to meet with us. We're going to have a luncheon with a few past Liverpool players eating with us.
While we do that, we'll watch the 1984 European Cup final against Roma. I think that will be a nice little build-up to the game the day before!