AllStar Legends KL: A Night of Football Nostalgia

There are some footballers whose names immediately take you back to a particular era. For me, Steven Gerrard is one of them.

I still remember watching Liverpool's incredible comeback against AC Milan in Istanbul in 2005. It was around 3am, it was a school morning, and somehow I was sitting at home watching the Champions League final before having to go to school.

Even now, thinking about that night gives me goosebumps. So there was something quite surreal about seeing him back on a football pitch in Kuala Lumpur more than two decades later.

Iwas at MITECon Saturday night for the AllStar Legends match, which brought together a group of players who defined the football I grew up watching. The original plan had been for an 11-a-side match at Bukit Jalil, but the event was moved indoors to MITEC because of the haze and weather conditions.

That also meant a change to a five-a-side format, played over two 20-minute halves. And it turned out to be a lot of fun.

With such a small pitch, there was very little room to settle into the game. The ball moved quickly, the players were constantly involved and the goals came thick and fast.

The AllStar Premier League Legends eventually edged the AllStar World Legends 7-6.13 goals in just 40 minutes. Gerrard was the star of the night, scoring four times, while John Arne Riise, David Bentley and Michael Owen also got on the scoresheet.

The World Legends kept pace through Jaap Stam, Razman Roslan, Diego Capel, Fernando Morientes and Javier Saviola, who scored twice. But the scoreline was only part of the fun.

I grew up mostly watching the Premier League, so seeing Gerrard, Michael Owen, Ryan Giggs and Riise on the same pitch brought back plenty of memories. And seeing Gerrard and Riise together was particularly special; both were part of that Liverpool side I watched complete that extraordinary comeback in Istanbul.