Andoni Iraola knows the Yankee Stadium very well. He finished his playing career at New York City FC – and it was here where he played his last game for them – a 5-0 home defeat by Toronto FC in 2016 according to BBC Sport.
The records show an attendance of 28,355 that day, which is around half the capacity of this venue, home of the New York Yankees.
A decade on, Iraola returned to the city he once called home – but this time as the Liverpool boss against Wrexham and in front of a crowd of 42,204.
And he continued his winning start thanks to Rio Ngumoha’s goal.
It was a flying visit with Liverpool not even spending the night before the game in the city after the weather led to the cancellation of their inbound flight on Tuesday.
The squad were actually on the runway at the airport in Chicago, where their training base is, when they learned they would not be flying, as it would not be safe to land in New York.
There were no such problems on Wednesday with the squad arriving in time for the game. Pre-match, Iraola spoke about slowly improving performances. Afterwards, his verdict was that Liverpool “were more a team and more collective” than during Saturday’s 4-2 win over Sunderland.
There was a good early chance for 16-year-old Josh Abe, who wasted it, while Harvey Elliott was encouraging again.
A word too for Trey Nyoni, who looked comfortable in the middle of the park and regularly looked to pass forwards. The 19-year-old spoke earlier in the tour about taking this opportunity and he’s certainly showing Iraola what he can do.
“At the end, he [Nyoni] is a midfielder who, I always say, you have to ask for the ball sometimes with pressure – and he doesn’t feel this pressure,” said Iraola. “Even when he has one opponent quite close, he asks for that ball and he’s confident, he doesn’t rush. For me, that is very valuable.”
Although Wrexham did have chances, the fact that Liverpool kept a clean sheet was impressive, given the youth of the starting centre-back partnership – Ifeanye Ndukwe, 19, alongside Luke Chambers, 22.
“I’m happy today because we played a lot of the young players,” Iraola added. “Some of them had difficult match-ups, [Luke] Chambers playing as a centre-back against big bodies, he covered very well and played very well from the back.”
Why Liverpool want Barcola
Pre-season always comes with a caveat and Liverpool had plenty of big names missing.
They left Alexander Isak, Florian Wirtz, Ryan Gravenberch and Jeremy Jacquet back in Chicago, with Iraola confirming that the plan is for all of them to feature Sunday’s friendly against Leeds.
And now the possibility of Bradley Barcola becoming a Liverpool player is a genuine one, with Liverpool set to make a bid for the PSG winger.
Liverpool are long-standing admirers of the France international and engaged in discussions last summer about his availability but eventually decided they didn’t want to block the pathway of Ngumoha.
With Mohamed Salah gone, the situation has changed. At half-time in New York, Ngumoha came on and played down the right – another indication that the teenager will be used on both flanks this season. The teenager was fortunate with the deflection for his goal but his directness makes life tough for defenders.
“All the coaching staff are just telling me to play my normal game really, whether that’s going inside or outside. I’ve been working on it in training anyway, playing on the right and the left. Just being unpredictable really,” said Ngumoha.
He is a special talent while Victor Munoz, who Liverpool signed from Osasuna for £34m, is another one with plenty of potential but without Salah, Liverpool need high quality from the outset and Barcola can immediately provide that.
The 23-year-old is a proven winner at PSG, where he has made 152 appearances, scoring 39 goals and providing 37 assists. It will be quite the signing for Iraola if Liverpool can pull it off.