TourUSA diary: Reunions, 3,500 miles, Roman Empire and more from day one

9.20am, UK: For us, the tour begins with a first small step: a rendezvous of the media team and other club departments travelling to the States. We congregate at our Chapel Street office to board a bus to Manchester Airport, from where a chartered flight will carry the entire LFC party out to Pittsburgh for stage one of the trip. Coffees and breakfast bites are the order of the day – not least for those who left their packing to the last minute [Editor’s note: guilty as charged]. And soon enough, we’re on the road. A journey to America of around 11 hours’ duration has begun.

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12pm, UK: Suitcases are checked in, security is safely passed and boarding the plane gets under way. Here, we’re joined by some of the legends who will be with us in the USA and there’s a mini reunion in process; hugs and handshakes as Messrs Barnes, Hyypia, McAllister and Rush meet up again, and the odd photo with a fan too. Backroom staff get comfortable in their spots onboard, followed by Arne Slot’s 28-man initial squad for the trip.

The players pair off in seats – Mo Salah and Kostas Tsimikas customarily together – and before we leave the tarmac, many of them fill us in on the entertainment they have lined up to while away the seven-hour flight ahead of them. Nat Phillips has a documentary about the Roman Empire ready to watch. Fair play. John Barnes and Ian Rush, meanwhile, settle in on the same row; just the 1,067 appearances and 454 goals for Liverpool there.

1.30pm, UK: And now we’re taxiing out to our departure runway, where at the perimeter a gaggle of cameras and observers witness the jet soaring into the clouds to eventually reach a coasting altitude of 35,000 feet. We’ll be taking a north-to-south arc across the Atlantic over a distance of more than 3,500 miles before landing. Plenty of time to dive into my book, then. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, if you’re asking.

3.56pm, US: Touchdown in the Steel City! After barely a bump along the way, the Reds arrive in Pittsburgh, stepping onto US soil for the first time since the summer of 2019. There’s a time-zone jump to get accustomed to – here, it’s five hours behind UK clocks – and a predictably humid temperature greets us too. But spirits are high all-round and we’re now just a hop on a bus away from setting up camp in the city. This provides a chance for a spot of Pittsburgh trivia competitiveness: did you know there are 446 bridges here?

6.15pm, US: For the media team, there’s an appointment with LFC CEO Billy Hogan as he tells us about his excitement for the fortnight ahead, both in terms of football and the club’s planned activities during the visit.

“It’s a part of being one of the biggest clubs in the world, is you’ve got supporters who are all over the world,” he says. “Many of whom will never have the chance to come to Anfield and never get the chance to see Liverpool play a match live in the UK or Europe. It’s our opportunity, and we feel like it’s our responsibility, to take the club out and to be able to engage with supporters more directly.

“It’s important for us to do that wherever we are in the world, that’s something we really look forward to when we come out to these communities, doing events in the communities and really engaging with our supporters here on the ground.”

6.30pm, US: For the players, it’s time for a stretch inside the team hotel before they embark on a group walk around the environment they will be calling home for the next five days. The Reds have already caused a little stir, too – we spotted plenty of Pittsburgh Pirates fans striving to catch a glimpse of the men from Merseyside as they made their way to nearby PNC Park for the evening’s Major League Baseball clash with the St. Louis Cardinals.

8pm, US: And so, day one comes to a close. The Reds’ USA tour is under way, and there’s plenty of activity to come on and off the pitch. Slot’s men have morning and afternoon sessions on their schedule tomorrow – with both taking place at the training ground of NFL side Pittsburgh Steelers – as they shape up for Friday’s friendly against Real Betis at Acrisure Stadium. Meanwhile, a club delegation will be visiting a local children’s hospital and LFC Foundation will be delivering a soccer clinic for more than 100 kids from the area.

Stay logged on to Liverpoolfc.com and our social media channels for rolling updates throughout the Reds’ time in the USA.