But for all the cosmopolitan nature of the EPL [as the English Premier League is known Stateside] it was a native Scouser who settled the points, and underscored his enduring importance to Liverpool's perennial championship quest.
Steven Gerrard took 14 games to score his first league goal last season, by which time Liverpool were floundering in mid-table with Manchester United long over the horizon. This campaign was 87 minutes old, with all the familiar doubts about Liverpool's away form resurfacing, when he won and scored the free-kick which earned the first opening-day win since 2002. That the free-kick was a soft decision only confirmed Gerrard's stature. As Sheffield United found on the opening day last season, referees have a habit of saying "yes" when Gerrard appeals.
Afterwards, confided John Arne Riise, Gerrard addressed the team in the changing room, driving home the need for Liverpool to make a good start. Champions League qualifying means they will miss the midweek round offixtures. Losing to Villa could have sent them into the home match with Chelsea on Saturday six points adrift.
"Finally we have three points from the first league game," said Dirk Kuyt. "That was important for us. It's very important that you don't lose many points at the start of the season. We have been too far behind in the last few seasons. We had a really good second half last season. But that's not good enough if you want to be champions."
The problem, last season, was matches like these. Liverpool finished 21 points behind Manchester United. The gap was almost entirely attributable to their away form. On the road United won 42 points, Liverpool 22. Liverpool scored 18 goals away, fewer than Wigan and less than half United's tally.
"We need to score goals away, then we will win a lot of games," said RafaBenitez, logically enough.
To that end all his main signings are attack- minded players: FernandoTorres, who started, Ryan Babel and Andrei Voronin, who both came off the bench, and Yossi Benayoun who was left, with Javier Mascherano and Peter Crouch, in Liverpool with a view to Wednesday'sEuropean qualifier in Toulouse.
Torres looked sharp. His finishing was wayward but his speed of thought and footwork was impressive. He also showed a goodunderstanding with Kuyt. The Dutchman, however, is also a haphazard finisher and one wonders who will get the necessary goals.
Kuyt's qualities created the opening goal, but it needed a Villa player to score it. Kuyt's dummy gave Torres the chance to draw the first of many fine saves from Stuart Taylor. The Dutchman, a great chaser of lost causes, then collected Taylor's parry and his cross was inadvertently turned in by Martin Laursen.
Liverpool should have gone on to secure the three points with ease. Some of their interplay was superb, though it helped that Villa's midfield was unbalanced and unsure of their roles. Villa stayed in the game through Taylor. Lastseason the former under-21 international played five matches and conceded ten goals. On the eve of this he was given the confidence-sapping news that Martin O'Neill, concerned by a hamstring strain to Thomas Sorensen, had signed Scott Carson on a season-long loan. WithCarson ineligible, Taylor had 90 minutes to show his ability. He took it.
When Barry converted a late penalty after Jamie Carragher's reflex handball it seemed Taylor's heroics would win a point. Then Mike Riley misjudged Stilian Petrov's tackle on Gerrard and the Englishman curled the free-kick over the wall.
"Gerrard remains the heartbeat of that team," said O'Neill. "He drives them. He's a great, great player, and he looks as if he is even improving." If only the Villa manager could inject the same desire into John Carew. He also needs a right-back, which would enable the promising Craig Gardner to move into midfield, and more defensive cover. A glossy American-influenced brochure was given to fans before the game. It contained the promise, from chief executive Richard Fitzgerald, that "We aim to compete in the Champions League". On this evidence, they remain a long way off and the optimism which filled Villa Park could soon dissipate.
Liverpool, meanwhile, walk on with hope in their hearts and a weight off their shoulders. "We were talking before the game," said Benitez. "We knew it was important to win because everybody was talking about the pressure."
It was an admission that, while Benitez insists Liverpool are still a long waybehind Manchester United and Chelsea, many fans see differently. For them it is time to wrest the title back from the Florida franchise, sorry, Old Trafford.