In China a red army is massing. They're waiting for the great leap forward. They have come here, across oceans and time zones, from Birkdale, Bebington and Bootle. Many more have come more locally, from Whampoa, Mong Kok, Shatin and Chai Wan. It's a 40,000 sell-out at the Hong Kong Stadium for Liverpool versus Portsmouth in the final of the Barclays Asia Trophy. Red, overwhelmingly, is the colour in the hot, sticky stands.
When Steven Gerrard enters as a substitute the tower blocks that loom behind the stadium are almost wobbled by the noise. Every time the ball goes to Ryan Babel and Fernando Torres, making their debuts for Liverpool, there is frisson. When it arrives, the anticlimax is familiar. Liverpool press and probe and fail to score. Babel's feet are fleet and his movement sharp but his touch is awry; Torres makes one chance for himself with a breathtaking burst, but cannot beat David James.
And in the end it is James, not Gerrard, left holding the player-of-the-tournament bauble and winners' medal when a 0-0 draw ends with Portsmouth prevailing on penalties. The stadium empties, the red army disperses disquieted. What if the great leap never comes?
For Rafael Benitez this is a season of reckoning; for Gerrard and company this is a time of many expectations and few excuses. Liverpool have paid out £50m for fresh players and any uncertainty about George Gillett and Tom Hicks, the club's American owners, vanished when the breathtaking blueprint for a £300m new stadium was revealed.
Others have done their bit, now is the moment for Benitez and his footballers to advance. "The Champions League is probably the biggest trophy in football," said Jamie Carragher, "but because we've never won the Premier League before that would be the one for us."
There was an unmistakable air of business about Liverpool during their six-day stay in Hong Kong. Obligations were fulfilled, with Carragher among four players to give his time to a children's coaching clinic on Wednesday, but absent seemed the sense of happy adventure accompanying Manchester United on their own Asia tour. The Portsmouth game and a match versus South China were focused, technical exercises for Benitez, who barrelled about in his technical area, gesticulating, as if Premier League points were at stake.
It has been the same all throughout the preseason. Liverpool were the first of the Big Four to resume training and at a camp in Switzerland the players found themselves cycling to and from double-practice sessions over hilly terrain, instead of the comfort of a luxury coach.
"It's been hard like any preseason but with a lot more ball work. Last year there was an emphasis on physical work but this year we've been doing a lot more on team shape and helping the new players fit in. We need to be right at it from the first Premier League game," said Peter Crouch.
Carragher explained the thinking: "The way Manchester United and Chelsea started the last couple of seasons, we were out of the league [championship race] after 10 games. We wouldn't have said it at the time but, being honest, if they are getting eight or 10 points on you early on it's difficult because they win virtually every week."
Benitez has made other changes aimed at matching his rivals. The Portsmouth stalemate was galling because it was the very type of performance � dominating without penetrating � that has undermined Liverpool domestically during the Spaniard's reign. Torres, Babel, Yossi Benayoun and Andriy Voronin, the most impressive of the new players so far, were signed in hope of a sea change. "The manager has created a solid team. The next step is to score the goals United and Chelsea do. We've spent a few quid to try and do that," said Carragher. "We have great confidence in the players the manager has brought in, they've looked very good in training. I've never known a squad as strong. Every position has two international players competing for it and nobody can rest on their laurels. You have to look after yourself and make sure you're in the team."
Benitez has never been a sentimentalist but the sale of Luis Garcia to Atletico Madrid gave notice he is prepared to chase success more single-mind-edly than ever before. "Luis did superbly for Liverpool. I sent him a message saying I was sad to see him go. But I feel we have a top manager and being ruthless is part of being a top manager," Carragher said. "He got on great with Luis but he felt the time was right."
Garcia was a key to Liverpool winning the Champions League, but he never reprised that European form in the Premier League. It is all about making the great leap. "We've done well in the last seven or eight years, winning trophies, but the Premier League is the one we haven't got hold of. It's something we're desperate for and me more than most because of my age. I'm 29 now and won't have long left," said Carragher who, interestingly, does not see United as the main obstacle to a first title in 17 years.
"I still think the team who finish above Chelsea will win it. Chelsea are the ones you have to see as the yardstick, with Petr Cech and John Terry being back [from injuries that restricted their appearances in 2006-07]. United are the champions and a great side but Chelsea are really the team to beat if you want to win the league."
Liverpool will be the team to beat in stadium terms once their new ground, on a site adjacent to Anfield on Stanley Park, is completed in 2010. A team from HKS, the Dallas-based architect firm, attended Liverpool's home game against Barcelona in last season's Champions League and experienced the Kop at its most cathedral-like. The high-banked, 18,000-seat single-tier stand behind one goal that is focal in their plans demonstrates their understanding of what Liverpool fans want any ground they call home to be about. Hicks and Gillett, tickled by the asymmetrical nature of traditional British football grounds, asked for a departure from the bowl shape that has become standard in modern stadium designs and the result is a structure that looks both historic yet futuristic, familiar yet unique.
"Each stand is totally different and this will give the ground iconic status," said Rick Parry, Liverpool's chief executive. He said that while the initial planning application will be for a 60,000-capacity stadium, as soon as builders gain access to the site a new application will be submitted for something grander. "We still don't know precisely what the final capacity will be but I can confirm it will be in the upper 70,000s." A new Anfield bigger than Old Trafford, which seats 76,000, would be the dream of Koppites, but in football it is the size of a trophy room that matters and Benitez and his players would not be doing the new ground justice if, by the time it opens, they do not have at least one Premier League jug to take with them there.
"We have to thank the new owners for producing something like it and it's inspiring for the players," said Carragher.
"There is an incentive to make sure you are there when the new stadium opens. It's three years away but in the back of my mind I still want to be at the club playing the last game at Anfield and the first game in the new place." Who will step into the future depends on them making the great leap, and that is true for Liverpool's manager as well as the players.