No moment of magic for Gerrard's Anfield exit — not that he needed one

The afternoon was fit for Steven Gerrard. He’s rescued Liverpool with late goals so many times, what’s one more on his home farewell?

The Reds pushed and pushed for an equalizer, and in the 90th minute, a penalty was awarded to … Crystal Palace, which ultimately spoiled Gerrard’s final game at Anfield with a 3-1 victory.

“There’s no room for sentimentality in football,” Graeme Le Saux intoned on the NBC broadcast. If Gerrard had scored to tie or win Saturday’s game, which Palace played with vigor and little of the reverence that imprisoned Liverpool, would it have been magical? Absolutely.

But it didn’t happen. The glorious sendoff wasn’t to be.

As complete a midfielder as England and history-rich Liverpool has ever seen, Gerrard has made the remarkable seem routine for so long that you simply expected him to score. Ten trophies have made their way to Anfield during his 17 years with Liverpool, including the 2005 Champions League crown.

On that famous night in Istanbul, Gerrard scored and drew a penalty kick as part of a second-half surge that helped Liverpool erase a 3-0 deficit against AC Milan and ultimately earn European glory on penalty kicks.

Gerrard has also won the League Cup three times, the FA Cup twice and the Europa League (then known as the UEFA Cup) once. The glaring omission, as has been identified ad nauseam, is the Premier League trophy. Gerrard’s sides finished second three times but failed to capture England’s top domestic prize.

The lack of such an honor is a rarity among this generation’s best players — and it speaks to something else that makes Gerrard so unique.

Chelsea made overtures toward Gerrard a decade ago, but he never chose to become a gun-for-hire at a richer club, despite the trophies that routinely come with it. When he was a boy, Gerrard also held a trial with Manchester United’s academy, although he later admitted it was just a ploy to get the Reds to offer him a youth contract.

And offer they did. Gerrard made his senior debut in 1998 and has since become Liverpool’s longest-serving captain after being awarded the armband in 2003. He returned the favor by making 709 appearances, third-most in club history, and scoring 185 goals, the most for a non-striker.

He shepherded the club into the 21st century, and it still hasn’t really gained a foothold amid the big spending and player turnover that’s come to rule the game. Dormancy is relative, but there’s no question Liverpool’s success has not matched its prestige for quite some time.

Gerrard stayed through it all, living up to Liverpool’s anthem “You’ll never walk alone.” He spread his pace and passing and tempo and commitment all over the pitch, while scoring enough wonder goals to send YouTube into a frenzy. That’s how one earns nicknames like “Stevie G” and “Captain Fantastic.”

That’s why so many eyes were fixated on Anfield Saturday. Only cynics or rivals would have you believe the final home game for someone like Gerrard wasn’t a special occasion.

Then, in 90 minutes of irony, it played out counter to expectations. A week of reflecting on what Liverpool was with Steven Gerrard culminated in a glimpse of what it could be without him.

One potential replacement, Adam Lallana, scored on a gift from Palace but didn’t register much of an impact otherwise. Another potential replacement, Emre Can, received a yellow card for a foul that led to the free kick which yielded Palace’s first goal.

As he has for much of the season, Gerrard primarily played in a deep-lying midfield position. (By his own admission, he’s “getting too old for this level.”) But once Liverpool fell behind, manager Brendan Rodgers shifted Gerrard to a more attack-minded position.

It almost worked. Gerrard curled a low, dangerous shot toward the near post in the 65th minute, and he looked set to replicate one of his magical free kicks in the 77th minute from just outside the box.

But the shot sailed over. The glorious sendoff wasn’t to be.

It wasn’t to be when Palace scored three times in the last 11 minutes a year ago to crush Liverpool’s Premier League title hopes, all but handing Gerrard what he’s called the lowest moment of his career.

It wasn’t to be when Aston Villa erased an early deficit to knock out Liverpool in the FA Cup semifinals last month, denying Gerrard his last shot at silverware in the only shirt he’s ever worn as a soccer player.

But Gerrard has never fancied himself bigger than the club. He looked appreciative throughout Saturday’s tributes but never fully comfortable, whether it was walking out with his daughters before the match or being greeted with applause and handshakes around the ground after the final whistle.

This will hardly be the last day Gerrard spends at Anfield. He’ll join the Los Angeles Galaxy in MLS this summer, and once he’s finished playing, many expect Gerrard to take a managerial or administrative role with Liverpool.

For now, though, one chapter has come to a close. His teammates stayed on the pitch and let Gerrard head back to the players’ tunnel first, giving him a head start amid the cheers.

And off the pitch Gerrard walked. By himself, but never, ever alone.