Now that was an FA cup final that I have not seen in a long
time.
Extra-Time? 3-3 at full time? Penalty Kicks?
Underdog leading 2-0 after 30 minutes? The favourite never leading
in the game?
The 2001 FA Cup final was dramatic for the Michael Owen goals. But
THIS 2006 final......man......I think it's as close as you can get
to the night as Istanbul but still far far off.
Gerrard never gave up.
Liverpool started the game poorly. Misplaced passes everywhere.
Over-cautious play.
Alonso had a bad game. Riise had a bad game. Kewell went missing
and just like last season in the CL final he limped off the pitch a
little after half time. Kewell should just admit he doesn't have
what it takes for finals.
The first goal was a bad bad horrendous mistake by Alonso. Yeah I
know Carragher scored the own goal, but Alonso out of nowhere with
no pressure, passed the ball to the West Ham player! That was the
worst mistake in a cup final that I have seen a Liverpool player
make. I don't blame Carragher. But also, what the hell was it with
Carragher and Hyppia changing sides in the centre? Any comment
Benitez?
And then the second goal, Reina's normally fantastic handling lets
him down badly.
2-0 West Ham and the fans thought it was all sewn up.
But Gerrard makes a cross and Cisse does the difficult and volleys
home a goal! To be fair, Hislop was a hopeless keeper the whole
game. I don't think he made a single save in open play this
final.
And then it's half time.
After half time, Gerrard's determination forces a 2nd goal for
Liverpool to level the score! Game on. Liverpool to go on to score
the winner? Noooo......
Konchesky whips in a cross and somehow the ball is in the back of
the net! Reina caught napping again. To be fair, there was a
TREMENDOUS, I mean HUGE HUGE amount of luck for Konchesky's cross
to have gone in.
And so it's 3-2 to West Ham. The clock ticks down. Alonso asks to
be substituted. Spaniards off today? 2 minutes to go to 90 minutes,
Pardew brings on Sheringham. More like a last hurrah for an old
horse at 40 to break some records for appearances in finals for
senior citizens.
Players going down with cramp. Full time. 4 minutes of extra time
to be played.
Cisse down with cramp. I am getting ready to go to bed. It had been
a poor performance by Liverpool and the defence really let the team
down. They didn't deserve to win anyway.
91st minute, Gerrard gets the ball in the middle of the park, let's
fly a cracker. Ball is in the bottom right hand corner. GOAL!
This has got to be THE goal of FA cup finals EVER (especially now
you consider LFC won the FAP Cup). The distance he shot it was
about where Alonso scored his long distance shot against Luton
Town. But this time the Goalkeeper was at his line! To be fair,
Shaka Hislop was as usual sleeping. Saw the ball coming late and
dived too late too!
45% skill, 20% determination, 20% keeper sleeping, 15% pure
luck.
So after 94 minutes of play, 3-3 the scoreline.
Extra time. Everyone pai kah (broken legs). Cramp everywhere.
Cannot run liao. Want to collapse and die liao. Somehow everyone
pulls through to push it to the penalty shootout. Special mention
goes to Reina waking up to make that last minute save.
Special note also that Morientes cannot score a goal for nuts! He
cannot even shoot properly! He really underperformed. His glory
days are history.
So on to the penalties. The question on everyone's minds. Istanbul
again? Has Reina truly replaced Dudek?
Surprisingly, Benitez and Pardew took not more than 5 minutes to
choose their kickers and order of kicks. (They probably planned it
during the extra time play)
So on to the kicks. This has got to be the fastest penalty shootout
I've seen. No slow long walk up of the player to the spot. No slow
interchanges.
First kick, Hamann vs Hislop. The cool german scores. Hislop
guessed the right direction but a keeper like him couldn't save
anything today
2nd kick, Zamora vs Reina, he dives and saves! Woo hoo!
Next up Hyppia vs Hislop. Hyppia passes the ball to Hislop AFTER
Hislop dived to the right. The ball rolled to Hislop. Reminder note
: Never put Hyppia up for a penalty
4th kick, Sheringham vs Reina. Sheringham buries it! No fuss
5th kick, Gerrard steps up. Star player ballooning? We've seen it
time and time again. Nope. Gerrard buries it. No sweat. Cool
captain
6th kick, Konchesky vs Reina. The guy who fluked the goal against
Reina. Will Reina crumble? Nope! Reina saves with his trailing
legs!
7th Kick, Riise steps up. He drives it down the centre, Hislop was
close with his trailing legs, but no dice. Remember I said he
couldn't save anything the whole day?
8th kick, Anton Ferdinand to save the day. But no one is gonna
gatecrash the coming of Reina the Spanish Spiderman!
Liverpool win the FA Cup for the 7th time. This will be known as
the Gerrard and Reina FA Cup final. Fitting since Gerrard won the
PFA player award, Player of the month for May and Reina won the
best goalie award this season.
Who needs Dudek when you got Reina?
Interesting though, I sensed that the players didn't really savour
this win that much, as hard fought as it was. Was it because the FA
Cup is no big deal? Cisse opened the box pointed to the medal and
gestured to his team-mates like he was saying "I played so hard,
cramped my hamstrings and all I got was this tiny medal?"
I realised why they were like this. After last season in Istanbul,
3-0 down at half time to AC Milan, and they did the same thing, and
it was the Champions League final, and it was AC Milan......well
even this FA Cup win doesn't come anywhere close to that
night.
Fact is, for this batch of players, this FA Cup final hard fought
as it were seemed more like all in a day's work.
It will be a long time before we see anything come close to
matching the feat that was in May 2005 in Istanbul.
You'll Never Walk Alone. Benitez rules.
1st Season : Champions League Winners, League Cup finalists, 5th in
EPL
2nd Season : FA Cup Winners, 3rd in EPL
3rd Season : EPL winners, League Cup winners?
The Rafalution is in full swing!
