CUP LOST AGAIN FOR UNITED

 

Well the last time United made it to the FA Cup semi finals was in '07 and we found ourselves up against Watford at Villa Park in what was then an all-Premiership tie. Wayne opened the scoring on that occasion though Watford soon equalised through Mameur Bouazza. Unied then retook the lead through Ronaldo. So far so good. Our defence was looking threadbare due to injuries but that turned out not to matter. Wayne got his second goal before Kieran Richardson(now at Sunderland) finished the Hornets off. Job done to secure what was our third FA Cup final in four years, even if we did come up empty when we actually got to Wembley that year.

This time around, we face Everton and of course David Moyes's team are familiar faces from the Premiership campaign.The last time we faced them in the FA Cup was a 5th round match at Goodison Park with the Toffees fans not happy about Wayne's recent defection, the England assasin had the last laugh though, we won 2-0. For a bigger FA Cup match between United and Everton, you have to go back to the final of '95 at Wembley, Everton won 1-0 that day and it wasn't one of our finest hours. We did a better job in the 1985 final at Wembley though, Ron Atkinson was our manager at the time and the game went into extra time before Norman Whiteside scored for United to win it 1-0.

This time around, well in theory Everton were our best case scenario, they were the only team left in the Cup that hadn't been playing in the Champions League this season. And since '05 we have more than paid them back in terms of players going from Old Trafford to Goodison Park. Not that that counted for anything in an FA Cup semi final at Wembley(not quite sure why the FA wanted to play the semis at Wembley). One thing was for certain, Fergie was nervous about the Wembley pitch so fielded a surprsingly weak XI. Foster in goal, Rafael right back, Fabio left back, Park right mid, Anderson and Gibson centre mid,Wellbeck left mid, Tevez and Macheda(first start for United) up front.

Well the stats said that United had the better start to the first half despite us playing our reserves and yet somehow it didn't feel like it, the second stringers seemingly not having quite enough bite. We still had the chances though, Wellbeck should really have scored at one point but headed wide but Everton certainly gave us a few reasons to be nervous, the Toffees had a very good opportunity to take the lead after a goalkeeping blunder. Overall though it was certainly a solid performance from the Reds but certainly not a classic. If they were to win the game in the second half then they would certainly need to step things up a bit.

Everton certainly looked to be turning up the heat in the second half an it looked more likely that the Toffees would take the lead. Nothing doing though and the Reds were able to counter, and should have been given a penalty after a Phil Jagielka hack, methinks he read Moyes's whining in the paper. The match then became a tight end to end encounter but neither side were quite able to find that cutting edge, though United were the slightly better side. Why oh why did Fergie play the reserves in an FA Cup semi, dodgy pitch or not? Well if he had done we'd have surely won this match already, as it was, both sides had to settle for extra time.

Well the biggest news of the first period of extra time was Berbatov coming on for United. Even then it was Everton that had the opening shot on goal, counterattacking from a United corner. United certainly had more of the attacking play though but as in normal time, were just unable to find a way through. Everton had more chances though, but these proved to be nothing that our defenders couldn't deal with. Late on in the period and United just looked to have left their shooting boots in the changing room. Not an impressve effort really and penalties looked to be an inevitability. And as I had a bad feeling about them I was hoping for a spark of genius from a shirt in red.

What we got at the start of the second period was a hot shot from James Vaughn that should have led to an Everton corner but the ref was feeling generous on this occasion. The Tofees were certainly looking the stronger team, needless to say, that wasn't what I had in mind. After some "...they would have painted the sky green" play we finally got up to their end of the pitch and grabbed a string of corners but again the ball did not hit the net. Everton made us dodge one last bullet and that was that. Penalties, with an ex-United goalie in Everton colours. Now I had a very bad feeling about this. And yet, this was how we'd won the Champions League, right?

Opening procedings in the shootout was Tim Cahil...and he skied it. We responded with Berbatov...who came up with one of the weakest shots of all time! Then came Leighton Baines for Everton...and he was the first guy to score! Then came Rio...who saw his shot saved! Not good at all! Then came Phil Neville...whose history in red counted for nothing as he added another cut. Then came Vidic...finally we scored. Then came Vaughn...who scored to leave us staring down the barrel of a gun. Then came Anderson...and he gave us a stay of execution. Then came Jagielka...and he proved to be the one that killed us off...giving Everton their first FA Cup final since that '95 game!

Also at Wembley, Chelsea faced Arsenal. Theo Walcott opened the scoring in this latest rumble between the two London rivals only for Florent Malouda to equalise with the Blues looking as though they should be taking Arsenal to the cleaners. The Gunners started to pick it up in the second half and with the clock winding down, the game looked to be heading for extra time, all thanks to a stubborn Arsenal defence, who proceded to have a braindead moment, allowing Didier Drogba to hit the winners. Congrats to Chelsea, I guess, who have reached their second FA Cup final in three years, despite going through more managers than they needed to.

And so now we have the final, which'll be between Chelsea and Everton at Wembley. It'll be the biggest match of David Moyes's managierial career, and Guus Hiddink will probably find a spot for it on his CV as well. You'd have thought this ultimate Blue day would have some history behind it...but no, at least nothing that involves FA Cup finals. Chelsea are surely the favourites this time around though, particularly as this is the Blues best chance of a trophy this season. Everton have certainly taken some serious scalps in their Cup run and I suppose you can't count them out completely but the crew from Stamford Bridge are the safe bet to take the Cup this time around.

North of the border, Aberdeen faced Celtic at Celtic Park in the SPL. Celtic were certainly the stronger team in the first half so no one could have been surprised when Jan Venegoor of Hesselink opened the swcoring just before half time. Scott McDonald then got his side's second goal in the early stages of the second half. Still the Dons did get their act together lates on in the game and had some good late chances but unfortunately, none of them went in. Well, storming an Old Firm ground is always a tough ask but the last couple of months has not seen the best Dons form of all time. I suppose this result was no real surprise though.

Elsewhere, Dundee United drew 0-0 with Kilmarnock at Tannadice Park, and they were lucky not to lose all three points. The visitors had by far the better game even if the match could be best summed up with that cliche "nae goals nae fitba". Motherwell were beaten 2-0 by St Mirren at Fir Park with the first half goalless but looking as though it was going to go the homesides way. Well were made to rue their chances though as the visitors struck late on. That means that Aberdeen have fallen to 5th in the SPL, one point behind Dundee United and a Europa League spot but seven points ahead of Motherwell and the lower half of the table. And now, the two halves of the table split from each other. It's all about the race for Europe now.

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