FA Cup 6th Round Review - Penniless Pompey Makes The Headlines

Sometimes in the beautiful game, fairytales and dreams can come true and once again, Portsmouth couldn’t keep themselves out of the headlines.  Their crazy season took another amazing twist, with the fans now having the opportunity to look forward at a day out at Wembley in the FA Cup semi-finals.

The competition that Pompey won back in 2008, is keeping their season alive and it seems that the recent plunge into administration has actually bought the players and staff closer together.  For Avram Grant, it was another emotional moment in his managerial career in England.  Vilified at Chelsea, despite doing a decent job and taking them a kick away from European glory in 2008, he is doing the best he can on such limited resources and should take huge credit for keeping the player’s belief together in such traumatic financial times down on the South Coast.

Saturday 2-0 lunchtime win against in-form Birmingham City was impressive and the main story of a fairly pedestrian and disappointing quarter-final weekend, certainly by this year’s high competition standards.  On-loan striker Frederic Piquionne scored both goals for relegation-bound Portsmouth, but Birmingham can feel aggrieved at being denied a certain goal, due to the lack of technology.  On Saturday morning, FIFA ruled out the use of goal-line technology at a meeting in Zurich.  Hours later, Liam Ridgewell’s header at Fratton Park was fumbled by David James and clearly went over the line.  However, to Ridgewell and Alex McLeish’s chagrin, none of the officials saw it and the ‘goal’ was not given.

The other main headline was Aston Villa’s stunning second half resurgence at the Madjevski Stadium.  Just seven days after their Carling Cup final agony, Villa’s players looked hungover and lacking hunger for the fight in the first half at Championship strugglers Reading.  Two goals from Shane Long had the Royals 2-0 up at half-time, playing beautiful football and all set to add Villa to their list of conquests this season, which includes Liverpool and West Brom.  Martin O’Neill borrowed the Ferguson hairdryer, ripped into his superstars at half-time and their response was clinical.  Norwegian striker John Carew scored an outstanding hat-trick, and Ashley Young added his name to the scoresheet, as O’Neill’s side charged back to win the game 4-2.  It was cruel on Reading, who as a team, has given the competition so much entertainment this season, but in the end, Premiership true quality eventually shone through.

Once again, Chelsea had little trouble in progression, reaching their 4^th semi-final in five seasons.  Stoke City, who embarrassed Arsenal and Manchester City in this competition were very tentative, and put up little resistance in a comfortable 2-0 win for the holders at Stamford Bridge.  As ever, John Terry couldn’t keep himself out of the headlines, powering home Chelsea’s second goal from a Frank Lampard corner and the release of emotion in his dynamic celebration suggests someone still is feeling hurt by losing his England captaincy.

The final quarter-final was dour and forgettable.  London rivals Fulham and Tottenham Hotspur play out a disappointing 0-0 stalemate on Saturday night, in an even contest at Craven Cottage that lacked attacking ineptitude.  Fulham looked the more likely to score, with Zoltan Gera and Damien Duff both testing Gomes.  A replay beckons, which for both is a real pain, with Fulham still in the UEFA Europa League and Tottenham busy in the scrap for 4^th place in the Premiership table.  Hopefully, the return at White Hart Lane will be more eventful.

Yesterday, the semi-final draw paired Aston Villa v Chelsea and Portsmouth v Fulham or Tottenham.  For Portsmouth fans, the possibility to overcome Harry Redknapp is the semi-finals would be sweet, but Chelsea still looks overwhelming favourites to defend their trophy.  Wembley beckons for the final five, but quite rightly this weekend, the main story of success belonged to Portsmouth FC.

FA Cup 4th Round Review - Is The Romance Dead?

This was first posted on January 25th at http://happydude88.livejournal.com/

Three weeks ago, former Nottingham Forest and Liverpool player Stan Collymore claimed on Talk Sport after 3rd round Saturday that the romance in the FA Cup is dead. I hope he is eating up his words now. A month on and the most famous cup competition in the world has slayed three of the ‘big 4’ and has left the FA Cup of 2010 wide open.

As Wembley in the middle of May draws closer, so the big guns continue to run into trouble, and following Manchester United’s shock loss at home to Leeds United and Liverpool’s shambolic exit at the hands of lowly Reading in the last round, Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal were the next team with a team full of stars to bite the dust.

The winter of discontent at Stoke of late, with the side in poor Premier League form was put aside yesterday, as they outmuscled, outplayed and outfought their fellow top flight side. Wenger rested his big guns, with daunting Premiership games against Aston Villa, Manchester United and Chelsea on the horizon and this gamble backfired. They should have expected the physical presence of Stoke and the huge danger of Rory Delap’s long throw execution that gave them major problems at the Britannia last campaign. Seventy seconds from kick-off, Arsenal left a gaping hole and Ricardo Fuller beat a hapless Lukas Fabianski to the ball and headed in. It showed the Gunners haven’t learnt their lessons from twelve months ago and a weakness that the youngsters still have. Perhaps, in hindsight, with fixture congestion building up, it was better for Arsenal to exit now rather than play another game in a replay. Stoke’s final two goals were on the counter attack and maximised to great effect – exploiting Arsenal as they pushed for the equaliser. On another note, Sol Campbell looked strong and impressive on his Arsenal return and Theo Walcott’s struggles continued. Surely, Fabio Capello cannot consider him for selection as far as South Africa in the summer is concerned.

With Arsenal gone, the door is open now for Chelsea to defend their FA Cup trophy successful. A comfortable and professional win at Preston, if not glamorous was always expected. Carlo Ancelotti’s main challenge for this trophy may now come from the billionaires on the blue side of Manchester. Yesterday’s 4-2 win at Scunthorpe was hard-fought and if not, flawless, impressive to say the least. Sylvinho’s goal was easily the best of the weekend and has Robinho scored his last goal and played his last game for Manchester City? Roberto Mancini has a big decision to make as the final week of the transfer window approaches. I don’t think Robinho will be a City player in seven days time. For £32million, he has been a disappointing buy and quite frankly, a tortoise could play better on away days. I think Mancini should cut City’s losses ASAP. Meanwhile, credit Scunthorpe United for giving the ITV viewers a fascinating tie. It was a brave and valid attempt.

Elsewhere, the Leeds United fascination in this year’s FA Cup continues. It was an amazing game at White Hart Lane on Saturday night. End-to-end stuff and Tottenham will know that they have been in a game. They could potentially struggle at Elland Road in the replay in ten days time. Will Leeds be able to hold onto the prolific Jermaine Beckford? It’s a tough call for Simon Grayson, as Beckford is out of contract in the summer, so I’m sure the Yorkshire side would like to cash in on their profit. However, Beckford is Premiership class; he gave the Spurs backline a hatful of problems and despite a debatable penalty in the 96th minute, the penalty he took, under so much pressure was top-class. Tottenham have to perform professionally in the replay to overcome this potential banana skin.

Notts County will be very disappointed not to finish off Wigan Athletic, having been two goals up at home. They may have blown their chance, when it comes to a giant-killing and despite their major financial crisis; Crystal Palace produced a stunning performance at struggling Wolves to earn a well-deserved replay. Well done to Portsmouth, considering their major financial peril situation. Overcoming Sunderland, who can’t buy a win if their life was dependent on it, was not an easy scenario and now, Southampton wait in a passionate and lively South Coast Derby in Round 5. And, Birmingham City, Fulham and this season’s cup-kings Aston Villa are still dangers in the latter stages. Should the favourites in blue slip up, these three consistent Premier League sides must be considered as dark horses.

So Stan, who said the romance, was dead in the FA Cup! My message is ‘Never underestimate the power of the FA Cup.’ Roll on Round Five!