The FA Cup Final returns to its spiritual home tomorrow when Chelsea and Man Utd walk out onto the new “hallowed turf” at Wembley. The last six Fa Cup Finals have, of course, been played in Cardiff, and apart from the the extended cap park that was Wales, it was a superb venue.

But to everyone, the FA Cup Final will always mean Wembley and unless you’re under about the age of 10 you will probably have some great memories of Finals at Wembley. Personally, mine go back to 1971 and Liverpool against Arsenal. Hold on, how old am I?!!

Which other memories stand out for me? Well, there is Sunderland beating the then mighty Leeds and that amazing double save by Jim Montgomery, the Sunderland goalkeeper. Shankly is 1974 with those famous hand signals, when Liverpool brushed aside Newcastle. Does anyone know whay they actually meant? Southampton beating Man Utd in 1976. Liverpool and Utd again in 1977 and Stuart Peearson punnching the air. The dramatic Alan Sunderland winner for Arsenal against Man Utd in 1979. The Rikcy Villa final and that amazing run and goal against Man City in the 1981 reply. The all Merseyside affairs of 1986 and 1989, Liverpool beating their neighbours on both occasions. Sandwiched in between those, two incredible games for different reasons. Firstly in 1987 that diving header by Coventry’s Keith Houchen and the following year, Dave Beasant making history for the first ever penalty save and John Aldridge for missing it! One of the truly great upsets that makes the FA Cup stand out.

Keith Houchen in mid air. Now that’s what I call a “diving header”!

Gazza’s tackle in 1991 which, let’s be honest, basically finished his career. He was never the same again. Michael Thomas’ goal for Liverpool against Sunderland in 1992. Brighton oh so very nearly beating Man Utd in 1994. Those disastrous suits the Liverpool players wore in 1996. The game itself also stands out but for all the wrong reasons. It had to be one of the worst games of football I think I have ever had the misfortunate to sit through. Just before Cantona scored I turned to my mate and said I didn’t care who scored I just wanted anyone to score because I just couldn’t have coped with another 30 minutes of such mind numbing boredom! Fortunately Eric answered my wish about 5 seconds later and I was out of there! Roberto Di Matteo goal in 43 seconds in 1997 for Chelsea, the fastest ever Cup Final goal.

Some great memories but what memories are going to be inprinted on our pyschies from tomorrow? Well, Chelsea and Man Utd have the chance to do so and let’s hope they serve up a classic to kick off the new Wembley era. The memories are all to come but how do the old and new stadiums compare?

The stadium was actually originally known as the Empire Stadium and was initially built to stage the British Empire Exhibition in 1924.

It opened with the ‘white horse’ FA Cup final of 1923. We’ve proabably all seen those famous black and white images when an estimated 200,000 people tried to get into the 126,000-capacity stadium and thousands spilt out onto the pitch. Unthinkable these days!

Of course, as well as all the FA Cup Finals between 1923-2000, Wembley also staged rugby league’s Challenge Cup final, the League Cup final and the 1948 Olympics.

And probably its finest ever hour, England’s 1966 World Cup win.

Compare that to its final hour which was quite so enjoyable for England and inparticular Kevin Keegan as England lost to Germany 1- 0 in a World Cup qualifier.

Old Wembley memories

Only four days after England that England defeat the Australian company Multiplex signed a deal to build the new stadium for £326.5m. Yeah, right! I don’t know who wrote the estimate but I think he was a little optimistic!

After nearly six-and-a-half troubled years and costing slightly more than the original estimate, the 2007 FA Cup final eventually got the green light

The new stadium, which has a circumference of 1km, has shifted 30m north towards Wembley Park station, although the orientation remains the same.

The new version has a partially retractable roof which weighs in at almost 7,000 tonnes. It rises 52m above the pitch (more than twice as high as the old one) and covers 11 acres (four acres are moveable). Posh, isn’t it?

Wembley under construction

The new stadium promised a bigger, better Wembley that will be the envy of the world, at least that’s what they are saying. It has 90,000 seats and the new ground is the largest in the world with every seat under cover. Every seat will have more leg room than the old royal box and cater for the larger individual op the 21st century. There are no restricted views now and each seat faces the centre circle and they have also removed the old greyhound track so fans are much closer to the pitch, which is 4m lower than the old one. The stadium’s footprint is, amazingly, more than twice the old one and took 250,000 tonnes of concrete and steel to build (compared to 25,000 tonnes). Environmentally friendly then!

How the old and new compare

Knocking down the old iconic Twin Towers proved an unpopular decision, but filling that iconic space is the 133m arch that towers over the new Wembley stadium. Will it prove to have the same representation of the new Wembley as the towers did for the old?

It took 1,750 tonnes of British steel to make - the same as 275 double decker buses or 10 jumbo jets. At 315m it is the longest single roof structure in the world - the London Eye could squeeze between the top of the arch and the pitch.

When lit up on a clear evening it should be visible 13 miles away at Canary Wharf and has a beacon to warn low-flying airplanes. Good to know!

But it is not just for show, the arch supports the weight of the north stand and 60% of the south stand. So, let’s hope it works then!

The Wembley arch

Tomorrow’s Final will be Wembley’s first major event. Soon to be followed by the Football League play-offs at the end of May and England’s first game, a friendly against Brazil on 1 June.

But it is more than the new home of football. An estimated 1.5m sports fans will watch events like the return of rugby league’s Challenge Cup final, also returning to Wembley.

A revolutionary platform allows athletics to be held over the lower bowl, the NFL hosts its first regular season game outside North America, while George Michael headlines the music events.

Welcome to new Wembley - good things come to those who wait.

Let’s hope it’s as good as it looks!

The Soccer Blogger

Isn’t this nice? Jose Mourinho, the Chelsea manager and his boss, the club’s owner Roman Abramovich, exchanged a big celebratory hug after the FA Cup semi-final extra-time win over Blackburn Rovers at Old Trafford on Sunday. Perhaps their relationship, which hasn’t been the best of late, is finally showing a few signs of improvement?

Mourinho said, “I have met him [Abramovich] and we had a hug. I told him congratulations and he said the same. That is normal.”" Mourinho’s future has been the constant source of speculation recently following claims he and Abramovich had fallen out.

The speculation and rumours have been so strong recently that Mourinho asked the Chelase Board of Directors to finally break their silence about his future, but Abramovich has still to reveal his position on the somewhat delicate situation.

Mourinho has repeatedly stated his wish to remain at the club. His current contract runs until 2010. I’m no genius when it comes to Maths but I still make that 3 years to go on his current contract! Perhaps Russian arithmetic is different!

Anyway, the win now means the FA has the Final they must have hoped for. Chelsea, the current Premiership Champions will play Man Utd, the current leaders and favourites to win this season’s crown. The Final will be played at the new Wembley stadium on Saturday May 19th.

The semi-final was not easy for Chelsea as Blackburn gave them a scare and could have won it if Morten Gamst Pedersen had done better than send a free header wide after 83 minutes. However, because of that miss the game went to extra-time.

It was the German Michael Ballack who proved to be the hero for the Blues in extra-time, slotting the winner in after 109 minutes.

The semi-final win at Old Trafford means the Chelsea and Man Utd will now play each other at least two more times before the end of this season. First there is the huge Premiership clash at Stamford Bridge on May 9th that could potentially decide the outcome of the Premiership title. Then of course the two teams meet again at Wembley for the FA Cup Final.

There is also the prospect of them meeting for a third time, just a few days after the FA Cup Final. They could both meet in Athens on May 23rd for the first all English Champions League (European Cup) Final. Personally, I don’t think that is going to happen but I’m not going to make any more predictions as to who is going to be there (other than I don’t think it will be both Utd and Chelsea of course!). My predictions for the semi-final line were so poor at only 25% correct, that I’m not doing that again.

What I will say is this, I think Chelsea will win a League and FA Cup double and Utd will win the Premiership title. I just don’t think either of them will win the Champions League. I’m not saying either of them won’t get to the Final, I just don’t think either of them will win it!

I can almost hear you all rushing to place money on both of them to win right now!

The Soccer Blogger

Whether you are a fan of Liverpool or not, as a fan of football in general, I think it is worth remembering that today is, amazingly, the 18th anniversary of the Hillsborough tragedy where 96 ordinary footy fans lost their lives in the worst football disaster to happen in Britain. They left their homes on a lovely spring morning full of hope of watching their team reach the FA Cup Final. They never returned! As a result, the face of football in Britain was changed forever. I for one, hope their unnecessary and oh so easily avoidable deaths, were not in vain.

I have actually taken the following from the official Liverpool FC website, I thought it was worth posting here. It was written by Peter Hootan who was the frontman of a band called The Farm, and a livelong Liverpool fan:

It started like any other morning. A bright crisp spring morning, the beauty of the Snake Pass in the Peak District was breathtaking, as we travelled to the FA Cup semi-final being held at Hillsborough, Sheffield between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. Little did we know that the coming day would forever change our lives and the game we loved.

After an uneventful journey we arrived at the ground at about 2pm as we had done the previous year, at the same venue against the same team. Only this year things were different, outside the Leppings Lane it was absolute chaos. The year before the police had appeared organised with a cordon checking tickets at the end of the road. This year things seemed to have gone badly wrong, with one or two mounted policemen in the middle of a massed motionless crowd. It was the sight no football fan wanted to see outside a ground, non-existent queues, no obvious police presence and no stewards. I had been in these situations many times before outside the Kop during the 70’s prior all ticket games, and outside many away grounds most notably Wolves in 1976 and of course Wembley especially against Everton in 1986.

I knew the futility of getting into a crowd trying to get to a turnstile! You panic, you sweat, you struggle to breathe and just as you get to within touching distance of the entrance you are sure to hit by a sway that takes you back to where you started. So I decided to go and get something to eat from a nearby shop and wait for the police to get their act together. By 2.30 it became obvious it wasn’t going to get any better. So I reluctantly entered the crowd. It must be emphasised these were Liverpool fans with tickets, the touts I talked to that day were struggling, business was as they say ‘on the floor’ compared to the same lucrative match the year before. This was not a ticketless crowd trying to bunk in or force the authorities to open the gates, this was a good-humoured crowd who deserved proper organisation, who wanted it, who were demanding it, alas it was not forthcoming!

After ten to fifteen minutes of movement invariably sideways getting no nearer to the turnstiles I saw fans climbing onto the turnstiles screaming at the police inside the ground to do something. Nothing happened. By five to three a sway took me to within inches of the turnstile, this was it; I was in, relief, emotion, I could hear the teams coming out onto the pitch, the roar of the crowd, another few agonising steps and I had made it. Once inside, I was met by a jovial group of policemen, I told them in no uncertain terms that somebody was going to die outside the ground unless they did something quickly, they had to open the gates I pleaded. I wasn’t the only one. Most people, who staggered through the turnstiles due to sheer exhaustion, were also telling the police to get their act together. The common consensus was that they had to do something otherwise there would be a fatality or serious injuries outside the ground.

Either side of the Leppings Lane end there were stairs into the side sections (which we now know were nearly empty). The gaping black hole of the Leppings Lane tunnel lead directly into the middle of the already packed terracing. No-one could have imagined the consequences of heading into that tunnel. The simple solution to such congestion would have been for club stewards and/or police to block off the central tunnel and funnel fans to the side sections. I had a ticket for the North stand so I went left but if I had had a ticket for the terraces I would have certainly gone into that tunnel.

Once inside I think I saw Liverpool hit the bar as I certainly know the game had already started before I found my seat. After a couple more minutes, a fan appeared on the pitch, he seemed unsteady on his feet, nobody had the faintest idea of what was happening and then more and more people spilled out onto the pitch. The referee took the players off. I didn’t think trouble, I immediately thought overcrowding, the Leppings Lane had been uncomfortable the year before and was well known in football circles for being a crap end. More and more people started to fill the pitch and Forest fans began to sing “You Scouse bastards” thinking that this was indeed a pitch invasion. It soon became obvious that something more serious was happening but still the enormity of the tragedy could not have been imagined.

After 20 minutes or so an ambulance appeared at the opposite end of Leppings Lane and drove along the edge of the pitch and around about the same time the police inexplicably set up a cordon across the halfway line. About 50 or so policemen stood there throughout the duration as the tragedy unfolded, making jovial smalltalk and passing the time of day. Presumably some of these people would have had first aid skills but were under orders to stay on the halfway line. I know this because at 3.30 I went onto the pitch and asked them why they were standing there and what was happening. It soon became obvious as the injured, dying and deceased were carried on the advertising boards, the vivid image we now know so well.

Most people on the pitch that day were bewildered feeling either hopeless, confused or inadequate. I saw heroes that day and the majority were not in uniform. The real heroes that day were the ordinary Liverpool fans who seemed to take control of the operation taking casualties to the opposite end of the pitch and laying the fans in the penalty area, in front of the Hillsborough Kop. As the Liverpool fans tried to revive lifeless bodies I felt totally inadequate. I tried to convince myself that these people had simply lost consciousness but in my heart of hearts I think I knew they were dead. The line of police looked on.

Some people refused to give up pumping chests of complete strangers or maybe loved ones, giving the kiss of life to fellow Liverpool fans as the line of the police looked on. The heroes of the 15th April 1989 werethe ordinary Liverpool fans whoever you were; I salute you, your role in the tragedy unbelievably tarnished by the gutter press cover-up the following week. That day, that night, that week, that year, that decade I was inconsolable but I was also proud to be a Liverpudlian. I had witnessed the selflessness, courage and dignity you afforded the dead and dying before they were handed over to the authorities. 96 RIP

This weekend’s second FA Cup Semi Final is to be played at Old Trafford, kick-off at 4pm. The Chelsea manager, Jose Mourinho, has a relatively injury-free squad to pick from for the game despite the tough away trip to Valencia in the Champions League earlier in the week.

Midfielder Michael Essien came through that victory unscathed, but Dutch winger Arjen Robben is still out with a knee problem.

Meanwhile, the Blackburn manager, Mark Hughes, also has relatively few injury or suspension worries apart from the long term absentees of Steven Reid and Robbie Savage.

Chelsea head for the FA Cup semi-final with one piece of silverware already sitting nicely in the trophy cabinet, the Carling Cup. They are also still challenging for three more. They’re three points behind Manchester United at the top of the Premiership, preparing to face Liverpool in the Champions League semi-finals re-match of two years ago and one match away from appearing in the first FA Cup final to be contested at the new Wembley, having won the last at the old Wembley.

This is the 17th time in their history that Chelsea have reached the semi-final stage and the second in as many seasons. Twelve months ago they faced Liverpool in a pulsating tie at the same venue and lost 2-1. John Arne Riise and Luis Garcia put the Reds two-up before Didier Drogba’s header sparked an ultimately fruitless last 20 minutes of constant Chelsea pressure.

Chelsea will be even more keen to get to Wembley and win the FA Cup as it remains the only domestic trophy they have not won under the management of Mourinho and the ownership of Roman Abramovich. On paper they go into the tie on excellent form. They are unbeaten in 18 matches in all competitions, culminating in Tuesday’s epic 2-1 Champions League victory over Valencia in Spain. However, it shouldn’t be forgotten that some of those victories have not been great performances, particularly in the Premiership, as they have tried to hang onto Man Utd. Their last loss was a 2 - 0 defeat away to Liverpool which is their only defeat in the last 33 games, impressive!

This season they have already played Blackburn three times, and have beaten them all all three occasions. Not only that Blackburn have failed to score a goal in all three encounters.

This will be the 100th competitive game between these clubs. Chelsea’s only defeat in the last nine encounters was 1-0 at Ewood Park in the Premiership nearly a year ago on 2 May 2006.

The Blues has scored plenty of goals on their way to the semi-final and have had a relatively smooth progression having been drawn at home in every round and avoided Premiership opposition until the quarter-finals. That quarter-final was a classic encounter against London rivals Tottenham at Stamford Bridge which ended 3 - 3. Chelsea then won the replay at White Hart Lane 1-2.

Meanwhile, Blackburn Rovers will be desperate to end Chelsea’s dream of an unprecedented quadruple. This will actually be Blackburn’s 18th appearance in the semi-finals and their second in three seasons. They made the last four in 2005, losing 3-0 to the eventual winners Arsenal. In that semi-final Blackburn took a rather over physical approach to the game and picked up 7 yellow cards. What will be their tactics today? Those tactics didn’t work then, and I don’t see them working against a very strong Chelsea side either.

Rovers have had a slightly more difficult road to the semi-final than their opponents. They have been drawn away from home in all but one of their ties in this run, and have had to overcome Premiership opposition in three of the four rounds. They beat Everton and Championship strugglers Luton at the first time of asking on the road, but needed a replay before beating Arsenal at Ewood Park. They then beat Manchester City in the quarter-finals at home.

Blackburn’s current form going into the game is not too good. They are on a three-match losing Premiership sequence, scoring only three goals and conceding eight being beaten by relegation battling West Ham, Manchester United and Aston Villa.

The Rovers manager Mark Hughes was the only player to have picked up four FA Cup winners’ medals in the 20th century. He won the trophy 3 times with Man Utd in 1985, 1990 and 1994 and once with Chelsea in 1997.

A Blackburn win won’t be as big an upset as a Watford win would have been but I believe it will be a “clash of the titans” at Wembley with Chelsea facing Man Utd. But who will go down in history as the first team to win the most famous club trophy in the world at the new home of football?

The Soccer Blogger

Man Utd won the first of this weekend’s FA Cup Semi Finals 4 - 1 against the Premiership strugglers Watford, but the scoreline suggests a far more one-sided affair than it actually was. Ok, the result was never really in doubt but Watford did what they had to do, which was fight and not lie down, because in terms of class, unfortunately the teams are poles apart.

It was Rooney who mainly inspired Manchester United as they broke Watford’s brave challenge to reach the FA Cup final. He drove a brilliant 20-yard drive after only six minutes, and you sat there wondering how Watford would react and then wondering how many were Utd going to rattle in this time. If they can put 7 past Roma, what were they apart to inflict on poor Watford. But to Watford’s credit they bounced straight back to suggest that this could actually be a better game than the one-sided affair we all, except Utd fans of course, feared. The Hornets went the next 20 minutes without conceding another goal and then levelled with Hameur Bouazza’s 26th minute overhead kick which took a slight deflection off Heinze, the Utd defender.

Unfortunately for Watford, this did nothing more than wake Utd up. I think a few of their players took the foot off the pedal after Rooney’s early goal and thought the game was all over. But the equaliser must have made them realise it wasn’t and Utd went straight back at Watford and Cristiano Ronaldo, (who has just signed a new 5 year contract at Utd worth £31m) bundled in Rooney’s low cross from a couple of yards out. It response was swift and decisive and must have hurt Watford and their fans.

But the game was not really over until the 66th minute when Rooney’s close-range finish. The fourth goal was a chip scored by substitute Kieran Richardson and I would have to say conceding four was a little harsh on a brave, battling but unfortunately outclassed Watford. They showed a lot of effort and pride and you can’t really ask any more than that.

There was one potential problem for Utd with a groin injury to Rio Ferdinand in the first half. He limped off and didn’t return.

Utd’s manager Sir Alex Ferguson said, “It was a fantastic performance. It was as good as Tuesday in terms of the endurance, the courage, accepting the disappointment with Ferdinand when we had to change the team. It was absolutely magnificent, I was so proud.”

Watford boss Aidy Boothroyd believes the scoreline flattered United slightly and as stated above I think he is slightly right.

“They were just too strong for us and we didn’t take our chances when we had that great little period in the second half,” he said.

“It wasn’t as one-sided as the scoreline suggests.”

Boothroyd now has to pick his team up from the disappointment of a Semi-Final defeat (surely the worst game to lose) so as to concentrate all their efforts on Premiership survival. I’m sure everyone involved with Watford would have swapped an FA Cup Semi-Final (or even the Final itself) for securing Premiership survival by just one point.

The Soccer Blogger