FA Cup Magic is Back, and Here’s Why…

By: Daryl | March 10th, 2008

We can put the old “Has the FA Cup lost its magic?” question back into storage for another season. Because after a brilliant weekend of quarter-final action, the answer is “No, and stop being so asinine.” There was poor little Barnsley slaying the billionaire dragon that is Chelsea, the not-so-poor-but-still-poorer-than-their-opponent Portsmouth’s dramatic win over Man Utd, and last – but not necessarily least – there was Cardiff City’s 2-0 win over Middlesbrough featuring this goal from Peter Whittingham that might actually be magic.

There were about 300 Middlesbrough defenders in front of Whittingham when he got the ball, all of whom were fooled by his crafty little dragback. And as for that sweet bendy right footed strike to finish, it gets even better when you remember that Peter Whittingham is very much left footed.

Apart from Whittingham’s glorious goal, the magic of the FA Cup is back for one reason: Unpredictability. The dullest thing about the tournament in recent years is how it seemed inevitable that one of the big four would win it, and that it wouldn’t mean all that much to them because it said “FA Cup” on the trophy and not “Premier League” or “Champions League.” But not this year. Take a look at the draw for the FA Cup semi-final:

Barnsley v Cardiff
West Brom v Portsmouth

Three Championship sides and a team that hasn’t won a major honour since 1950. When May comes and one of those four teams lifts the trophy at Wembley, it won’t be just a consolation for not winning the Premier League (as it arguably was for Chelsea last season.) Instead, it will be the greatest day in that club’s recent history. And that’s magic.

Some Related Stories:

Category: England

« So How Does This CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying Thing Work? | Home | Photo of the Day: The Calm After the Storm in Cali »

The Offside RSS Feeds

areallaticfromthesouth

Dave. The answer to your question is NO. Because they are members of the Welsh Football Association, despite playing in the Championship.
Dave's Football Blog

Is Cardiff eligible for the UEFA Cup if it wins? I remember reading somewhere that Cardiff couldn't take an English UEFA Cup bid because it's Welsh.
areallaticfromthesouth

I was there at Barnsley and it was worse than being at Wembley in the Carling Cup against Tottingham..... Well done Barnsley you deserved it and you are going to Wembley..... now unless you are a national of a foreign land living in England that knows a little bit about football.... The 'New' Wembley Stadium has a capacity of 90,000 of which 17,000 are automatically reserved for 'Corporate City,' who have paid mega money for a seat at Wembley, for any game that is played.

Now we have Barnsley v Cardiff and Portsmouth v WBA in the FA show piece semi-finals to be held at Wembley during the first weekend of April - my question is will 'Corporate City,' turn up and whoever plays in the final will 'Corporate City,' turn up again. No disrespect to the four teams who are in the semi's, they are there on merit, the FA must be killing themselves for announcing that FA Cup semi-finals will be played at Wembley. Well they gotta recoup the £900m that was spent - thats why a burger and chips costs nearly £8.

Good luck to ALL the fans - make sure you got loads of £50 notes on yer!!!
Ian

Fantastic. This is what the FA Cup is all about, and I hope it does shut up some of the Cup's detractors. This is turning out to be a legendary year in the long history of the tournament, and just about everyone except big four fans has to be happy about it.