The Fairy Tale

I should've wrote this much much earlier. When the occasion was felt.

FA Cup is the oldest knockout competition in the world. Over the years, it has lost much of its glory and fame to the more lucrative Premier League and Champions League.

Back in the 60's and 70's, FA Cup was the only live telecast shown on television. It was highly anticipated by fans. Winning one match would mean another match to be watched live, and another step closer to the silverware. Of course it is hard to relive the prestige of this competition, but the romance never fades away.

What makes FA Cup such an interesting competition is the one-off nature of the knockout and the ultimate randomness of the draw. FA Cup implements no seedings at all, meaning the best of the country could always be possible to face the next best of the country and it is not even the final yet. The randomness of the draw also means minnows will always have their chance to meet the giants, and even better, killing them.

My perspective of club football has always revolved around Liverpool, and this season's FA Cup journey has been nothing short of extraordinary. The Premiership clubs enter the competition at the 3rd round, potentially meeting among themselves, or facing surviving lower division opponents. Mind you, the lower the league, the further the journey they have to go. If a conference club manages to meet a Premiership club, it means they've already passed at least three or four hurdles.

In the 3rd round, Liverpool met Luton, a League One (third tier of football in the English league) debt-ridden club. Their condition was that bad, they actually begged Liverpool to donate their part of the gate receipts to them. No one knows if Liverpool actually donated the gate receipts or not, but instead Liverpool 'gave' a much bigger cash reward for them. Liverpool, expectedly, fielded a much weakened team than their full-strength, but still, the second strings are comparatively much stronger than this League One side. Any of the second string Liverpool players could easily go to any Premiership club and establish a consistent place in the first 11. Nevertheless, Luton took this team to the wire, holding Liverpool to a draw, albeit an equalizer scored by Riise, his first of his two 'goals' this season, forcing a lucrative replay at Anfield.

The cash windfall that they're going to get is quite unimaginable. Probably they would get to pay weeks of wages of their players with this single replay. Still, they are in administration. Such is their crisis, their best performers during the 1-1 draw was not even in the team for the replay because they've already been sold by the administrators.

The fourth round draw was made before the replays were played. An interesting draw came from the lot, Havant and Waterlooville, a surviving Conference South side still in the competition, potentially visiting the great Anfield if both sides win their replays.

The replay was customary for Liverpool. They romped to a 5-0 win, Gerrard scored a hattrick while not wearing the armband. For Havant and Waterlooville, they need to win against promotion-chasing League One side, Swansea, for a chance of their lives of playing against Liverpool at Anfield.

For such minnows like Havant and Waterlooville, these non-league clubs, winning the Cup is definitely out of the context. Winning matches is always what is wanted, with cash rewards accompanying the success as well as the progression to the next round. But what really is their dream is to survive long enough until the Premiership boys enter the frame and for them to play at the biggest stadiums in the country, in front of the biggest crowds.

And they fought gallantly with Anfield in mind, taking a 3-0 against the high-flyers of League One, three divisions above them, and eventually hung on for a 4-2 win.

Non-leaguers mean they are amateurs. Amateurs mean they don't make a living by playing football. These people have jobs. They comprise of construction worker, courier, plumber to name a few, and now they're off to Anfield for their greatest match of their lives. One even mentioned that the experience will be his second proudest moment of his life, number one being the birth of his son. I can go on and describe how big the match is for them, but we will never be able to imagine what the experience they personally had. They had to take their Friday leave for their big trip to Merseyside, probably on bus, I don't know. Then do some training in the morning like the professionals do, before kicking off the greatest match of their lives in front of 40000 plus deafening crowd of Anfield.

Thing is, the team is a non-leaguer. Just how many hours could these guys possibly have for training, let alone tactical reviews and video-watching of their opponents? One bookmaker even offered 100-1 for Havant and Waterlooville to triumph at Anfield. That is practically saying it is impossible for that to happen. That means that Rafa might possibly field an understrength team, similar to the one he fielded against Luton, hence no chance for these daytime workers to play against their idols of Gerrard, Carragher and Torres.

But Rafa promises respect to them, and he obliged his words. None of Gerrard, Carragher and Torres featured in the starting line-up, but their names were indeed on the bench, signalling an intention to play them towards the end as a mark of respect to these part-timers for their incredible achievement.

But the even more unexpected were to come soon. Only eight minutes on the clock these amateurs defied the odds by taking the lead. At Anfield. At the Kop. Liverpool were to equalize soon, very much expected, but then Havant and Waterlooville did the unthinkable by regaining the lead.

The inevitable was inevitable, though. Liverpool ran out 5-2 winners, but no one from the visiting team will ever forget this unbelievable experience. Probably thirty, forty years from now, people will still remember Gerrard and company, and these guys get to tell the story to their grandchildren of them taking a day off from work to travel to Anfield and take the lead, twice, against the mighty Kops.

When Gerrard was brought in, one question popped my mind. Who would get the treasured jersey of the skipper? Two minutes into injury time, my eyes was on Gerrard and the yellow jerseys around him. Who would get the coveted prize? In fact, the players also realized that. Of course. Surely. Trailing 5-2 at Anfield, you don't really care about reducing the deficit. You already made your mark. Now it's time for the souvenir. And several players came to Gerrard for his jersey, but one wise guy actually booked his jersey during gameplay. "The little man's got it," Gerrard replied to all his shirt-hunters.

In the end they all had a great day. Great is somewhat of an understatement. Each player got their red jerseys, and to top it off, they spent their windfall at Vegas, celebrating like true winners.

So next up. Barnsley. Wow. Liverpool could never hoped for any better draw than this. United is drawing like, their 10th consecutive Premiership opposition or so, and for this round they drew Arsenal. But Liverpool got Barnsley. Of course I went to the mamak stall with the jersey. I was brimming with confidence. Little do I know of what was about to come. Barnsley came from behind to draw level at Anfield. And when I was hoping, "Please, no replay," my prayers were answered when their skipper hit the winner with literally seconds to go. At the Kop End. Bizarre. It left me speechless. I was grinning with disbelief. Not really sad, but horribly shocked. It is like getting hit real hard that does not give you pain but instead numbness. United fans were starting to crowd the place at that time to watch their match, and I had to exit in embarrassment.

So Chelsea and ManU got through. Yet again. Unless these two teams get drawn against each other (remember, FA Cup has no seedings) the final is already determined. But they got some tiny little obstacles to go before reaching Wembley. Remember, Wembley is the place to go for United. They even got the, "Wembley, Wembley," in their anthem.

United drew against another top flight opposition, Portsmouth, while Chelsea got the easier task against Barnsley. I joked to a Chelsea fan, "Beware of Barnsley. They're good, you know."

I think it was at Old Trafford. Why was I watching? I can't really remember why. But United were attacking James' goal like hell. Either James will come out with the impossible saves, or United will come out with the impossibly unlucky misses. My dad even put it, "United should've win this game 30-0." Or did he say 30? Can't really remember. But I do agree. Then came the counter-attack from Pompey. I can't remember who got clear, but he dragged two United defenders, leaving Baros all alone in the middle. The ball was squared off to Baros who tried to round Kucsczak but was pulled down. Kucsczak was in for van der Sar, so no more 'keepers on the bench. Kucsczak got the red, so Ferdinand stepped on for the penalty, as the goalkeeper. He dived correctly, but little could he do to prevent the goal. Portsmouth continued defending stoutly against their 10-men opposition, Ferdinand seeing little threat that I really wished seeing him saving. In the end, Ferguson had to bow out. Sorely.

I slept after that. Then I woke up to an ever greater shock. Conquerers of Liverpool had now conquered Chelsea, the holders. Chelsea also fielded a second string team, but nevertheless it was still strong, considering Shevchenko and others are still in fact world-class players.

So the last four featured an amazing line-up. Only one Premiership team, Portsmouth, and Barnsley, Cardiff and West Brom completing the line-up, hailing from Championship. In the age where the top four has gapped themselves so far away from the others, it is seemingly impossible to imagine the semifinals with the absence of all four.

But with all the incredible tales being written on the road to Wembley (yup, road to Wembley this season means road to semifinals) the ending is quite anti-climax for me. Portsmouth won 1-0 against West Brom, and Barnsley, giantkilling Liverpool and Chelsea while struggling in the Championship, bowed to Cardiff. All the years when Wembley was reconstructed, domestic cup finals were played abroad in Wales at the Millenium Stadium. When Cardiff no longer host the finals, now they featured in one. A Welsh club, trying to win an English competition, and even a berth from England in the UEFA Cup.

But the final, as feared by quite some, is less populated than normal, because of the lack of the top four clubs. No offense to both clubs, who themselves have achieved a great achievement already, but the heat of the final is less anticipated by the 'neutrals' (by neutrals I actually mean the top four fans, which makes up most of the fan base abroad).

But, still, it was a Cup final. The stadium was filled in all blue. Martin Tyler and Andy Gray, the two most classy commentators living now, commentated on the match. Tyler was dropping all those facts and statistics while Gray was spotting all tiny little incidents and tactical points of the match. He did even say that they pitch was stiff, and I totally agreed. Wembley is a stage for final, but somehow I felt like the grass hasn't been cut for a few days. Enckelman, the guy guilty of conceding a throw-in during his Villa days, was parrying all the shots dangerously to his opponents, and after an incredible miss by Kanu, he made amends by taking full opportunity of yet another Enckelman parry to tuck in the solitary goal.

Semifinals 1-0, and so is the final. But wow, Portsmouth. Even Liverpool and Arsenal are silverwareless this season. Redknapp is well known for his managerial ability, and this season he took Portsmouth to an all-time high finish of 8th, but a manager of low profile clubs would never dreamed of achieving what he has achieved, to win a silverware. Congratulations.

But in just a few days time people will forget about this and turn their attention to the world's biggest club competition. Man it sucks isn't it, that Liverpool isn't contesting the world's biggest club competition? Oh well. Chelsea lost the title last season, but won against United in the final. I will always hope for the same again.