Congratulations to Pompey and Cardiff City for doing what Man United, Arsenal and Chelsea couldn't do over the past couple of years, spare us from more than 90 minutes of boring ass football.
I'm not in the mood to write about Man City's bullshit right now, but at least we're in Europe next year.
Despite the fact that the FA Cup is for all intents and purposes over here is the 5th Round Draw
Bristol Rovers v Southampton
Cardiff City v Wolves
Sheffield United v Middlesbrough
Liverpool v Barnsley
Manchester United v Arsenal
Preston v Portsmouth
Coventry City v West Brom
Chelsea v Huddersfield Town
The round where the premiership catches up. There will be at the very least 3 non Premiership teams in the quarterfinals which doesn't seem as crazy as 10 non premiership teams in the octofinals. So the draw goes the FA's way then, because who the HELL wants to see Cardiff and Soton at Wembley, Or another Championship side (or league one I guess is still possible) representing England in the UEFA Cup?
They've even got that exciting match of Utd v Arsenal so that people will actually still pay attention past the 4th Round! Hopefully that will be more exciting than the FA Cup Final in 2005.
I'm facinated with Liverpool lately. Especially how they can have 2 decent players and still be considered a Big 4 club. I know that I'm not alone because of the stories in my fantastic google reader feeds this morning, the Lion Share's were about Liverpool. So here's a rundown of some things:
20 Handy Facts About Havant & Waterlooville Well not really Liverpool but the most exciting thing in a positive light to be happening at Anfield this weekend . Of course this game is not being shown in the US and I will hope it's on a sopcast site of some sort.
Reds 'complete' finance deal For the Liverpool faithful I hope that this part of some deal where The American Owners (tm) can still sell the club off to DIC and walk away with profit for not putting any money out at all. They really are poison.
Hobbs agrees to Iron Switch . Jack Hobbs showed some flashes of brilliance this season when standing in for Liverpool's constantly injured backline. I hope that this loan deal saves Scunthorpe from the drop into League One and gets Hobbs some first team play before going back to Liverpool next year. Maybe then they'll realise hoping for Agger to be fit is like bailing out a yacht with a thimble.
Corluka's cup dream
16/ 1/2008
VEDRAN Corluka was just 13 when he vowed to himself that he would one day play in an FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium.
I like the word Cupset as coined on 606 this morning to refer to Cup Upsets. It's kind of cute at it's actually very Beeb.
The Cupset I am the MOST excited about is Oldham over Everton AT Goodison. As I've mentioned before, Oldham is a team I've got a bit of a soft-spot for. This increases my chances of getting to see Oldham on television in the US. Actually the past couple of years I have been able to see them a couple of times. Once in the FA Cup two years back and the league one promotion playoffs last year. Since they've got zero chance of being promoted, this is the only possibility.
FootieNeighbor's funeral was this morning so I missed a lot of the 3pm matches. I did get to watch Villa v Man United tho. I was bored to tears for most of it. Villa squandered some real opportunities including Ashley Young's "harder to miss than make" shot. United of course nicked 2 goals in the dying breaths making for a 2-0 scoreline that does not really reflect just how well Villa did.
I'd like to see an Oldham / United derby at Boundary Park. Because it would be good for Oldham $$$$ wise, and of course the possibility of the Ginja Ninja playing against Oldham is as exciting as the possibility of him playing FOR Oldham even for the most casual supporters.
"The administrator asked Liverpool about donating their share of the gate money," Blackwell explained.
"They probably said: 'We have to pay players £100,000 a week. You must be joking! Otherwise we will be like you!'
"You just have to accept it. There are people in life who have got a Rolls Royce while some people have a Mini.
"We are Mini drivers. We tried to live like a Rolls Royce but that's why we are where we are.
So the FA has unvieled a plan where children can get concession tickets for "selected" FA Cup Ties in the 3rd Round for 1 pound. OOOH How great the FA is reaching out to the communit-ay. Etc Etc. Then you see the matches.
The games selected are
Blackburn v Coventry, Plymouth v Hull, Bolton v Sheffield United, Sunderland v Wigan, Huddersfield v Birmingham and Wolves v Cambridge.
It's to get people out who would rather watch the United Match on television. I love watching lower division Football and you can't beat the FA Cup for drama. But jesus christ, a more disengenious statement the FA couldn't have made if they tried.
