Neal Collins soccer
Sounds great doesn’t it? The semifinals for this year’s FA Cup are Arsenal vs Spurs and Liverpool vs … er … Wycombe Wanderers.
Yes, the world’s oldest knockout competition proved yet again that the old giant-killing twist remains a magic ingredient. While Tranmere battled gamely to lose 4-2 to Mersey rivals Liverpool, Spurs saw off West Ham 3-2 in a London thriller and Arsenal disposed of Blackburn 3-0, it was Wycombe’s 2-1 injury-time win over Premiership Leicester that set the weekend alight.
The Buckinghamshire side, who have never before gone beyond the fourth round, were put through to the last four by an Irish-Ghanaian skinhead called Roy Essandoh. No, you won’t have heard the name before. Neither have most Wycombe fans.
A Motherwell reject who spent the last couple of seasons in Finland before slipping into the Conference League with Rushden Diamonds, he answered coach Lawrie Sanchez’s Internet plea for players, came on for the last 10 minutes and scored the injury-time winner at a shocked Filbert Street.
Paul McCarthy had put the Chair Boys (Wycombe were formed in 1884 by a group of local furniture-makers, the area is famous for them) ahead but when Muzzy Izzet equalised with the simplest of goals from a Darren Eadie cross, Wycombe looked like what they are: a mediocre second division outfit still coming to terms with life in the football league (they came up from the Conference in 1993) after a century of playing in the Berks and Bucks Senior Cup and various local leagues named after Greek tribes.
Adi Akinbiyi could have, should have, won it for Premiership high-flyers Leicester. He was substituted soon after his miss with the goal at his mercy.
Wycombe coach Lawrie Sanchez, an FA Cup winner when he scored the only goal against mighty Liverpool in 1988, was then red carded when the referee missed a handball in the Leicester area.
But he came charging down the tunnel when Essandoh came up with the last-gasp winner. He said afterwards: “I just tried to make the goalkeeper work. It was a great feeling.” Clearly, he wasn’t used to post-match interviews.
McCarthy, more eloquent, said: “There was an eerie silence in the dressing room afterwards. Nobody seemed to believe we were through to the last four of the FA Cup.”
Steve Brown was sent off after the goal for taking his shirt off to display his son’s name on his vest, but as Sanchez said afterwards (when confronted in the BBC Match of the Day studios by former Liverpool foes Alan Hansen and Mark Lawrenson): “He was sent off for that but the referee missed a handball in their box.
“Still, over the course of the 90 minutes we were the better side. We stopped them from playing. Never underestimate a team of mine. Roy is on loan until next Tuesday with us because we haven’t got a fit striker on our books.
“I had an advert put on the Internet and only one agent phoned the next day. He gave me Roy, who played one reserve game, then came on for 10 minutes in the week and another 10 minutes in the Cup and scored the goal.
“I haven’t seen him since. Hopefully he’ll be at training in the week! The feeling today was not far off scoring that winner against Liverpool in ’88. We’ve played 63 games, we’ve got 23 players and 10 of them are injured. But we’re through, that’s all that matters.”
Saturday’s other quarterfinal was less shocking; in fact it was over long before half-time.
Arsenal disposed of Blackburn Rovers with a clinical 3-0 win and hardly missed the rested Thierry Henry and Patrick Vieira. Blackburn, on such an impressive run in the first division, were simply crushed.
Graeme Souness, who won the FA Cup with Liverpool nine years ago, saw his side go behind after a minute and 14 seconds when Robert Pires found Sylvain Wiltord, who left Brad Friedel with no chance.
The Frenchman has scored in every round of the cup he’s got two more to go. The last time anyone did that Peter Osgood was Chelsea’s hero in 1970. Dennis Bergkamp’s clever chip nearly made it 2-0 seconds later but Tony Adams then came up for the corner and made it 2-0 after five minutes.
Pires added the third in the 36th minute and the Gunners coasted through the rest of a very ordinary cup tie. On this form, Rovers one defeat in 19 matches might be hoping they don’t come up to the Premiership next season. Marcus Bent hit a post and Jason McAteer had a goal harshly disallowed for handball but basically Arsenal spent the second half with their minds on Wednesday’s make-or-break Champions League clash at Bayern Munich.
Souness said afterwards: “Our priority is to go up to the Premiership. I’d love to have gone through today but it’s more important to us to beat Birmingham on Wednesday than it is to win here.”
I wonder how many Blackburn fans would agree?
Sunday’s quarter finals provided 11 goals but no shocks. Spurs, with Ukrainian Sergei Rebrov finally coming good with two goals and Gary Doherty adding a third, held off West Ham in a 3-2 thriller at Upton Park.
Neil Sullivan, the former Wimbledon goalkeeper signed by George Graham at the start of the season, was magic. Though he was beaten by the ageless Stuart Pearce and Svetoslav Todorov, his one-handed save in the dying minutes from Frederic Kanoute was the moment of the match.
George Graham now faces his old club Arsenal in the semifinal, at Old Trafford.
Liverpool survived all that Division One relegation candidates Tranmere could throw at them in the all-Mersey quarterfinal. Danny Murphy and Michael Owen put Liverpool ahead, but Tranmere came back to 2-1 through Steve Yates and the pressure was on. Almost immediately the impressive Steven Gerrard made it 3-1 but Wayne Allison then made it 3-2.
Robbie Fowler, guilty of another awful defensive lapse, secured the tie with a penalty to make it 4-2, but the Reds were never in the comfort zone.
With Wycombe next in the semifinal, Liverpool coach Gerard Houllier said: “In the semifinal everyone has a chance Wycombe are not really underdogs. We will have to prepare for a difficult game.
“Funny enough, I wouldn’t have minded meeting Arsenal.”
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