Jose Reina redeemed himself in the most extraordinary fashion with three penalty shoot-out saves to win Liverpool the FA Cup after a classic final encounter with West Ham on Saturday.
Liverpool required a last-minute equaliser from man-of-the-match Steven Gerrard to take an exhilarating contest into extra-time with the sides tied at 3-3.
Reina had been badly at fault on two of West Ham’s goals in the opening 90 minutes. But it was his saves from Bobby Zamora, Paul Konchesky and Anton Ferdinand that finally gave Rafael Benitez’s side the trophy, 12 months after Jerzy Dudek’s stops won them the Champions League in very similar circumstances.
Dietmar Hamann, Gerrard and John Arne Riise all converted penalties for Liverpool with only Teddy Sheringham managing to beat Reina.
West Ham had been just four injury-time minutes away from glory when Danny Gabbidon’s headed clearance landed at the feet of Gerrard, who proceeded to beat Shaka Hislop with a drive from the best part of 30 yards.
It was Gerrard’s second equaliser of an afternoon in which Liverpool had fought back from two goals down only to fall behind once more when Reina totally misjudged a Konchesky cross that dropped over his head and into the net.
An own goal by Jamie Carragher and Dean Ashton’s opportunist strike after Reina’s first serious error of the afternoon had given West Ham a lead that was cancelled out by Djibril Cisse’s 32nd-minute volley and Gerrard’s first strike nine minutes after the break.
As with so many of the 124 finals that preceded this one, the morning of the match brought confirmation that players who had been struggling with injuries would be ready for duty.
Ashton and Matthew Etherington were on the West Ham team sheet while Xabi Alonso was cleared to start for Liverpool.
Alonso’s availability to take up the anchor role in Liverpool’s midfield would have been reassuring news for Benitez.
Yet it was the Spanish midfielder’s uncharacteristically slack pass that gifted possession to Yossi Benayoun and led to West Ham taking the lead.
Benayoun immediately found Ashton, the striker’s first-time pass sent Lionel Scaloni clear on the overlap and the Argentinian defender’s driven low cross was deflected into the net by the unfortunate Carragher, who missed the ball with his right boot but inadvertently caught it with his trailing left leg.
Worse was to follow from the Liverpool defence as a catalogue of errors contributed to the Hammers’ second goal.
Etherington, allowed time to bring the ball down on the edge of the area, sidestepped Sami Hyypia before firing in a shot that evaded attempted blocks by Gerrard and Steve Finnan.
The strike carried no real menace but Reina fumbled his attempt to gather and Ashton was on hand to squeeze the loose ball past the goalkeeper.
That was the cue for an East End knees-up in the claret and blue sections of the crowd.
But the party was cut short when Liverpool got themselves back into the contest with a goal of stunning simplicity four minutes later.
Gerrard’s angled ball from just inside the opposing half dropped perfectly in the gap between a retreating West Ham back-line and goalkeeper Shaka Hislop.
Cisse’s run in behind was perfectly timed and the Frenchman, falling to his left, met Gerrard’s delivery with a sweetly struck right-foot volley that might have been enough to book his place in France’s World Cup squad.
West Ham continued to trouble Liverpool, however, and the irrepressible Ashton was only centimetres away from claiming his second goal with a low drive after beating John Arne Riise on the edge of the box.
Then, within a minute of the restart, Reina was forced to produce close-range stops from Marlon Harewood and Benayoun after more good work by Etherington down the left flank.
Those near misses began to look costly when Gerrard equalised for the first time. Alonso’s cross from a deep inside-left position was headed back towards the penalty spot and the Liverpool captain lashed the bouncing ball high to Hislop’s right.
But ten minutes later, West Ham were back in front. Liverpool did not appear to be in any danger as Benayoun found Konchesky on the left touchline. The left-back launched his cross towards the back post and Reina appeared to completely misjudge its flight as the ball flew over him and dropped into the side netting.
After Gerrard’s equaliser at the end of the 90 minutes, there was further agony for the West Ham supporters in the final minute of extra-time when Marlon Harewood sliced a glorious close-range chance wide of the target. — AFP
