F.A.Cup Final Portsmouth v. Cardiff - The Build Up.
Portsmouth vs Cardiff City is hardly the FA Cup Final that anyone would have predicted at the start of the season, and it is in danger of being overshadowed by next Wednesday's all-English Champions League Final, but it is still the FA Cup Final and there will still be that tingle of excitement for all neutrals when the teams are led out onto the Wembley turf on Saturday. Perhaps even more so than usual, as this will be a Final without any of the usual suspects.
Last year's tedious affair between Manchester United and Chelsea showed that having a load of highly-paid and highly-talented players on the pitch doesn't guarantee entertainment - we can only hope for better stuff in Moscow next week - and that even the biggest names can freeze when it comes to big occasion like the Cup Final. That of course begs the question about what it will do to player less accustomed to the eyes of the world watching them, but there are enough experienced heads on both sides to hopefully keep the rest calm.
The likes of David James and Robbie Fowler have been here before of course, both wearing those dodgy cream suits back in 1996 when Liverpool played in another of the worst FA Cup Finals of all time. Fowler will most likely be starting on the bench on Saturday after a spell out through injury, but James will be back in nets for Pompey after missing the last few games of the season and that is a massive boost for Harry Redknapp. The England keeper has been Portsmouth's most important player in their run to Wembley, saving their skins on more than one occasion.
The worry for Redknapp is that Pompey might be relying on James again this weekend, as they may well find goals hard to come by, as they have done all the way so far. It is curious that they have managed to get to the Final without a proven goalscorer in their team, as Benjani left in January and was replaced by the cup-tied Jermain Defoe, who they will badly miss. The hardly-prolific Nwankwo Kanu scored the goal that got them here, but neither Milan Baros or David Nugent offers much hope of firepower based on their performances this season.
Cardiff may have Fowler and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink in their ranks of strikers, but they only managed to score 59 goals in 46 games in The Championship this season, three less than bottom club Colchester United, so we can hardly expect the goals to fly in at Wembley. Indeed, the two semi-finals held there last month may well have signposted what will happen, with both Cardiff and Pompey winning by a single goal in tight, tense affairs, so clearly whoever scores the first goal will have a very good chance of winning it when they meet.
An interesting subtext to this year's Final is not only that there are none of the Big Four clubs involved, but also that both teams are managed by Englishmen, as Joe Royle in the 1995 Final was the last homegrown boss to get his hands on the trophy. Redknapp and Dave Jones have both had their ups and downs on and off the pitch over the years, but both are football men through and through, even if there are rumours that one of them could be saying goodbye to the game after this one last showcase affair.
There's plenty of foreign players likely to be involved, particularly on the Pompey team-sheet, while one of the clubs comes from Wales, but having two English managers going head-to-head for the famous old trophy will stir some memories of bygone days in football, as will a competition that can be won by one of these unfancied teams. Sure, the Premier League title race and Champions League are a closed book these days to all but the four richest clubs in the country, but whatever happens on Saturday will show that the FA Cup is still a trophy that the rest can compete for.
Hopefully this will encourage managers of clubs like Blackburn, Bolton and Everton to take next season's tournament a little more seriously after all three committed hari kiri in the third round this year by fielding weakened teams. At least two of those, if not all three, could have gone all the way if these two clubs can be contesting the Final, so let's hope they get the message. And finally, it's been a season of great drama in the FA Cup, so fingers crossed for a Final that lives up to its billing...
