Liverpool 3 West Ham 3 (3-1 on pens) - FA Cup Final (May 13 2006)

[TLW]

LIVERPOOL 3 West Ham 3 (3-1 on pens)

Report by Dave Usher at the Millenium Stadium

Scorer(s) - Djibril Cisse, Steven Gerrard (2) Half Time - 1-2 Venue - Millenium Stadium, Cardiff Date - Sat 13 May 2006 Star Man - Steven Gerrard / Momo Sissoko

 

 

 

“We’ll never see a game like that again” many of us thought after the events of Istanbul a little under 12 months ago. We were wrong. This may not have been quite as special as Istanbul (the FA Cup isn’t the European Cup and West Ham aren’t AC Milan), but it was even more dramatic.

The similarities between both games are startling. The scoreline and the eventual outcome are obviously the same, but even some of the smaller details are eerily familiar. Kewell departing injured, Hamann having an influential impact from the bench, our keeper producing a wonder save right at the death to ensure the game went to penalties, and of course Gerrard being the hero. Even down to a cramp stricken Carra being unable to join in the celebration on the podium as the trophy was lifted, this was Istanbul revisited.

For supporters of most other football clubs, a game like that may come around once in a lifetime if they are extremely fortunate. Liverpool fans have had two in less than a year. It’s great being a red!

What turned out to be a great day looked for a long time like being a huge disappointment. I’d had a bad feeling about this game for some time. The head told me we should beat them by two or three goals, but the gut was saying something different. Being such strong favourites was a concern, but I just kept having visions of Teddy Sheringham being the hero.

The FA Cup tends to throw up things like that, and I didn’t like the idea of a 40 year old playing against us. We always hear about the ‘Stanley Matthews final’, and my worry was that in 30 years time we’d be hearing about the ‘Sheringham Final’. There’s no doubt now though that this will go down as the ‘Steven Gerrard Final’. Quite a contrast from the last time we visited the Millenium Stadium! A lot has changed since then though, and now there are no doubts about the captain’s loyalty – and importance - to the club.

Still, too much is made in the media of Gerrard’s importance to Liverpool. Yes, he’s our best player, but all this ‘one man team’ bollocks is unfair on the rest of the side. I mean where would the mancs be without Rooney, Chelsea without Lampard and Arsenal without Henry. All top sides have one player who stands out above all others, but we have shown on many occasions that we can win without Stevie. That said, it’s a damn good thing we had him in Cardiff, because no-one else was going to get us out of the shit and he deserves all the plaudits and adulation he will get after this.

This was a strange performance from the reds. Areas of the side that have been so impressive all season, suddenly began to look vulnerable. West Ham’s tactics were spot on to be fair, and they managed to find space and use it well to carve us open on several occasions.

The game had got off to a fairly low key start, with neither side really getting on top. Then out of nothing, West Ham went in front in bizarre circumstances. Alonso – who passed his fitness test but was clearly not right – gave the ball away sloppily and Ashton played in Scaloni who had ran in behind Riise. His cross was intercepted by Carragher, but he seemed to change his mind about which foot to clear the ball with and it bounced off his left boot into the bottom corner. Reina had committed himself to cutting out the cross, which he would have done had Carragher not got there first.

No-one could have predicted the goal coming like that. The normally deadly accurate Alonso giving the ball away when under no pressure, and our most reliable defender getting his feet in a mess and putting through his own net. Unbelievable. It got worse though, and the second goal also came via a mistake from an unexpected source.

The goalkeeper who had been so solid all season spilled a routine shot from Etherington, and the lurking Ashton bundled the ball over the line. One half of the stadium was in delirium, the other was in complete shock. Pepe beat his fists on the turf in disappointment with himself, and we were looking at an Istanbul scenario all over again. At least we would have been had Ashton’s shot a few minutes later been a few inches more to the right to make it 3-0.

The Hammers had been the more dangerous, and more fluent side. Benayoun was finding all kinds of space between our midfield and defence, and Ashton was a real handful up front. They’re a good side, who play the game in the right way. As for us, well we were very disjointed and looked very poor both in defence and attack until we got our act together in defence following a rocky opening half hour.

Crouch had seen a perfectly good goal incorrectly ruled out for offside, but other than that he was very disappointing. Cisse also scored a very good goal and thankfully his counted, but he was disappointing too. It didn’t help that he was wearing odd boots in the first half, and then a pair of illuminous yellow ones in the second. You can get away with that shit if you’re Henry or Ronaldinho, but when you’re as limited as Cisse you’re just going to piss people off.

Then we have poor old Harry, who for the third cup final in succession limped off with a groin injury. He wasn’t missed, which says a lot about the lack of impact he’d had prior to picking up the injury. He never looked fit from the start, and wasn’t the same player who took the piss out of Chelsea a few weeks ago.

Gerrard was the only attacking player having any kind of impact on the game. It was his fantastic ball that created Cisse’s goal, and he’d also been the one who had picked out Crouch for the goal which didn’t stand. So it was no surprise that it was he who got us back on level terms with a stunning finish after Crouch had knocked down Alonso’s ball to the far post.

There was a huge sense of relief when that goal went in, but it could have been so much different had Reina not redeemed himself with a superb double save at the start of the second half. The Hammers had once more cut a swathe through our backline, as Etherington got away from Finnan and crossed for Harewood. Pepe stopped his shot with his feet, and then blocked a follow up effort from someone else (haven’t seen the re-run of the game yet so some things are a bit sketchy) also with his feet.

I was worried at half time, even more so than I was at 3-0 down against Milan. We just hadn’t played well at all in that first half, and with so many attacking players struggling to make an impact on the game I felt the second half would be a struggle if we didn’t get off to a good start.

That chance Harewood had was the last thing we needed, as I believed we really had to go out and stamp our authority on West Ham right from the start if we were to win the game. That chance gave them a lift, and had Etherington picked someone out in the centre shortly after following another good break down the left, we could have been dead and buried. Thankfully he never, and then Gerrard drew us level.

I felt a lot more relaxed once we were on level terms, as West Ham looked like they’d given all they had. We took control of the game, with Hamann and Sissoko bossing the middle of the park and Morientes improving things a bit up front. Kromkamp came on to play on the right, and although he is clearly limited in that role, he at least gave us a good outlet and his fresh legs helped us a lot.

A Liverpool winner seemed the most likely outcome at this point, so it was a major shock when the Hammers got their noses in front once more through an outrageous fluke from Konchesky. Some people have pointed the finger at Reina for the goal, but that’s harsh in my opinion. He was in the correct position to deal with the cross, but was unable to get back to the far post when Konchesky over-hit the cross. Sometimes goals are unsavable, and this was one of them I reckon.

We were in big trouble now, and as the clock ticked away it became apparent we’d completely ran out of ideas. We were clueless in attack, and West Ham looked very comfortable. I don’t mind admitting that I’d completely given up and had resigned myself to defeat. It looked like a lot of the players had too, as there seemed little urgency about them. It’s been a long season for them, and it began to show as many of them went down with cramp.

Ironically, that played a part in the equalising goal. Cisse went down, and Scaloni sportingly put the ball out. Whether he did it for sporting reasons, or because he wanted to break up the play to relieve some pressure only he knows. At the time I was cursing Cisse, because the last thing we needed at that stage was a break in play.

From the throw in we won the ball back, and as the stadium announcer informed us there would be four minutes of stoppage time Gerrard lashed the ball past Hislop from around 35 yards. It almost defied belief, and I can’t think of a more dramatic goal scored by a Liverpool player. What made it all the more astonishing was that Stevie was knackered at that point, yet somehow summoned up the strength and technique to do that.

Steven Gerrard is not yet the greatest player in Liverpool’s history, but he’s on his way to becoming just that. He’s scored goals in the finals of the FA Cup, League Cup, UEFA Cup and the European Cup. I don’t know if any other player has ever done that, but I doubt it.

If he can add two or three Championships to his Liverpool medal collection by the time he retires, then few will be able to argue that Gerrard is number one. Special players do special things at special times. From that point of view, no-one is more special than Gerrard.

Extra time was largely a non-event. We were the more likely side to win it, as Kromkamp was getting a lot of space on the right and got into some promising situations which he couldn’t make the most of. Had we been able to call on a better replacement we would have won this game without penalties, as Konchesky’s legs had gone.

The Dutchman did ok, but imagine the joy someone like Wright-Phillips would have had in those wide open spaces. Without Kewell and Garcia, the side struggled to create anything. We need more options out wide and up front, and if we get the right players then we’ll take some stopping.

Both sets of players were absolutely shattered. At the start of extra time I looked around at our players. Cisse, Carragher, Gerrard and Finnan all looked in bad shape. Carragher managed to find a second wind and saw a lot of the ball in extra time, but Gerrard was completely spent and barely got a kick. He’s since admitted that he was so tired that he didn’t want the ball in extra time.

With so many players struggling, that’s when Sissoko came into his own. Seeing his team-mates flagging, Momo took it on himself to do their running for them. He was absolutely immense in that extra time period. He was everywhere, making tackles, driving forward with the ball and taking the game to the Hammers. Momo and Riise are the two fittest players in the squad, and both showed it in extra time. Those two, plus the three subs, enabled us to keep the ball and stop West Ham getting into the game.

But then on a rare breakaway with a minute left, the Hammers forced a free kick out on their left, and when the ball was played it in hit someone on the back of the head and went looping towards the top corner. Although I was at the opposite end on the stadium, I was so high up that I had a great view of this and it looked for all the world like it had gone in.

I saw the ball heading for the corner, and I saw Pepe get a desperate hand to it. But it looked to me as though it had gone in off the post. It all seemed to happen in slow motion, and I looked on in horror thinking it had gone in. Next thing I know the ball is at Harewood’s feet and he volleyed it wide. I wasn’t sure what had happened, only that somehow it had not gone in and we were heading to penalties. At that moment I wouldn’t exactly say I knew we’d won, but I definitely started to have a good feeling about penalties.

After all, if we were going to lose then surely that was the moment it would have happened. Just like when Dudek saved from Shevchenko last year, that was the moment when it looked like our name was on it. West Ham’s players probably felt the same way. It just wasn’t meant to be for them.

Pepe has a fantastic record at saving penalties, and of course many of our lads have been through this before. Didi stepped up first, no surprise there, and he casually found the corner. Great start. Then Pepe saved brilliantly from Zamora and were well in the driving seat.

It was strange seeing Sami step forward to take one, but I really thought he’d score. It was a poor penalty however, and Hislop saved easily. Sheringham stepped up and scored with a very well placed kick that gave Reina no chance, and then up stepped the skipper to find the corner with ease.

Pepe then denied Konchesky, and Riise drilled a shot straight down the middle to put us on the brink of victory. When I saw Anton Ferdinand step up I knew it was over. For some reason it just seemed fitting that it would be him who missed the decisive kick. I really don’t like him, and not just because his brother is an arsehole. No way was he going to beat Pepe, and so it proved, sparking wild celebrations on the pitch and in the crowd.

Just like in Istanbul, the players all went charging towards the heroic keeper. Whereas Carra got there first last time, this time he was nowhere to be seen as Momo and the subs arrived before everyone else. A few seconds later I saw Carragher lying prone in his own half being attended to by the physio. Riise also looked in a bad way as he hobbled around, and you could see just how much this game took out of the players. They gave us everything, and they got their reward in the end despite not playing up to their usual standards.

It was cruel on West Ham, but I don’t go along with the view that they were the better side. For me it was a very even game. Obviously, we are a better side than them but we didn’t play at our best, and they did. That evened things up, and I don’t think there was anything to choose between the sides over 120 minutes. They had some very good spells in the game, but we controlled it for long periods too. They played some good football, but all three of their goals had an element of fortune about them. I’m not taking anything away from them, as I do think they played very well and the likes of Ashton, Benayoun, Reo-Coker and Etherington are very good players.

Were they better than us though? Not for me, although I wouldn’t say we were better than them either. The manner in which they lost means they will get a lot of sympathy, and rightly so. Usually I couldn’t care less about our beaten opponents, but I do in this case. So much so that next year I’ll even break with tradition and support another English club in Europe. I laughed at Boro getting spanked in the UEFA Cup, not because I have any particular beef with them, I just don’t want other English teams winning European trophies as that’s ‘our’ thing. Next year I hope the Hammers win it, and I’d be very happy to see them do it.

Pardew and Sheringham both showed a lot of class with their post-match comments, and their supporters were superb too. They did their club proud. We’ve played the likes of Chelsea, Arsenal and the mancs in Cardiff but West Ham fans put them all to shame.

Our support was at it’s colourful best too, with the usual array of entertaining banners. My favourite had to be the huge Mali flag with the words ‘Momo is Boss’ hanging from the multi storey car park by the City Arms. He certainly is boss, and he showed it with an inspirational lung busting extra time performance.

Gerrard is obviously the star man because he more or less single handedly got us back into the game. Over 90 minutes he was our best player, but he’d expended all his energy in that period and had nothing left. Over the 120 minutes Sissoko was our best player, and that’s why I’ve given a joint star man award.

Very few players performed to their usual standard on the day, but those two did and we got out of jail. Just what is it with us and cup finals though? We never do anything the easy way. In 2001 we went to pens with Birmingham, and needed two goals in the last eight minutes to beat Arsenal. Then there was Alaves!

Last season we had the extra time defeat to Chelsea, and then of course Istanbul. The only ‘easy’ game we’ve had was the mancs in the League Cup final. Every other one has been an epic.

After Istanbul last season, and Cardiff this year, I wonder what 2007 holds in store for us? Would a last minute Steven Gerrard winner at Stamford Bridge on the final day to give us the title be too much to ask?

Team: Reina; Finnan, Hyypia, Carragher, Riise; Gerrard, Sissoko, Alonso (Hamann), Kewell (Morientes); Crouch (Hamann), Cisse: