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Millennium Stadium, Cardiff. Saturday 12th May 2001
FA Cup final
Preview
Contents:
AFC/LFC (team news),
Tickets/Travel,
History,
Ref,
Cardiff,
Omens
- It'll finish on the day
No replay: just extra time and penalties on the day.
In fact, according to "the wonderful lady manning (?) the main club line",
Cup Finals never go to replays. This is what she told ArseWeb reader
Mick Gould, anyway. He points out that it's a good thing no-one told
Andy Linighan.
- Arsenal team news
Arsenal will be lead out onto the pitch by 9-year-old mascot
Ryan Rocastle, son of the late Rocky. See newsreel. It's hard to imagine how young Ryan will
feel as he
hears his Dad's name ringing out around him. But then again,
maybe he's getting used to it.
Bergkamp and Parlour are fighting to bw fit. Dennis's achilles injury has taken a long time to go away, but latest (Apr 23rd) is that he does have a chance.
Parlour's back problem is even less likely to keep him out of the cup final.
They could both be back in full training (and Parlour possibly back in the team)
by the end of April.
24/04/01
Matthew Upson's sending off in last night's
reserve loss to Watford
means that he'll be suspended for the FA Cup final. It's unlikely
that he'd have played, but this makes it pretty definite that he'll
have to wait till next season for another real chance in the first team.
If he waits, that is.
03/05/01
Hold on, now the FA have said that Upson's ban is only 1 match instead of
3, so he is available for the final after all. Still don't expect him to play
though.
10/05/01
Parlour, Bergkamp, and Silvinho all played in a reserve match on Tuesday, beating
Spurs 4-0. Edu is also said to be fit and available.
11/05/01
Stepanovs, Edu, and Luzhny are thought to be injured (although
at the time of writing this comes only from a site which still
thinks Upson is suspended).
There are rumours that Bergkamp's startign place alongside Henry
is looking more likely, after Wenger was irritated by Wiltord's
failure to turn up for a training session this week. Rumours, we must
stress, which Arsenal have been quick to deny in the strongest terms.
There are 3
decisions for Wenger to make:
who partners Henry?
who plays at left-back?
who plays in midfield? It's Vieira, Pires, & two others from
Parlour, Lauren, Ljungberg, Grimandi. Parlour & Lauren seems
likely, but we could play Parlour in the middle and Ljungberg on
thr right.
- Liverpool team news
15th April
Looks probably that Nick Barmby will be out. He's got a leg/ankle
in plaster at the time of writing (less than a month before the game).
Unfortunately they're quite strong in his part of the field, so we
could really do with a missing Liverpool defender or 2 (plus Heskey
Owen and especially Fowler).
24th April
Liverpool now say that they expect both Barmby and Litmanen to be fit
for the final. See NewsReel.
11/05/01
Jamie Redknapp (knee) and Veggard Heggem (thigh) are out injured.
Barmby is in contention as is Jari Litmanen. But Houllier has a strong
squad in their positions so is unlikely to risk either of them from
the start.
Up front it'll definitely be Heskey and probably Owen, seeing as he's
scored their last 5 goals.
- Tickets & Travel
See this AFCi page for ticket info. Season ticket and bond holders had first choice, the club are said to be sending letters to TRS members with high attendance, offering
them any remaining tickets. And see this page for Arsenal FC official travel info.
The definitive travel information for Arsenal fans is here, on the official Cardiff council site.
One important point is that Arsenal fans travelling by road are being asked to
leave the M4 at junction 29 and follow the signs to designated park n ride
sites from where buses will be laid on.
There were a lot of problems with congestion and lack of parking when Liverpool played Birmingham City in the League Cup final in Cardiff earlier in the year.
The council and police are doing what they can to prevent this happening again,
and we can help by sticking to the route specified. If you try to get into Cardiff another way you could get stuck.
The other important resource for travelling fans is this AFCi page. The club are arranging coaches and a flight, and there's a number for ringing about trains (don't delay, they'll sell out).
Arsenal warn that we should not rely on mobile phones on the day. During
the league cup final there was a 2-hour mobile black-out and it could happen again.
- History
Arsenal and Liverpool have met in the FA Cup final twice before, and
we beat them both times. First in 1950, when we won 2-0 with 2 goals from
Lewis, and
Arsenal fielded both Compton brothers and Joe Mercer. Then, of course, the
1971 final when Charlie George scored the extra time winner to seal the double.
The other cup final we played them in was the "1-nil dwon 2-1 up"
League Cup final of 1987 (see Omens below).
Our only competitive match in Wales to date was the (in)famous FA Cup
3rd round loss to Wrexham in
1992 (the wrong Mickey Thomas scoring
from a free-kick to win it 2-1).
We've won just 8 of the 25 other games we've played in the country.
Another relevant date is 1927, when Cardiff City became the first (and
only) club to take the trophy outside England, beating Arsenal 1-0 in
the final.
Arsenal must aim to take revenge, by becoming the first club to win the
trophy outside England. Andrew Gilbert writes, "I just hope
Seaman doesn't wear some newfangled synthetic jumper, which was the
excuse our keeper made for the soft shot he let squirm through him
and over the line."
We also need to stop Liverpool from becoming the only club to emulate
our feat of 1993, by winning both domestic cups.
- Ref
The referee will be Steve Dunn, with assistants Kevin Pike and Mike Tingey. Steve Bennett will be the 4th official.
Dunn's only previous Arsenal-Liverpool match was last season's
Highbury match when Titi Camara won it for Liverpool with the only goal.
He will also be remembered by Arsenal fans as the man who sent Emmanuel Petit off for swearing at a linesman during our FA cup 4th round win over Wolves in January 1999.
And if that's not enough, he also was the ref who sent Patrick Vieira off in the
first match of the season at Sunderland (the match which featured the incident in the tunnel,
with the 4th official and Arsene Wenger).
See Refs section for more stats.
- Cardiff Info
- The Millennium Stadium
-
Cardiff County Council's website at http://www.cardiff.gov.uk
includes this excellent guide including stuff about the stadium and
city, and important travel information (see also travel info above).
- More Cardiff links
- The following from Arseweb reader Stuart Bluman:
"Just a bit of info on Cardiff for you, I'm a Gooner (long time season
ticket holder) currently at Uni in Cardiff. I also work in many hotels
in Cardiff including the Hilton and even worked at the Millennium Stadium
for the Worthington Cup Final. Anyway, just thought I'd give you a bit of
info.
The pubs and clubs are pretty good in the centre, although take it from
me, the locals (being Welsh and all that) sometimes don't take too kindly
to the English (I know from experience) so vigilance is a necessity! When
the Scousers met the Brummies last time it all kicked off down St Mary's
Street (Cardiff's Oxford Street) so I'm fairly sure that the Police (or
Heddlu as they're called in Welsh) will be lining the streets in
their masses.
Evolution and Zeus are the top clubs and in my opinion the best pub is
the Prince of Wales (Wetherspoons). The local ale is called
Brain's... Try it!"
Stuart also sent the following travel info, but we must stress that
things on the day will not work as normal. Because of the problems experienced
on the day of the league cup final earlier in the year, things will be working
very differently on the day. See travle info above for
official advice. If you follow Stuart's direction on the day of the match you could
end up stuck in traffic and missing the match. We leave it here only
for Arsenal fans travelling up early, not on match-day.
"There are many ways to hit the centre of Cardiff by road, but my suggestion
is that you take Junction 32 of the M4 and follow North Road (A470) into
Cardiff. You can see the Millennium Stadium from just about anywhere (it
looks like a big spider) but parking is a bit dodgy. There are quite a few
regions in the city that run buses to the city centre which don't take
long. My advice for Gooners would be to park there."
- Shirts
Arsenal will be wearing red thanks to some
inspired toss-calling by David Miles, see here.
- Omens
(it's just for fun!!)
- Positive: we've never lost to Liverpool in a cup final.
- FA Cup 1950 (2-0)
- FA Cup 1971 (2-1 aet)
- League Cup 1987 (2-1) - the match where we came from behind to win after Ian Rush had scored, they'd never lost when Rush had scored. Hence the song "one nil down, two one up, we f**ked Rushy's record up"
Also worth mentioning (thanks to Andrew Brown in NZ), we beat Tottenham
in both the second leg and the replay of the semi-final that year.
1-0 down to 2-1 up in both of those games, just like this year's semi.
Slightly more tenuous is Ben Pope's suggestion: in that final a redhead
(Perry Groves) came off the bench and turned the game. Ben's presumably
hoping that Parlour doesn't start in Cardiff. Although I guess
Freddie counts as a redhead too at the moment.
Furthermore, all the Arsenal goalscorers in those 3 matches had surnames that are also first names. Lewis (2) in 1950, Kelly and George
in 1971, and Nicholas (2) in 1987.
So let's hope Thierry Henry stays fit.
(ArseWeb reader John Old reckons Edu works as well - his real last name
being Gaspar - the Portuguese for Casper).
(thanks to Lawrence for the names thing)
- Positive: we're NOT at home
- Pessimists might point out that the above 3 matches were
all at Wembley, whereas this year's match is in Cardiff.
However, our FA Cup record overall against Liverpool is strange.
Out of 5 meetings at Highbury, we have lost 4!
But we've never lost at their place (won 1, drew 1).
And, more significant with the Millennium Stadium in mind,
we've never lost to them in the FA Cup on neutral territory
(3 wins, 3 draws).
- Positive: Chelsea won it last year
- History shows that when Chelsea win the FA Cup, we win it
the next year.
In fact, whenever they've won the FA Cup we've gone on to win
the double the next year! Man Utd watch out (although we suspect
that history would be happy for us to win the FA Cup/Champs League double
this time).
- Negative: Liverpool's 3-year cycle
- Liverpool reckon they win the cup in 3-year cycles.
From 1965, keep adding 3.......... you get to
1974, then 1986, then 1989, then 1992, then 2001. OK so you pass 1971 and
1977 on the way...
- Negative: The ref
- The only Arsenal-Liverpool match Steve Dunn has refereed was
a win for them at Highbury (see ref section above)
- Positive: Liverpool change kit
- Liverpool have never won the FA Cup in their second strip
(1950, 1977, 1996). In fact they only final they ever won in it
wasthe 1981 Legaue Cup final replay, oh and the 1989 Charity Shield...
against Arsenal.
- Negative: Robbie Fowler
- Whatever kind of form he's in, this man just can't help scoring
against the Arsenal. Against that, there's the fact that he's also
been known to refuse a penalty.
- Negative: Cardiff
- Ok, there's only one case to go on, but you can't ignore a big 100%.
There's only been one major football final played there. Liverpool won it.
- Negative: Arsenal are too good
- Liverpool seem to struggle against weaker teams (eg Wycombe,
Birmingham).
- Negative: Arsenal's record in Wales
- We have only won 8 out of 26 matches played in Wales. But of these,
only the 1992 FA Cup defeat in Wrexham was a proper competitive match.
- Negative: Old Trafford semi
- According to Ian Tredgett, the winners of the FA Cup semi held at Old Trafford
go on to lose the final: Liverpool (96), Boro (97), Newcastle (98 & 99).
- Positive: English revengae
- Since Cardiff were the only team to take the FA Cup outside England,
by beating Arsenal (see above), it would be kind of fitting for Arsenal
to be the first team to win it outside England. Especially since it's
being held in Cardiff. Kind of like bringing it back, sort of thing.
- Negative: sod's law
- We're a bit low on negative omens, which in itself is a
bit worrying.
Anything to add? send it in
Please note: this section is just for fun.
As the great physicist and notorious sceptic Niels Bohr said,
when a friend commented that it was
strange to see a horseshoe hung above his door for luck...
"Of course I don't believe in it, but I'm told it brings you luck
whether you believe in it or not."
Thanks to Dunk from top Liverpool site
KopTalk
for some of the above. Between us, we'll have this match completely worked out
well before the start of May! :-)
- UK TV/Radio coverage
It's the Cup Final. It's live on telly still.
- non-UK TV coverage
- Australia: live on both Fox Sports and SBS (free), kick-off midnight AEST Sat 12th.
(thanks to Jamie for the info)
- USA: live on pay-per-view by In Demand at 10amEST. You'll need a cable box, apparently, or a pub.
(thanks to Joel for the info)
- Canada: (Vancouver) the Barnet Motor Inn, Port Moody is selling tickets for $20 (large pub, good food)
(thanks to Paul Hagen for the info)
- Spain: live (I think) on ViaDigital channel Futbol Total.
- For details, and countries not listed above, see the
non-UK TV FAQ
- See also
Your reports
- Please note that any website can get its match report(s) listed on these
pages, simply by
emailing us
the URL.
- We will go looking for reports, but none are guaranteed to make
it into the list unless emailed to us.
- Also, URLs which are emailed
to us will head to the top of the list (after links to AFCi and Arseweb's
newsreel report).
- Reports for publication on this page from Arsenal fans are always welcomed (as are any
features/stories/whatever that you'd like to see published on ArseWeb).
Useful links for armchair fans
Useful links for swivel-chair fans
- Arsenal Live. getting commentary
on your computer, IRC, Real Audio, etc.
- Note also that often there will be an audio feed available
from the opposition's website (most probably their official site).
Useful links for travelling fans
- ArseWeb's highbury pages, including ticket info, getting to the ground, etc.
- AwayFans.co.uk. Stadium reviews and info. Maps, traffic reports, pub lists, info on disabled/wheelchair provisions, etc. Conference teams as well as Premiership and Nationwide.
- London football Arsenal page from
a site focussing on info for fans from abroad wanting to get to matches (tickets,
travel, accomodation, etc).
- From the Terrace. Each team's section includes a page on their ground, with directions. Premiership, Nationwide, and Scottish.
- AwayGuide.net. Directions, maps, pub guides. All Premiership and Nationwide league teams.
- Football Ground Guide. Lovely site, loads of info, pics, diagrams, etc
- Football Grounds of England. With capacities, record gates, and pictures.
- Football Grounds frenzy. Wonderful photos of football grounds, with a little info too. Everything apart from
glitzy new grounds, and no Premiership ones. Might be handy for Cup games, and
certainly nice to look at!
- FanZone.
Information for travelling sports fans. directions, car parks, eateries,
pubs, blah-de-blah....
- Our own Highbury pages for useful info for Arsenal's home games.
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copyright belongs to original author where credited. otherwise © Rupert Ward, ArseWeb MMV
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