With the heightened attention and prestige that the Premier League has garnered in recent years, there has been an ever-growing and ever-present conversation taking place that would suggest that the luster once bestowed upon the FA Cup is a thing of the past. While the League Cup has always taken a bit of a backseat in being regarded as England's less prestigious cup competition, it would have once been unthinkable to think of the FA Cup as anything less than one of the crown jewels for English teams to claim.
As seen by Manchester United's decision to forfeit their place in the FA Cup in 1999 in order to play in that season's Club World Cup and other cases of the big teams either fielding weakened teams with an eye on European competition or hardly being bothered to play at all, there was at least some credence to be lent to the argument presented by those who saw a diminishing place for the FA Cup in the modern game. Yet, despite this, this past weekend in the FA Cup, nothing short of riveting and enthralling, suggested that rumors of the FA Cup's demise are a bit premature.
We often sing the praises of the Premier League and its top teams, but let's face it--the league campaign, after 38 rounds, often gives us results at the top that are a bit predictable. Sure, the relegation battle is always exciting to the neutral, and that isn't to say that the title race and jockeying for European spots isn't intriguing, but ultimately we have an idea of which teams are going to finish in the top five from the first kick of a ball in August, and in today's climate, we just about know that Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea are the most likely to win the league. Yes, there may be surprise results along the way, typified last season by Blackburn beating both Arsenal and Manchester United before being relegated, but the class and depth of the top teams rise to the top come May.
The beauty of the cup competitions is that the top teams don't have 38 games to prove their superiority on the way to silverware. Instead, on any given weekend in the cups, ninety minutes can derail everything, regardless of if the big teams have shelled out hundreds of millions of pounds on their rosters or not. The little guy, if he plays his cards right, can pull the rug out from under the giants and dare to dream of a glorious afternoon at Wembley. With Oldham playing Liverpool off the pitch, Leeds flashing back to better days against Tottenham, Luton putting recent troubled seasons behind them against Norwich, and Brentford coming within minutes of knocking off Chelsea (though at least forcing a replay) within this last round of FA Cup fixtures, everything we have come to love and romanticize was there on display. The giants didn't seem so giant anymore, and the underdogs looked as if they could have beaten any team put in front of them. With their victories, they'll all earn another chance to do just that.
Though this past week's Capital One Cup semifinal second legs left us talking about timewasting ballboys and kicks to the ribs a bit more than we might have hoped to, once the dust had settled, Bradford City and Swansea had booked their own tickets to Wembley, a mere ninety minutes from capping off one of the most memorable accomplishments for either club.
For Bradford City, a club so far removed from the lofty heights of the Premier League they once enjoyed, this is a chance for their long-suffering fans to enjoy glory that they could have never imagined when the season started. A victory next month in the final would cap off a memorable run in the competition that included remarkable efforts against both Arsenal and Aston Villa.
For Swansea, a win would be the cherry on top of a meteoric rise from League One to the Premier League in the span of a few years, regardless of if Roberto Martinez, Brendan Rodgers or Michael Laudrup is in charge. Either way, someone a bit off of the beaten path will be winning a trophy.
It remains to be seen if the FA Cup will give us as unlikely of a matchup as the Capital One Cup has, but the week that was in the English cups has reminded us of one massive idea: expect the unexpected.
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