Final without the fight

The FA Cup final yesterday saw Premiership champions Manchester United face the league runners-up Chelsea. The match was the first FA Cup final to be held at the newly reconstructed Wembley Stadium - which does look pretty good with it's impressive arch. The high profile clubs involved and the venue meant that the match was fairly hyped up. The problem with hyping up a Cup final is that they invariably disappoint. There are in fact very few Cup finals that I remember being decent matches, or offering much excitement. Yesterday was no different. The teams barely bothered to play in the first half, which started off at a snail's pace and proceeded to get slower! The second half picked up a bit and there was some pace injected from time to time, but never any incisive or threatening attacked from either side. The keepers had very little to do. The game was a nil-nil draw after normal time, so went onto extra time (I remember - it not being that long ago - when finals went to replays the following Wednesday, which replaced CBBC when I got home from school.) Extra time still produced little incident, but eventually Chelsea produced the winner. I don't think either side really deserved to win, but one had to. Neither team had any commitments (the Champions League final for example) so I'm not sure why they both weren't really going for it in this game. It'd have been different if Watford had got there I can tell you!