Wednesday, 27 April 2011

FA Cup Final 2002/3

I thought this was worthy of its own entry...


Aardvark Abacus       5 – 5       Trusted By Millions

Solano (41) (pen)         (1)                     Owen (14, 48, 60, 66)
Baros (46, 84)                                        Djorkaeff (73)
Scholes (68)
Upson (90)

At the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, Attendance 72,500

The 2002/2003 WSFFL FA Cup Final ended in an astonishing 5-5 draw, with Michael Owen claiming 4 goals and the Man Of The Match award for Trusted By Millions. The match was an open, end-to-end struggle throughout, and its competitive nature was set immediately when a crunching tackle put paid to both Trusted’s Phillips and Aardvark’s Smicer in the first minute. Trusted opened the scoring on 14, Michael Owen finishing a move started by the flamboyant Okocha. Aardvark levelled before the break, however, Solano netting a penalty after Legwinski was upended in the box.

The floodgates really opened after the break; Baros put Aardvark ahead one minute after the restart, only for Owen to equalise 2 minutes later. Owen scored again on the hour to complete his hat-trick, and on 66 to put Trusted 4-2 up. Aardvark struck back on 68 through a neat Scholes header to make it 4-3, only for Trusted’s substitute Djorkaeff to net an Okocha rebound with 17 minutes to go, to put Trusted 5-3 up and the game seemingly beyond the Abacus. Ady’s men are made of sterner stuff, however, and their resiliency paid off with 2 late goals, from Baros on 84 and a towering Upson header in injury time to level the game. Let’s hope the replay is as exciting as this game!
   
Aardvark Abacus: Kasey Keller; Sol Campbell, William Gallas, Jon Aarne Riise, Matthew Upson; Nolberto Solano, Paul Scholes, Vladimir Smicer, Sylvain Legwinski;Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Milan Baros
Subs: Neil Sullivan; Lauren; David Prutton; Nicolas Anelka

Trusted By Millions: Mark Schwarzer; Nils-Eric Johansson, Dominic Matteo, Jody Craddock, Jamie Carragher; Jay-Jay Okocha, Jason Euell, Sean Davis, Steven Gerrard; Michael Owen, Kevin Phillips
Subs: Jussi Jaaskaleinen; Martin Taylor; Jamie Redknapp; Youri Djorkaeff 

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