All football fans should watch the (English) FA Cup

[muriel_volestrangler]

I'm guessing a lot here might not have got it live, so I won't give the result; but make the effort to see a recording. The commentators reckoned it may have been the best in 50 years.

[Kire]

1. Is that Arsenal vs. Barcelona?

Thank you for not spoiling it. It doesn't air until Wednesday here. Yahoo! TV says it's the Final.

[ikri]

2. English FA Cup Final

Liverpool -vs- West Ham United

Absolutely cracking game too, really worth watching.

The Arsenal -vs- Barcelona game is the UEFA Champions League Final and if it is half the game that today's FA Cup final was, it'll be great.

[Kire]

4. thanks

I'm new to this whole soccer thing. I don't know what's what yet.

I have scoured my local listings and also my Sirius Satellite Radio and that game is not scheduled.

Too bad.

Here's a question: Can you explain to me why Chelsea won some kind of cup a week or two ago in the middle of a game? Everybody was celebrating on the second of three goals. It led me to believe there are no finals. Then again, if FA is different from whatever league Chelsea is in, I wouldn't know that. Is FA even Premiership?

Thanks for any answers you can provide.

[Kire]

5. Okay, I'm looking through Wikipedia

I understand that the FA Cup is the name of the cup, not the league. And that there is a League cup as well. But, it doesn't look like Chelsea won that. It says the winners in 2005 are Manchester United. So what exactly did Chelsea win? Have I got it wrong? I remember Chelsea just dominated Manchester U, three -nil.

Awaiting a reply.

Kire

PS, Unfortunately, while looking through Wikipedia, I discovered who won the FA cup you are talking about. So don't go there if you don't want a spoiler.

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. There are several things to win in English football

The FA Cup is a simple knockout competition, even involving semi-amateur sides at the start.

The professional sides are organised into 4 leagues of about 20 teams each (each year, the 3 best in each league get promoted up, while the 3 worst get promoted down. Occasionally, if their stadium and finances are good enough, a team from outside the league gets promoted into the 4th league).
Chelsea won the 'Premiership' - the top league. Each team plays every other team twice in the year - once at home, once away. Like securing a playoff spot in most American pro sports systems, this can happen before your last game if you've done well over the year, which is what Chelsea did. Since it involves having the best record over the whole year, most people regard winning the Premiership as proving your team are 'the best'.

There is also a (knockout) League Cup, just for the teams in the 4 leagues. This hasn't been going as long as the FA Cup, and has less prestige - its name changes regularly with its sponsor. It's currently the 'Carling Cup', after the brewer.

There are also 2 European competitions. The top 4 teams from last year's Premiership compete in the European Champions' League - which is part knockout, part 'pool' system. Eventually, they get down to 16 European teams, and it's a knockout competition from then. The Chelsea - Barcelona game on Wednesday is the final - about 8pm British time, so you'll see a recording unless it's in the middle of the day for you. The UEFA Cup is the other European competition, taking the teams that didn't quite qualify for the Champion's League, and those knocked out from its early stages. The Carling Cup winners, and the FA Cup winners (or runners-up, if the winners, like this year, are going to the Champion's League anyway) also get into the UEFA Cup.

It's all quite complicated, but the advantage of this is that interest for at least half of the teams in the leagues reamins right up until the end - they might get promoted, relegated, qualify for Europe next year, or actually win something. While the Premiership involves a year-round performance, the Champions' League involves playing against a good number of Europe's best clubs (and, at the moment, that means most of the world's best players, since a lot of South Americans, Africans and others play for European clubs).

[Kire]

7. Perfect

Exactly what I could ask for. I am bookmarking this thread. Thank you.

[madrchsod]

3. thanks should be on dishnetwork

liverpool v west ham, now that is interesting.