Well done for beating the bitters today in the cup final. Now please get relegated.
Wigan Athletic
- Thread starter Chopper3000
- Start date
I do enjoy watching the English Premiere League as ESPN, ESPN 2 and FOX SPORTS show some games here in the USA some live, some on replay.
Loved Wigan beating MAN.CITY because they were the obvious underdog but how does the FA CUP work ? How did WIGAN get to play in the finals ?
The FA Cup is a knock-out cup. Wigan got to the final by beating Milwall in the semi, and other than Everton away, a load of rubbish teams in the quarter finals, 5th round (of 16), 4th round (of 32) and 3rd round (of 64). Prior to the 3rd round, League 1, League 2 and qualifying non-league teams play each other in similar knock out format for the right to reach the 3rd round when the Premier League and Championship teams enter. There are several "qualifying" rounds as well prior to the knock out stage to whittle down the non-league teams that have entered down to the maximum number - I do not know how many that is, to be honest.
Who plays who is randomly determined and other than the Premier League and Championship teams entering in the 3rd round, there is no seeding. This usually means a lot of the good teams knock each other out, and you end up with lots of shite in one side of the draw. This is how really poor teams like relegation threatened Wigan, mediocre Stoke, then-Championship Cardiff, relegation-threatened and ultimately-relegated Portsmouth, and Liverpool get to make it to the final.
In modern English football, the FA Cup is a handy distraction and consolation cup for midtable teams (or worse) who have no realistic chance of qualifying for the Champions League, so they take the cup seriously. The top clubs routinely play weakened teams in the cup as they don't want their best players tired, injured or suspended for the next league game. If an actual top club gets to the final despite playing the reserves on the way - like Arsenal in 2005, Chelsea in 2007, 2009 and 2010 and Man City in 2011 - they usually bother to play a fairly strong team in the final and try and win it. This usually is successful and they get to wave a pot around, which is quite often the case that it serves as consolation for not winning the title. This season City could play the best team available to them, and they still lost to a team that will probably get relegated. And every Man United, Spurs, Villa and Everton fan are laughing at them. Probably other clubs too.
Fans of clubs that have never played in the Champions League still say they'd love to win the cup, but honestly by comparison, it's bollocks. They love to talk about "winning things" and "history remembers when you won a cup" but they're living in the past. Winning things only matters if the things you win matter, and for an English team there's only two things worth crowing about.
I'm glad Wigan won the cup, because if they'd lost, they'd have been let into the Europa League (fucking joke competition) anyway, despite not winning anything and finishing in a shite league position, whereas the team that finishes 6th this season - probably Everton - will get NO European football next season despite playing better football than Wigan and winning more matches.
I don't really want Villa to go down because all my mates would moan about it, and I'm fed up of Wigan, but a win in the week for Arsenal kills Spurs' chances of Champions League qualification, so the best result would be either 0-0, or 7-7. With Jack Wilshere sent off for an act of ABH. On Sagna or Mertesacker.
Piss off Wigan, you've been shit for too long. Aiming for 17th every year is for shitehawks, fuck off into oblivion like Luton, Wimbledon and Coventry before you.
Thanks for all the info ! There is a lot i don't understand about the game yet but i love the passion of the fans supporting their teams,,,,just tremendous ! The owner/chairman of Aston Villa up until last year, used to own the local football team here in cleveland,ohio......my beloved Cleveland Browns. So in a way, i hope Aston Villa survives and does not end up in the bottom three. ESPN 2 showed that game here saturday as Chelsea came back and beat Aston Villa 2-1 after being down 1-0 with a player from Chelsea becoming their all time leading scorer i think ?
Anyway, like you said, at least it gives teams like Wigan something to play for and like the announcers said.......''David just beat Goliath'' !''
Yes. Frank Lampard. A nice bloke who I would like as a player if he didn't spend his whole career plying for two clubs I despise.
Villa stay up unless Wigan beat Arsenal at the Emirates tomorrow night and the Arsenal have to win to retake 3rd, so I expect Arsenal to smash them. They'll probably still be hungover from Saturday. The next time my sweet lot won a pot, we lost our next game 4-1 at St Andrews. There's NEVER an excuse to lose 4-1 to Birmingham, there really isn't.
Villa have a decent crop of youngsters that now have a year's experience playing with each other and hardened by a series of tough experiences, not least the run where they lost 8-0 at Chelsea, 4-0 at home to Spurs (which I attended) and then 3-0 at home to Wigan. I firmly believe they'll be comfortably midtable next season as long as they bolster their defence. Kolo Toure is out of contract, they should try and sign him. If Toure doesn't want to plummet down the division so spectacularly, they should bid for Joleon Lescott. He doesn't start for City anymore and grew up a Villa fan, so he might fancy becoming the rock at the back of their defence.
Out of interest 758 teams entered this years F.A. Cup.
So big games today but nothing being shown here where i'm at, i'm pretty sure anyway. I did see on the ticker this morning that Man.City fired their manager.
I have no idea on some of the teams involved and the players you mentioned but i can't imagine how it would feel to attend a game especially if something was on the line !
I might have to adopt a team one day and follow more closely. Back in the 80's i was lucky enough to have traveled quite a bit and once, spent a week in England. Wasn't familiar with football over there back then. I'm pretty sure i stayed at the Charing Cross Hotel. It was quite a drive from the airport i think. Good memories.
I've always had a soft spot for Liverpool as musically growing up, i listened to bands on album and 8 tracks(yes, i'm that old ha) from that city.
That is amazing ! Whoever had Wigan in a football pool came up pretty big ! It's like winning the lottery !
Not really, when the top flight teams (Premier league) enter the F.A. Cup it is in the 3rd round proper which is made up of the final 64 teams left in the competition (20 of them being the Premier league clubs just entered).
BTW Wigan are a Premier League club (at the moment).
They pretty much aren't now. Cunts. When I want them to lose, they win. When I want them to win, they lose.
China Crisis were pretty good. No James, Roses, Smiths or Mondays, but pretty good.
China Crisis were pretty good. No James, Roses, Smiths or Mondays, but pretty good.
I'll have to You Tube China Crisis. I first got cable tv back in the 80's. That's when MTV played music videos and i heard stuff i never heard before. Loved the 80's music !
Yea, i see they lost today looking at the scoreboard. Doesn't look good for Wigan to stay. Where do all these teams come from that start out in the FA CUP ?
Wigan are gone. Actually, mathematically relegated. Done.
The teams that start out the FA Cup are from League 1, League 2 and "non-league football" which is the football hierarchy beneath the four divisions of the Football League. These teams are mostly semi-pro and amateur status. The highest ranked non-league division is the Blue Square Premier, then beneath that the Blue Square North and South. I have no idea how many levels there are. To be honest I don't pay much attention to anything that happens below the Premier League.
You seem to have forgotten Liverpool, a team that are in the Premier League but aren't really worthy of the title. I consider them as poor to embarrasing to an utter bunch of cunts and as such they must be put in the category of Millwall, Birmingham & Wigan in terms of every European campaign they have ever been in.
I doubt it. Inter have failed to qualify for Europe this year.
Your wish came true. As a fellow Man United fan, why do you want Wigan relegated?
A team that sets out to finish 4th from bottom of the league every season, a team that cannot fill its stadium no matter who they play. Stick to Rugby league and fuck off from football altogether. They have had their 15 minutes of fame. Good riddance.
rivasky
the special one
Congratulations to Hoffenheim! Fuck off, Düsseldorf!
