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Wembley last time out 22/05/2010

As I write this I’m sitting on the plane heading for the Championship Play Off Final in London and it brings back memories of when I was at Wembley the last time watching the F.A. Cup semi final between Barnsley and Cardiff on Sunday the 6th of April 2008.

I decided to travel for the semi final as the final was on the 17th of May, which is Norway’s national day, and there wasn’t of course any guarantee for Cardiff winning the semi final either. So this was my chance to see Cardiff play at Wembley, something that doesn’t happen too often. Here’s the account of Wembley the last time out for me:

The trip started early in the morning on the day of the match from the airport in Bergen. As the plane flew in over English soil the landscape was covered with snow, and it was strange sitting on the train towards London watching how the snow was lying on the trees and it was still snowing heavily. It turned out to be the most snowy day in England for twenty years and that wasn’t exactly good news as I was on there to see a football match!

Luckily the weather improved with the temperature becoming more pleasant and the conditions were good when the game kicked off.

When I first travelled to Britain and Cardiff to watch the Bluebirds back in 1993 I also went to London to see the F.A. Cup semi-final between Arsenal and Tottenham. That I fifteen years later should witness Cardiff playing a F.A. Cup semi-final at Wembley I couldn’t have dreamt of. Cardiff did win what was then the 3rd division that year but City also lost 2-3 to non-league Bath in the first round of the F.A. Cup!

Coming up from the underground at Wembley Park station and seeing the characteristic arches of the mighty new Wembley Stadium appear before me was fantastic. As I approached the stadium along with hundreds of Cardiff supporters I was offered a ticket in the Cardiff section for £50 (and I had the impression I could bargain the price down a few pounds further), but having already paid a lot more than that for the ticket in the neutral section of the ground I resisted the temptation. In a way it was actually quite nice to be seated on the opposite side to the Bluebirds supporters as I then got a great view of the blue, singing hordes.

New Wembley is a massive and impressive stadium. Having cost £757 million it’s a state of the art football ground and walking around inside the stadium before going out to the seating you could easily mistake it for being a shopping center with shops, restaurants and bars everywhere. There are even 2500 toilets!

Having found my seat about halfway up behind one of the goals I got talking to a couple of friendly Swedes sitting nearby me. It turned out they were father and son taking the opportunity while in London to watch a match at Wembley, and they kept me company at half time as well. The father was a Millwall fan and they didn’t really have a favorite in the semi final, but they ended up cheering for Cardiff since I did.

As the teams entered the field the noise from the near 83.000 spectators was ear deafening and I got shivers as I there and then experienced what was up until then my greatest and proudest moment as a Cardiff supporter.

The biggest surprise in Cardiff’s starting lineup was for me that Dave Jones had chosen Trevor Sinclair to start up front alongside Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink. Other than that the team looked as expected.

Finally, it was time for kick off.

From the start there was something nervous about both sets of players, and there was not much good football being played. But if the match over all wasn’t a great one to watch for the neutral, at least Joe Ledley’s goal after nine minutes was a great one. I was just settling in when Tony Capaldi’s long throw in was cleared by a Barnsley player straight into the feet of Ledley who hit a perfect volley from about sixteen meters out. What an incredible opening to the game, and it was particularly pleasing that it was Joe Ledley, a Cardiff player through and through having been a Cardiff fan all his life and playing for City since the age of nine, who got the goal.

Kayode Odejayi was Barnsley’s hero when he scored the winning goal against Chelsea in the quarter final, but luckily he didn’t repeat his heroics against Cardiff as he somehow managed to put the ball wide being one on one with Peter Enckelman in the 66th minute. Odejayi got the ball on the halfway line and the time it took him to run towards the Cardiff goal seemed like an eternity. At least it took so long that there was plenty of time for me to think “he’s bound to score”. The best we could hope for was a lucky save from Enckelman, but the disappointment of the equalizer had already set in when the Nigerian incredibly missed. What a relief!

City held on to their 1-0 lead and was through to the F.A. Cup final!

Leaving the stadium I was impressed by how the police kept order as so many people were making their way from Wembley towards the city center. It’s a lot more chaotic and feels a lot more crowded when only 20.000 people leave Brann Stadion in Bergen after Brann’s home games!

I could return to Norway happy and looking forward to seeing the F.A. Cup final on the telly knowing I’d been to the fantastic Wembley stadium as Cardiff clinched their place in the final.

May my Wembley experience be just as good today!

Pitch worry 16/05/2010

The pitch at Wembley has come under a lot of criticism this season and after yesterday’s FA Cup final Chelsea’s captain John Terry said the pitch was so bad it ruined the final.

I find it worrying that the pitch can hamper the teams in the upcoming Play Off final and maybe even be decisive for the outcome of the match.

It’s  a disgrace that a fantastic venue like Wembley doesn’t have a better pitch.

Interesting to note that the FA Cup finalists were allowed to train on Wembley the day before the final to familiarise themselves with the surface. I wonder if Cardiff and Blackpool will be given the same opportunity…?