Old boys return to haunt

Howard shows his former teammate how a penalty should be saved

Chelsea have reached the FA Cup final and it's up to this second semi-final match-up to decide who will be joining them. On paper, it looks like its gonna be another Chelsea vs. Man Utd final. But the prospect of that looks dwindled when the team sheet was revealed. Eyebrows were definitely raised at Fergie's choice of the first eleven for a major semi-final. Mind you, this is is not Carling Cup..it's FA Cup. But Fergie looked more like providing a squad for Carling Cup. Not even Wenger would have the audacity to do such a thing. There's Ben Foster, Rafael, Fabio (twins played together in the first team for the first time), Gibson, Welbeck, Macheda. Looks like a team straight from Reserves. This was also the youngest ever squad that Fergie had placed at this stage of the competition. These lads have impressed at some stage during the season but getting them to play together for a result? With such a gamble, I would say the match can go either way given that most of Everton's regulars are there with the exception of Arteta who is injured. Three ex-United players are there, with Phil Nevile, Saha and Tim Howard all starting.

At the 20th minute, there was nearly some boo-boo goalkeeping from Foster who dangerously dallied the ball in front of former-Red Saha. It was a Barthez moment as he tried to swivel the ball around with his legs. Well, fortunately, he grabbed hold of the ball before it turned into a disaster. The 90 minutes were a tug-and-war game with neither side gaining any sort of mileage. Some attributed it to the condition of the pitch which limits the way the two teams played. There was one incident in the game where Fergie burst into an incensed rage together with his assistant Mike Phelan for Mike Riley's failure to award a penalty after Welbeck was brought crashing down by Jagielka. When it was clear that the match is going to extra time, Fergie subbed in Dimi in hope that he could create something with his technical abilities. 3o minutes come and gone and still nothing to separate them. It goes to the penalty shootout yet again for United.

Tim Cahill was the first and when he blasted the ball over the post, there was a feeling that Man Utd will do it again because of the incompetence of their opponents in shootout, just as how Portsmouth and Spurs had shown. However, Dimi just had to put out a wuss shot to put the whole United team under pressure. The second to take for United was Rio and I already had a bad feeling that that slacker will have his shot saved by his former team-mate..and Howard did save it. Only Vidic and Anderson managed to score for United's penalty. By then, the Evertonians were already jubilant. The so-called quadruple bid was squashed. Fergie insists that his selection was justified but he has to admit that with such a selection it has every chance of having a loss. Anyways, it's over and the important thing is for Man Utd to pick themselves up and proceed on with the Premier League and Champions League.