Liverpool Wins More Silverware!
Liverpool have won the FA Cup Final for the 2005-06 season against West Ham in a penalty shootout 3-1 after drawing 3-3 in extra time. Steven Gerrard, captain of Liverpool, saved the day yet again in the 90th minute of the game with a brutal freekick goal.
West Ham was up 2-0 due to an own goal by the usually near-perfect Jamie Carragher and a close range shot by Dean Ashton which I thought Reina should have saved. A few minutes later a goal was disallowed to Peter Crouch when he was deemed offside by a linesman with his eyes painted on. At the next freekick, Gerrard crossed a lovely ball to Djibril Cisse, who let fire with a vicious volley to pull one back. The teams went in for oranges with the scores in favour of the Hammers 2-1.
Steven Gerrard equalized in the 54th minute and just when things looked like Liverpool was back in control, a Paul Konchesky “cross” put West Ham ahead. Gerrard was Liverpool’s saviour again when his shot from 35 yards flew out flew past Hislop’s right and went into the net. 3-3.
In extra time, Riise almost scored the winner with a long range shot that was almost as sweet as Gerrards and just as far out. There was a bit of a scare with about a minute left when Nigel Reo-Coker’s deflection was turned on to the post by Reina. A goalmouth scramble for the ball followed and Harewood, who was suffering from bad cramp, couldn’t kick straight from 6 yards out.
So, it went to penalties. Hamann, Gerrard and Riise all scored from the spot for Liverpool with only Hyypia’s spot-kick saved. Teddy Sheringham was the only West Ham player to find the net with Zamora, Konchesky and Ferdinand all being saved by Reina.
Just as Liverpool did in their famous Champions League victory against AC Milan in Istanbul in 2005, Liverpool have taken the match to penalties after a 3-3 draw. In Istanbul, keeper Jerzy Dudek was the hero, but in Cardiff it was Reina, who had played below par until his dramatic late saves.
