04/19/24
May 30, 2015
Arsenal Dismantles Aston Villa in FA Cup Final: Arsenal defeated Aston Villa 4-0 in the FA Cup Final Saturday, winning the trophy for a record-setting 12th time. Arsene Wenger became the first post-war manager to win it six times. Theo Walcott opened the scoring late in the first half. Alexis Sanchez roofed a brilliant long-range shot off the crossbar for the second and the Gunners were cruising after that. "Arsenal were so utterly superior here, in every department," writes Daniel Taylor in The Guardian. The win puts Southampton in the Europa League next season.
Fell asleep and missed Sanchez's goal. The rest was a procession. Wenger has now managed 6 FA Cup wining teams, a post war record.
posted by owlhouse at 09:04 AM on May 31, 2015
Was out Saturday morning so I taped this and the Copa del Rey. I made it through 44 minutes of the latter, blocking the bottom news crawl each time soccer came around, before the idiot commentator spoiled the FA Cup result. Which is just as well since I enjoyed my day much more without seeing that, should've realized I was never going to enjoy it.
posted by billsaysthis at 10:31 AM on June 01, 2015
I was sitting in a pub watching a good part of this. At the bar, with the audio turned off, as a way to remain cheerful and hydrated despite the unseasonably warm weather.
The born and bred all-American Ram Tough truck driving guy sitting next to me was providing himself with a running private commentary on the match, and seemed knowledgeable in many respects. It was a bit surreal - rather like watching international compulsory figures with Ted Nugent.
As the match and his patronage at the bar concurrently matured, his speech became less and less decipherable. He eventually reached the point where "Arsene Wenger" and "Aston Villa" became indistinguishable from one another and then, finally, became interchangeable.
At that point, on a cultural basis, I felt as though the US had reached a moment where a fair bit of sporting progress had been achieved.