Soccer

EEE – FA Cup 3rd Round

10 Comments

The weekend saw third round of the FA Cup. The Manchester teams played each other, United winning 3-2. And that's all I feel like talking about those two. On to our teams. Citizens' teams did very well.

  • Chelsea 4 - 0 Portsmouth
  • Sunderland 2 - 0 Petersborough United
  • Wolves 0 - 0 Birmingham
  • Everton 2 - 0 Tamworth
  • Fulham 4 - 0 Charlton Athletic
  • Spurs 3 - 0 Cheltenham Town
  • Aston Villa 3 - 1 Bristol Rovers

Wolves' 3rd Round replays is on the 17th at home.
The fourth round draw is out, and there are some interesting matchups, and even a WGOM Derby. These games will be played Jan 28-30th. Home team listed first.

  • Sunderland v Middlesbrough
  • Milton Keynes Dons or QPR v Chelsea
  • Arsenal or Leeds United v Aston Villa
  • Watford v Tottenham Hotspur
  • Everton v Fulham
  • Sheffield United v Birmingham City or Wolves

News and Notes

  • Clint Dempsey's hat trick for Fulham was the second hat trick by an American in FA Cup play. Chris Cleary scored one for Worksop Town to defeat Droylesden in 2004.
  • 'Arry Redknapp has claimed that Newcastle Strike Demba Ba can be released from his contract for less than £7m. At that price, Ba is being incredibly undervalued and would be a good pickup for just about anyone.
  • Expect the media to beat the Liverpool-ManU and potential QPR-Chelsea storylines into the ground after Suarez and Terry's previous alleged racial abuses towards their opponents.
  • Neil Warnock was let go as QPR manager. Former ManCity and Fulham boss Mark Hughes is seen as the frontrunner for the job.
  • Paul "The Ginger Bomber" Scholes came out of retirement for the Manchester FA Cup match.

10 thoughts on “EEE – FA Cup 3rd Round”

  2. Also, if anyone supports a team I'm not profiling, let me know. And on the obverse, claim your teams. If no one speaks up for a team, I'm gonna stop keeping tabs on them.

    I got Fulham, and I'll take HD's above as a claim to Spurs.

    2. Seattle Sounders.

      Only two months until the CONCACAF Champions League resumes with quarterfinal play! Sounders v. Santos and Galaxy v. Toronto FC on one side of the bracket. The MLS schedule was just released last week, unbalanced schedule as expected, though certainly not as unbalanced as MLB. Lots of games to be shown on NBC Sports Network (currently branded Versus.) NBC Sports Network stole Arlo White from the Sounders to announce those games (and the games that will be shown on NBC proper), which is good for the league but unfortunate for me.

      In related news, Kasey Keller is apparently going to be doing color commentary for the Sounders in the upcoming season.

  3. Fun FA Cup facts from my brackets (.xlsx file).

    With 6 replays still to go, 334 of 758 teams lost in the first round that they competed in, not counting teams that forfeited their games.

    Redbridge (who lost in the round before this one) advanced 6 rounds, the most of any team so far, and as many rounds as any Championship or EPL team will advance if they win the Final.

    There are only 10 teams remaining that could top that (all these would advance 5 more rounds [6 if they have a replay] to win the Cup Final)

    Wrexham (3 rounds + replay v. Brighton in this round)
    Swindon (3 rounds)
    Sheffield United (3 rounds)
    Sheffield Wednesday (3 rounds)
    Stevenage (3 rounds)
    Notts County (3 rounds)
    Crawley Town (3 rounds)
    MK Dons (2 rounds + replay v. QPR in this round)
    Macclesfield Town (2 rounds + replay v. Bolton in this round)
    Dagenham (2 rounds + replay v. Millwall in this round)

    Stevenage faces Notts County in the next round, 3 (or 4 depending on Birmingham/Wolves replay) of these teams will face EPL teams in the next round.

  4. I met a couple from England over New Years who were recently transferred to Minnesota. He's a big Nottingham Forest fan. So I'm glad to see that they are still in the FA Cup. Although he shied away from rooting for any EPL team we both agreed that there was no point in rooting for ManU, City, or the Spurs.

      1. Actually I told him I was a big Chelsea fan and he at least didn't have the same revulsion as he did for the three teams I listed above, and even thought they were an intriguing team with their new manager and all. Then again he could have just been being polite.

        1. My fandom aside, I don't understand Spurs as an unlikable team. They play a fun type of soccer, always pressing which in turn creates opportunities for the other team making for exciting games. They don't spend nearly to the amounts of the Manchesters or Chelsea. They had been a mostly unremarkable team since the forming of the Premier League as well.

          Are they just a fashionable pick lately? I mean, they can't be more bandwagon than any of the teams I listed above, right? I think more than anything I am just caught off guard with the animosity towards Spurs as usually I don't root for teams that are successful.

          1. I think there is a little Spurs backlash. A lot (relatively speaking) of Americans who wanted to get into EPL but were savvy enough not to root for ManU (or Chelsea for that matter) drifted to the Spurs, partly -- I maintain -- because of their kickass name: Tottenham Hotspur. Enough people have done that it created a marker or almost a signature. Kinda like an urban hipster.

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