Champions :-)

Wow, not sure I've ever seen an FA Cup Final like that before. Both teams seeming to have forgotten how to defend, neither team seeming to care too much about conceding. A ridiculously open game for a cup final and well, it was end to end stuff from the start to the finish. Admittedly West Ham were the better team for the most part of the 90 mins - Xabi had apparently forgotten how to play football during his injured spell, Kewell couldn't get in the game and even Stevie G made a few mistakes. Carragher's own goal was definitely not the start Liverpool wanted and a second goal by West Ham brought a cloud of depression over our section of the Irish Pub in Frankfurt. Alas, with Liverpool nothing is ever easy and it took going 2-0 behind to get them to start playing decent football. Anyway, before we knew it it was 2-2 and we were happy again. Then a fairly ridiculous goal put West Ham in front AGAIN and it took a wonderstrike from Stevie G in the 91st minute to win extra time. Extra time was rather comical as both teams had used all their subs and all players were exhausted (except one West Ham player who looked disturbingly like Gary Neville from 10 yrs ago) and it became normal to see players suddenly fall on the ground with cramp. One West Ham player injured his ankle and could hardly walk, never mind kick the ball. Lucky for Liverpool, it was him who West Ham's last gasp chance to win the game came to - 12 yards from the goal, the injured ankle made contact but the ball bounced off and went wide. Penalties it was and Reina's previous goalkeeping errors were soon ancient history as he made 3 saves and won the cup for Liverpool. Ah, what a match. It was exhausting, a rollercoaster ride and definitely worth the trip to Frankfurt :-) The Indian food at lunch was also very pleasing and it was tres cool to be in the big city, in an Irish pub and amongst British people... Fun times.