2006 Fa Cup Final - Liverpool V West Ham United [DVD]

What is it about Liverpool Football Club? Last season we had the astonishing Champions league Final, which a year down the line I'm still not sure how they won. Now this years F.A. Cup final has seen the team once again show incredible reserves of resilience and indomitable spirit to triumph again. There is never a dull game with them around.

Yet the first twenty minutes were eminently forgettable as West Ham pressed and closed Liverpool down who for their part couldn't have given the ball way with more alacrity if it had been painted black and with the word bomb in bright white letters. Once West Ham deservedly took the lead courtesy of Carraghers tangled feet the game became interesting. It became more interesting still when Reina fluffed a scuffed shot and the admirable Ashton nipped in to roll the ball in. Still Liverpool , who lets not forget were down 3-1 to Luton in an earlier round and came back to stirringly win 5-3(a game that is also included on the DVD along with the rather satisfying defeats of Manchester Utd and Chelsea), seem to possess bottomless depths of belief and character and thanks to Gerrards perceptive cross field pass and Cisses ( who up until this point had been hopeless) exemplary volley went in at half time 2-1 down.

Buoyed by that Liverpool piled on the pressure at the start of the second half and deservedly equalised when a knock down was lashed in by the mercurial Gerrard. The game ping ponged thrillingly between the two teams but West Ham squeezed ahead again when Koncheskys intended cross dropped over the rather flat footed Reina in to the top corner. West Hams game plan to sit back and keep Liverpool at arms length seemed to be working as players, most of them in red, started to tire and pull up with cramp, Gerrard among them. Which is why it came as even more of a shock when picking up a loose clearance from Scaloni (who had got the ball back after kicking it out because Cisse had collapsed with cramp) he sent, from fully 35 yards , a pile driver arrowing past Hislop. It was a real double take moment. West Ham still nearly snatched it when Reina tipped a misguided header? onto a post.

Extra time was a bit flat and farcical as energy levels collapsed and players dropped with fatigue and cramp. The penalty shoot out never quite resonated with the drama of Istanbul as Liverpool won with clinical efficiency though it was noticeable they all had sufficient vigour to sprint and envelop hero of the hour Reina.

I'm still not convinced it's the best final ever. The 79 final when Arsenal pipped Man Utd 3-2 was pretty exciting but by recent standards this was a revelation, and it was very well officiated and played in tremendous spirit. West Ham didn't deserve to lose but I don't buy the theory their luck deserted them. All their goals contained huge elements of luck, the third was a pure fluke and they had a gilt edged chance after half time to go 3-1 up and fluffed it. If they had Gerrard in their side they would have won ...and quite easily too. But Gerrard who lets not forget is a product of Liverpool's youth system is a rarity amongst modern footballers -a one club man. He was the difference, especially since other normally reliable performers such as Carragher and Hypia had poor games.

The DVD could do with more background to the final and certainly more analysis and the commentary is poor, but it once again stands as a testament to why sport is so vital to our national consciousness. The desire to fight and never give in once again exemplified by twenty two blokes kicking a ball around.

Ok, this was the greatest FA Cup Final of modern times. As one of the Liverpool fans lucky enough to have been at the great match, it is an event I will tell my grandchildren about. However, no DVD can ever capture what it was like.

The commentary is not the BBC original which (unsuprisingly) is the best and it fails to capture the wonderful spirit of the West Ham supporters (nothing but respect for them) or the deathly silence at the Liverpool end before Gerrard's second equaliser, as no one could see a way out. The game was wonderful, but the event was even better, and that simply cannot translate to the screen.

Having watched the wonder of Istanbul on TV, I find I can return to that easily, but having been there for this one, this DVD is just nothing to can compare to it.

As for the game? Liverpool were LUCKY! Every West Ham player deserved a winners medal for an extrordinary performance against all odds. Apart from Gerrard and maybe Hamman, the Liverpool team desrved to be on the losing team. But from the own goal to Ashton's poached strike to Cisse bringing the Reds back into it, Konchesky's fluke effort, Gerrard's heroic stunner in stoppage time (Ricky Villa eat your heart out!), Reina tipping the ball onto the post in the last minute of extra time, Harewood's miss and then the penalties, the game had everything.

Great game, but if you were in Cardiff on that memorable day, you might find this DVD underwhelming. But if you do buy it, freeze frame at 57:50 to see me on the side of the picture (red hair and dusty coloured jacket) doing my nut! Da da da, da da da, I fell in to the burning ring of fire...

Unfortunately the commenatary of the game is neither BBC or Sky Sports and is not quite to the same standard. It sounds like Ray Clemence is the co-commentator. Who does the commentary is a slight point but it just doesn't seem to have the same unbelievable element in fact I did wonder whether it was commentary done after the event.