FA Youth Cup Final
Stamford Bridge, London
Admission: £3.00
Programme: £2.00
Attendance: 10,447
Match Rating: 3
This evening I decided to take in my second FA Cup final in two days, this time the Youth Cup, with the added bonus of bargain ticket prices, which I ordered online, allowing me to tick another of the best stadia in England off of the list. It's another ground I've been wanting to visit for a number of years, but have been utterly reluctant to pay the ridiculous ticket prices that Chelsea normally charge.
Stamford Bridge is very conveniently located just a few minutes walk from Fulham Broadway tube station, and it certainly a vastly improved and fully modernised stadia these days. There are a number of nice touches around the outside of the ground, beginning with a brass band playing as you enter the complex and a long mural of photos providing excellent opportunities for fans to have their photo taken next to their favourite player, or with a trophy. As the stadium is tightly packed into a residential area, it gives quite an impression of awe, which is not truly justified with the relatively small size of the ground. As you enter the stadium, the concourses are some of the nicest I have experience at a league ground, bright, fresh, clean and colourful - not the usual grey stone walls that makes one feel somewhat imprisoned. As I made my way to my seat in the lower tier of the Matthew Harding (North) Stand, the stadium was impressive without being "awesome". With a 10,000 capacity anticipated, only the lower sections of three stands were open to spectators, and the West Stand was completely closed. The 28 page programme provided all of the basic information required to inform spectators of both squads and their roads to the final, and was a quite typical glossy publication produced at FA events.
Tonight's game was the second leg of the final, which was evenly poised after a 1-1 draw at Villa Park the previous week.Home advantage would make Chelsea slight favourites, but away goals do not count double in this competition, so Chelsea's away goal was irrelevant. Chelsea have been formidable in the competition so far, conceding two goals in six games and keeping 4 clean sheets, and recorded three 4-0 wins en route to the final. Aston Villa have had a less rampant route to the final, although they did manage to go to Newcastle in the semi-finals and get the win they needed to claim the aggregate win.
The game started off evenly but with Chelsea having the better chances, so it was a slight surprise when Aston Villa took the lead on 33 minutes, when Ryan Simmonds whipped in a good ball from out wide for Kofi Powser head the ball powerfully wide of the keeper and into the net, judged to perfection. For the rest of the half, Chelsea continued to look the better team but couldn't find the net. This continued into the second half, which Chelsea almost entirely dominated, and they eventually scored their deserved equaliser on 65 minutes, when a swift counter attack resulted in Marko Mitrovic converting a Jocopa Sala cross low past the keeper. Aston Villa did then come back into the game and created some reasonable chances as the game became quite end-to-end, but just as the game was looking like it was heading towards extra time, Chelsea won the game thanks to a wonderful by their captain Connor Clifford, who struck a powerful shot past the keeper from 25 yards out. Chelsea almost extended their lead as the game entered injury time, when a Mitovic shot hit the crossbar, bounced up and back down on the crossbar again, before bouncing away.
And so, Chelsea held on to claim a deserved but narrow 3-2 victory on aggregate, and this could set Chelsea to be only the fifth club to have won both the FA Youth Cup and FA Cup in the same season if, as predicted, their first team go on to beat Portsmouth in the FA Cup final in a couple of weeks time. This was an entertaining game which, in theory, bodes well for the future, with plenty of skill on display from both teams. However, it will be interesting to see how many of these players actually make it to their respective first teams, most likely not too many, although the Chelsea defender, Jeffrey Bruma, has already made his league debut and is predicted to play a greater role in the Chelsea first team squad next season. For the future of English football, it is also disappointing to see how many of the youngsters are from foreign shores and so will not be eligible for the England team in future.
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