Chapter 675 The Hammer Gang

On May 13, 2006, at 2:45 pm local time in the UK, Cardiff Millennium Stadium in Wales.

There are only fifteen minutes left before the whistle starts in the FA Cup final this season. The two teams that completed the warm-up before the game have returned to their respective locker rooms to prepare for the finals.

This is the 6th FA Cup final held at Cardiff Millennium Stadium, and it is also the last FA Cup final held at this stadium. Because starting next year, the FA Cup final will return to Wembley Stadium, to be precise, to go to the brand new new Wembley Stadium!

Originally, since the Champions League final will be held at the French Stadium in Paris, France four days later, Manchester United club applied to the FA to postpone the FA Cup final so that there is more time to prepare for the Champions League final. However, the proud FA rejected Manchester United's application. In their opinion, the FA Cup final is the most important game in the world.

Although Manchester United is very dissatisfied with this, they have to accept the result of playing the Champions League final four days after playing the FA Cup final.

In fact, Yin Jun also didn't understand why the bureaucrats at the FA are always so confused and confident, making some difficult decisions. Do they really think they are the center of the world?

Take Manchester United's opponent in the Champions League final as an example. In order to give the Red and Blues more time to prepare for the Champions League final, the Spanish Football Association specifically allowed West Ham United's 38th round of La Liga, which was supposed to be held on the evening of May 13 local time, to be postponed to the evening of May 20.

In this way, West Ham United will have a full 11 days to prepare for the Champions League final, which is one week more time than Manchester United!

Such a timing will give West Ham an absolute advantage in physical fitness!

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The starting lineup of both sides has been played on the big screen of the stadium.

West Ham United's lineup (442): goalkeeper No. 34 Heathlop; No. 2 Scalone, No. 5 Anton Ferdinand, No. 4 Gabiden, No. 3 Concheski; No. 15 Benayon, No. 6 Carl Fletcher, No. 20 Leo Cock, No. 11 Etherington, No. 9 Dean Ashton, No. 10 Marlon Heywood.

Manchester United's lineup (433): goalkeeper No. 19 Van der Sar; defense No. 2 Gary Neville, No. 5 Ferdinand, No. 15 Vidic, No. 3 Evra; midfield No. 16 Oshei, No. 24 Fletcher, No. 8 Yin Jun; forward No. 7 Cristiano Ronaldo, No. 9 Vin Rooney, No. 11 Ryan Giggs.

Manchester United has no contempt for West Ham United. This Premier League team was ranked ninth in the standings in the first season of the Premier League, and eliminated Premier League powerhouses such as Blackburn, Bolton, Manchester City, Middlesbrough and other Premier League powerhouses in the FA Cup and reached the FA Cup final. It can be seen that they did not get to this point because of their good luck.

West Ham United head coach Alan Padu also entered the list of the best head coaches of the PFA season with his outstanding performance.

As referee Willie blew the whistle to start the game, the world-renowned FA Cup final officially began.

In the relief of guessing the coin, Manchester United captain Yin Jun beat West Ham United captain Leo Cock, and Manchester United got the right to pick the side, so West Ham United kicked the ball first.

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Amid the huge boo, West Ham forward Ashton kicked off.

Although this game was played at the neutral stadium, judging from the clothes of the fans in the stands, the number of fans wearing Manchester United's red jerseys is obviously more than the number of people wearing West Ham United's jerseys. The difference in the number of fans on both sides is at least 10,000.

Haywood passed the ball that Ashton kicked back to Etherington, and the two ran forward.

Etherington seemed very excited. He acted to pass back to Cork, but he dunked the ball and drove forward. This caused a bigger booing in the stands. Obviously, Etherington's move was interpreted as contempt for Manchester United.

When Etherington was still a young player, he had trained at Manchester United's youth training camp. In 1998, players in the same period had O'Shea, who now has a firm foothold in Manchester United. But he ultimately failed to impress Ferguson like O'Shea, and continued to stay at Manchester United and went to the low-level team Peterborough United.

At this moment, Etherington naturally felt particularly excited when facing his former boss.

Etherington used the change in speed to pass Ronaldo and then continued to move forward. Then, the next second, Etherington was thrown to the ground by O'Shea.

The referee's whistle sounded, Manchester United committed a foul!

Etherington looked at his former teammate Carrington and ran back without even looking at him. Etherington, who was originally planning to say hello to O'Shea, got up in disappointment.

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West Ham United's free kick.

Benayon hangs the football to the frontcourt, Vidic pushes away Haywood and pushes the football out.

Leo Cock hooked the football back before Gary Neville, then pulled the ball and turned around to find his teammates. Fletcher rushed up and knocked away Cork.

Leo Cock is a natural leader. He was captained at less than 20 years old when he played for Wimbledon. In January 2004, he joined West Ham and became West Ham's youngest captain ever, leading the team to return to the Premier League through the upgraded playoffs.

The English midfielder, who is about to celebrate his 22nd birthday tomorrow, is indeed very delicate at work. While staggering, he still stretched out his legs and pulled the football back. With a pull, he avoided Fletcher's next press.

West Ham United fans applauded in the stands and cheered for their captain's beautiful skills.

It was not enough, Cork continued to play a fancy job. He jumped up the football and made a move to turn around, but he used an action similar to a scorpion's tail swing to pass the football... to Yin Jun!

It was not the first time that Yin Jun had fought with Cork. He knew the opponent's characteristics. He suddenly stepped on the snatch and completed the steal on the passing route!

"Beautiful! Yin Jun successfully steals!"

Yin Jun directly paddled the football and then dribbled the ball forward.

Carl Fletcher came up to interfere with Yin Jun, but the latter passed the football out before approaching Carl Fletcher.

Giggs received the ball, and the Manchester United veteran beat the ball beautifully, then pulled the ball and turned around and sent the ball to the left. Wherever Evra had already inserted it at the high speed.

West Ham United's right-back, Argentine Scaloni, did not blindly rob, signaled Benardon to go up and interfere with Evra, while he himself stared at Giggs who was plugging in at high speed after passing the ball.
Chapter completed!