Classic semi finals hasten League Cup’s renaissance

In 2000, the Football League Cup Final was contested by Leicester City and Tranmere Rovers.  It was a decent final, Leicester winning 2-1 thanks to a Matt Elliott double, but that season saw the League Cup reach a nadir in terms of its importance to England’s leading clubs.

The other six quarter finalists that campaign were Bolton Wanderers, Wimbledon, Fulham, Middlesbrough, West Ham Utd and Aston Villa.  Manchester Utd’s reserves had been thrashed 3-0 at Villa Park in Round 3, as a scratch Chelsea side were losing 1-0 to Huddersfield Town at Stamford Bridge and Liverpool blew a lead to lose 2-1 at The Dell; admittedly, a ground which usually brought them misery.

Arsenal and Leeds Utd – kids, you’ll have to believe me when I say Leeds were one of England’s best teams in 1999 – lasted a game longer, losing on penalties at Middlesbrough and Leicester City respectively in Round 4.

Can anybody, save fans of the two finalists, recall that year’s semi finals?  Without looking on wikipedia, I was stumped.  There is little risk of that happening this year as four sides found real meaning in a previously derided competition.

For Aston Villa and Blackburn Rovers, a rare chance of a Wembley final and silverware.  Last night’s second leg at Villa Park rates among the greatest League Cup matches of all time, despite the fact that, for most of the second half, qualification was effectively no longer at stake.  Blackburn deserve praise for playing, with ten man, a spirited and positive second half which saw them come back from 5-2 to 5-4.

The League Cup has not seen a match like it since the famous night of 28th November 1991, when Manchester Utd destroyed Arsenal 6-2 at Highbury – a match which arguably presaged a shift in the balance of power between the two sides throughout the nineties.  Up the motorway, on the same evening, Coventry City were winning a breathless Midlands derby 5-4 at home to Nottingham Forest.

This season we are blessed with two classic semi finals, for the first time in an English domestic cup since the great day of 8th April 1990, when the BBC showed both FA Cup semi finals live for the first time.  That day, Crystal Palace beat Liverpool 4-3 at Villa Park and Manchester Utd drew 3-3 with Oldham Athletic at Maine Road.

While Villa-Blackburn was great entertainment, the League Cup’s revival is better demonstrated by the importance attached to the other semi.  In any normal Carling Cup tie, Sir Alex Ferguson would pick players such as Darron Gibson, Danny Welbeck and Gabriel Obertan.  This is no ordinary tie.  Thanks to Manchester City’s speedy, oil-lubricated ascent into English football’s elite, a Manchester derby is now almost a clash of equals.  United must win this semi not just to get to Wembley put to clarify that they are still the number one club in the city.  But ask yourself this: were you particularly surprised that City won on Tuesday night?

It’s about time the Manchester derby meant something.  For too long it was a question of whether City could get a one-off result to make an otherwise inconsequential season memorable.  Under Sven-Göran Eriksson, and the execrable owner Thaksin Shinawatra, an otherwise unmemorable 2007-08 season was stirred by an unexpected league double over United.  Now United’s clashes with City could potentially usurp the matches against Liverpool as the number one rivalry in the north-west.  Trophies, not just pride, may now depend on them.

The League Cup’s revival should please true football lovers.  Too many are ready to dismiss anything that isn’t the Premier League or Champions League as meaningless.  Either all sport is meaningless, or none is.  The League Cup is part of the fabric of English club football that we should protect.