The Football Association Challenge Cup, known fondly by global football fans as the FA Cup, is the oldest national football competition in the world, with an illustrious 148-year-old history that dates back to 1871-72, when the first FA Cup Competition season was played.
This year’s FA Cup tournament, to be played on May 18 at Wembley Stadium, will pit the Watford Hornets, one of the most impressive “comeback” clubs in the Premier League, against Manchester City, a well-established favorite with several FA Cup competitions under its belt. For Watford, this FA Cup Final will be their first since 1984, back when the club was owned by pop legend Elton John and managed by the inimitable Graham Taylor.
Having missed only two tournaments during World Wars, the FA Cup tournament has been played yearly, to the delight of football fans across the United Kingdom. Since 2015, the FA Cup has also been referred to as the Emirates FA Cup, in honor of the championship’s current sponsors.
The FA Cup competition is a knockout tournament, which means that the winner of the Cup is determined each year in a single-elimination game in which eligible men’s football squads in the region of England and Wales compete for this national honor. There is also a concurrent tournament for women’s teams, known as the FA Women’s Cup.
Any eligible men’s football club down with a ranking even as low as Level 10 of the English Football League may participate in this wildly popular national FA Cup competition. This includes the 92 professional clubs in the Premier League, which represent the nation’s top football clubs and compose the division know as Level 1.
Nevertheless, other teams are also technically eligible to compete in the FA Cup preliminary games, such as clubs pertaining to the English Football League, which is comprised of second-rate teams ranging from Levels 2 to 4. In fact, even teams playing in the lower divisions, ranging from Levels 5 to 10, who have been ranked within Steps 1 to 6 of the National League System and are sometimes referred to as “non-league” clubs, are eligible to compete for the most coveted national football trophy in England.
The FA championship playoffs are comprised of 12 rounds leading up to the quarterfinals, semi-finals, and final. While competing teams in the championship are not given a preliminary ranking in order to compete in the random draw for the tournament season, the system is set up to make sure that lower league level teams enter the competition in the earlier season rounds. This is done to ensure that the nation’s top teams will have the opportunity to compete against one another during the latter part of the season, in order to bring the best teams in the country to the semi-finals and finals.
The first six rounds of competition are known as the Qualifying Competition rounds, during which 32 teams compete against one another in order to move on to the Competition Proper.
Teams who advance to the Competition Proper then get to face off against the 48 professional clubs who make up League One and League Two, representing the two second-highest divisions of the English Football League, right under the Premier League, which holds the nation’s top spot, as well as the English League Championship clubs who are ranked immediately beneath the Premier League.
The clubs who are ranked in the top-highest divisions, including the Premier League, which is the nation’s highest, and the second-highest English Football League Championship clubs make up the final entrants into the draw for the Third Round Proper, leading up to the FA Cup semifinals and the FA Cup final tournament.
Historically, while early games in the season pit higher-ranking teams against lower ones, teams below Level 2 have never made it to the actual final, and in the tournament’s recent history, only one “non-league” club has ever made it even as far as the quarterfinals.
Among the most rewarding scenarios for football supporters across the U.K. is watching smaller teams known as “minnows” compete against higher-ranking clubs in order to progress through the various FA Cup rounds. Clubs that are able to beat dramatically higher ranked teams against these unlikely odds and make what is known in the sport as a “giant killing” can move up quickly and make significant progress in advancing their own position and ranking.
In English football, a sport known for its appreciation of underdog teams who show up to prove their actual worth under unlikely circumstances, a “giant killing” can mean as much for a team as winning the actual Cup. These “giant killings” are especially historic and memorable when a “non-league” club can rise up from a position of weakness to topple a standing Premier League giant.
In the Football League’s history, only one “giant-killing” winner has actually gone on to win the FA Cup, and that happened way back in 1901 when underdog Tottenham Hotspur beat reigning league favorites Sheffield United.
In order to win the actual FA Cup, a team must play anywhere from six to fourteen games, depending on the point at which the club enters the competition. FA Cup winners become eligible to compete in the FA Community Field match, a competition in which the champions of the Premier League face off against the winner of the FA Cup at Wembley Stadium.
In the rare case that one team wins both the FA Cup and the number one position at the Premier League table, the FA Community Field competition will be held between this club and its closest runner-up in the Premier League.
FA Cup winners may also progress to the prestigious UEFA Europa League, in which they face international competitors representing the best football teams across Europe. If a club should win the UEFA competition, they become eligible to compete for the highly coveted UEFA Champions League trophy.
Over the history of the FA Cup, Arsenal has been the most victorious club, having clenched 13 FA Cup trophies. The most recent winner and current title holder of the FA Cup is the Chelsea club, after landing a 1-0 victory against Manchester United in 2018.
The current 2018-19 season saw 736 teams who were ranked as eligible to compete for the FA Cup trophy, while the current record for the highest number of teams who competed for this top-tier competition played back in the 2011-12 season, during which 763 teams competed for the cup.
Gino Pozzo’s Unique Approach to Watford
Gino Pozzo, an Italian mastermind known for bringing two Italian and Spanish football clubs back to life after years of near-dead status currently owns the Watford Hornets. The Watford club’s Head Manager is Javi Gracia, a former star player in several Primera Liga clubs, and former Head Coach at Málaga, who led this once-deflated Spanish team to two historic 10-0 wins back-to-back in the 2013 UEFA semifinals.
This combination of funding, support, and managerial skill has proven extremely fortuitous for the Hornets, who had been nearly erased from the English football scene for a period of over 35 years during which they sank deeper and deeper into the lower divisions.
Rescuing the club from a strangling debt and reviving the morale and enthusiasm that had once fueled the squad at Vicarage Road, Pozzo brought his trade-and-recruit strategy to Watford, grooming the squad’s strongest players while bringing in crucial reinforcements from his father’s Udinese club in Italy and recruiting new players.
After going through a series of head coaches who failed to deliver Pozzo’s goal of bringing the Hornets to the national limelight with an upper-level ranking in the Premier League, as well as qualifying the team for a stab at the prized FA Cup, Pozzo hired Gracia, who injected a critical dose of vitality and vigor into the squad.
As Watford heads off to the 2019 FA Cup final for the first time in 35 years, most pundits are placing their bets on Manchester City, though it’s probable that deep within their English hearts they’d really rather see the underdog Hornets make off with this highly prized Cup.
After all, what kind of proper English football enthusiast can help but fall madly in love with the Hornets after watching the club make a dramatic comeback to sit sweetly in 7th place at the Premier League table, while also qualifying for the FA Cup?
The last time the Hornets competed for the FA trophy was on May 19, 1984, at the peak of their glory days under Graham Taylor. Still, they lost that match in a 2-0 defeat by Everton. So a 2019 FA Cup victory could literally send Hornets fans into an ecstatic, irresistible frenzy.
And to make the club’s charismatic rise to stardom even more pronounced, the Hornets will also be able claim their historic entry into the prestigious UEFA Europa League even if they lose the FA Cup, as long as they can hold tight to that 7th place ranking at the Premier League table. So, while a Watford victory against City in the FA Cup final will definitely make their day, losing to Manchester City won’t actually cost them so much, as the club will automatically qualify for the UEFA Europa League regardless of that victory, based on their ranking in the Premier League at season’s end.
A Watford victory at Wembley on May 18 may also create significant reverberations across the entire Premier League, because if the Hornets do defeat City and take home the FA Cup, then the team holding the number 6 spot in the Premier League has to enter the Europa League qualifiers on July 25. This could seriously upset the pre-season tour plans of Premier League clubs such as Arsenal, Manchester United, Tottenham, and Chelsea, all of whom are scheduled to compete outside of Europe during that time.
The 2018-19 season has without a doubt been the most intense and richly satisfying season the Watford club has seen in over three decades. The team’s unprecedented comeback and rise in national ranking has also meant a significant career marker for Gracia, who will make his debut appearance at the FA Cup Head this year with a squad that he has painstakingly groomed coached to unprecedented greatness.
Watford’s top-performing players, including the likes of André Gray and the easygoing Spaniard Gerard Deulofeu are also receiving major fuel injections into their careers, with Deulofeu expressing that this 2018-19 season at Watford is shaping up to be his best season ever.
Of all the players involved at Vicarage Road, it’s actually Pozzo who has played out a similar script to this one in the past, as he and his family have famously been at the head of several clubs who have made similar strides once the ball lands in their hands. The Pozzos have made European football history with the revival of their beloved Udinese Calcio club, owned by Gino’s father Giampaolo. Udinese also made a dramatic comeback from near-oblivion to stardom once blessed with the Pozzos magical midas touch.
The Granada Club in Spain, also owned by the Pozzo family from 2009 through 2016, saw a similar rise to success once Gino took over the ownership reigns and elevated the club from its lowly division status to the Spanish Primera Liga.
For football enthusiasts planning to attend this year’s upcoming FA Cup match at Wembley, the day will be an unforgettable one regardless of who wins the Cup. The opportunity to witness an underdog team such as the Hornets rise triumphantly from a ho-hum status as if activated by an invisible magic wand and spring into action against a formidable opponent such as City will always stir up a storm in the hearts of those who love a little drama in their sports.
And for those who appreciate a great comeback achieved through strategic excellence, unity among squad members, and undying perseverance in the pursuit of a goal, Watford is an iconic example of greatness.
But the day will be particularly memorable if Watford does beat the odds against City, because well, let’s face it: we love to see the enactment of a victory against tough odds. And if any Premier League team is prepared to beat the odds in the 2018-19 English football landscape and nail a hard-fought, historic victory at Wembley Stadium, it’s definitely the Hornets.
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