The FA Cup has always had an easier time of it. Like the traditional North American pro sports leagues, it's been around forever, basking in the tradition and resonance that comes with heritage. It's not so easy for the League Cup. Depending on what sponsor has attached a name to it, it gets the kind of treatment associated with Major League Soccer in the United States. Allowed its big moments, but normally reminded that it's not going to be displacing the headliner any time soon.
Nice comparison, except that the same clubs play in the FA and League Cups. So why is it that the League Cup is allowed to exist in the shadow of the older competition? That's a question organizers have been trying to answer since they added it to the schedule in 1960. Their initial intent was a cup competition that only included professional teams that could fill dates on weeknights. Remember, this was before the various European club tournaments decided to make weeknights their own.
Last week provided us with a nice contrast between the League and FA Cups. The League Cup finished the second and deciding legs of their semifinals, advancing Cardiff City and Liverpool. Cardiff went through at the expense of Crystal Palace, a side of the bracket that guaranteed a finalist from the Championship after Palace knocked off Manchester United at Old Trafford. That garnered the appropriate headlines, but United probably felt about as bad as their derby rivals Manchester City did exiting to Liverpool. Hey, if you continue to win, fine. There's a nice shiny trophy waiting for you after a Sunday afternoon at Wembley... in February. If you don't? Life somehow goes on.
A couple of days after those semifinal series, the FA Cup overshadowed the League Cup by playing through its Fourth Round from Friday to Sunday. That's the Fourth Round of five before moving to the semifinal stage. The FA Cup final is a fixture on the calendar, even in the era of clubs moaning about having to participate. None will come out and say it doesn't matter, and in the later rounds it rarely gets the experimental lineups we see in the League Cup. That's just the way it goes in England.
Corner Rating: (1-11 with 1 being things stay the same and 11 predicting a near future where the League Cup overtakes the FA's version) 1
Last Week's Corner: Let's be honest. Short of some surprise announcement from a governing body there's really no expectation that anyone announces a nice new overtime system. FIFA and UEFA aren't likely to revert to their earlier precious metal ball experiments, and we're all probably better off that way. It stays a 9 though, since the Cup of Nations is currently underway and it's a Euro year. Expect someone, somewhere to argue for a new way to decide a game that's tied at the end of regulation.
