Barnsley Knocks Chelsea out of FA Cup

At the end of “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” the title characters are in a shoot out for their lives with gunmen whose identities are unclear. “Who are these guys?” Butch and Sundance keep asking. The same could be said of Chelsea FC on Saturday as lowly Barnsley FC knocked them out of the FA Cup with a score of 1-0.

Barnsley FC is currently in the Championship, or what used to be called the Second Division. A quick look at the table shows that they aren’t really even a powerhouse there. Currently, the team stands 19th out of 24 teams, and they are just four points ahead of the relegation zone. This is not a team that is going places. Except, that they are.

That is one of the glories of the FA Cup, the oldest knockout tournament in the world. The usual suspects are always in the last 16 or even the last 8 – Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, etc. But sometimes fate conspires with a strange match up or a miraculous free-kick, and some team from the bottom of the second division is in with a shot.

Kayode Odejayi's second-half header provided the Tykes, as the Barnsley side is known, with their single goal. Chelsea simply couldn’t find a way to pull even. They retained most of the possession, and they had their shots. Stephen Foster and Dennis Souza were brilliant on defense for Barnsley. The BBC’s Saj Chowdhury said the Barnsley penalty area in the last 15 minutes looked like the Alamo. The exaggeration is only slight.

Barnsley, one may recall, beat Liverpool to get to Chelsea. Jack only killed one giant. Barnsley has slain two, and one doesn’t want to bet that a third will survive. Sometimes, a team just manages to put lightning in a bottle. As disappointing as it was to see Chelsea go out of the FA Cup, Barnsley FC is onto something. The club hasn’t won the FA Cup since 1912, which brings just one word to mind “overdue.” They play their semi-final against Cardiff (another Championship team) the first week-end in April.

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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