Thus ends the run.
On one side: Manchester United with England's captain Wayne Rooney, and international stars Ronaldo and Rio Ferdinand. On the other: scrappy, plucky Watford - without the services of their starting goalkeeper.
For a brief moment, I thought we'd see a miracle. With 30 minutes left and down by 1, I thought the heavens would open, Van der Sar would be blinded, and we would go on to win on penalty kicks. No such luck.
Rooney sat the tone with a goal (asst. Carrick) in minute 7, but Bouazza managed the equalizer (asst. Tommy Smith) in the 26th minute. Two minutes later Manchester United had the lead again, this time Rooney earned the assist on a goal by Ronaldo. And there it stood for 30 minutes as the prayers of the Watford fans ascended to heaven.
To fall on deaf ears as it turns out.
Rooney picked up his second goal in minute 66 (asst. Alan Smith) and Richardson plunked in the obligatory end-of-match goal against Watford (asst. Alan Smith) to advance to the finals. They'll take on the winner of tomorrow's match between the Blackburn Rovers and Chelsea.
If this were a handicap match, Watford exceeded all expectations drawing nearly even on possession and, until the end, shots on goal, and kept the match close for an hour. Hell, we gave up 3 less goals than Roma. Jay DeMerit earned a yellow card with Rooney and Carrick picked up one each for United.
Undoubtedly the highlight of the match had to be the return of Marlon King, out with injury for the bulk of the season. Despite the official website and my reporting 3 hours earlier, Marlon suited up and came on for Tamas Priskin late in the second half.
There are five games left in the season, the next is at Ewood Park against the Blackburn Rovers this Wednesday the 18th. Kickoff is 4:00 pm St. Louis time.
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