Capital One Cup Second Round – AKA: Why I LOVE Football

Richard Wyatt August 27, 2014 Blog Leave a comment

So unless you were living under a rock Tuesday afternoon you would have heard about the goings on in the Capital One Cup (that most important piece of footballing hardware). The second round of the Cup is where the big clubs enter, and if you happen to live in London’s East End, there are no clubs bigger than Manchester United and West Ham United. So let’s take a look at how they got on shall we.

Hot on the heels of MLS' blind draw for Jermaine Jones; Louis Van Gaal tries blind management at Milton Keynes. — Hot on the heels of MLS’ blind draw for Jermaine Jones; Louis Van Gaal tries blind management at Milton Keynes.

Louis Van Gaal’s Manchester United (actually that should read differently as LVG hasn’t had time to stamp his authority yet) fresh of their British record signing of Angel Di Maria took a trip down to the field hockey capital of England to take on the club formerly known as Wimbledon FC. Van Gaal was never going to field a top tier side to face the League One side, but he did field number one keeper David de Gea, along with Shinji Kagawa, Chicharito, and Danny Welbeck. Selections which one would figure showed a statement of intent not to downgrade the match, but then again Anderson also made the match day XI.

Easy, easy, easy, easy Benik Afobe reacts after making it 3-nil to the host side.

The home side were up for the tie and took the lead after 26 minutes through Will Grigg. Grigg added a second in the second half before Arsenal loanee Benik Afobe took over the show, adding a brace of his own. The highlight being the lovely shoulder shrug celebration while wheeling away from goal, as if to visually taunt; “easy, easy, easy”. It was a celebration which was enough to make Ryan Giggs do this:

So Manchester United depart the Capital One Cup as quickly as they enter it, we’ll move on to the East Ender’s local club West Ham to see if there’s still hope in the cup.

Oh dear… yes that’s right after penalties West Ham 4 Sheffield United 5. In a case of revenge is a dish best served cold, my beloved Blades wandered into the East End and put the Hammers to the sword. After enduring seven years of jibes from West Ham fans due to their clubs blatant cheating to retain Premiership status, we got to go into the belly of the beast and stab them right in the eye.

“Oh but we outplayed them” the fans did cry. “The fans know we should have won the game.”, Big Sam did offer. But you didn’t win, in fact you lost to a club you hate more than any other. You lost AT HOME to a club you despise because they launched a bid to ensure fair play survived, and that dirty contractual dealings deserved to be punished properly. But more important than that, you lost to a club two divisions below you, and got to watch them take the mickey out of you by mocking the way you walk.