Hot Drog delivers delicious display

15 May 2010 17:19
TEAMtalk feels Didier Drogba proved what a world-class player he is with his man-of-the-match display in Chelsea's 1-0 FA Cup final victory.[LNB] Great occasions deserve to be won by moments of greatness.[LNB]And so it was in the 2010 FA Cup final when Drogba (who else?) produced a quite wonderful free-kick to make the telling contribution in a 1-0 victory over Portsmouth which saw Chelsea become the seventh club in English football to win the Double.[LNB]They join Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal, Aston Villa, Preston and Tottenham in the English hall of fame.[LNB]And if in time this one comes to be known as the Drogba Double then so be it.[LNB]You might not care for some of the big Chelsea striker's theatrics. He is not always the best of role models.[LNB]But Drogba makes things happen.[LNB]Already this season he had won the Golden Boot as leading scorer in the Premier League. His goals, 37 of them in all competitions, had delivered a fourth league title to Stamford Bridge.[LNB]And it was his goal, his man-of-the-match performance, which won a cup final as eventful as it was richly entertaining.[LNB]It had been billed as the final which would be one-way traffic. A non-event, some said. A reinvigorated, champion team in Chelsea against a rag-bag of relegated Portsmouth players who were playing for little more than a way out of the south coast and the club's mountain of debt.[LNB]Well, it was not quite like that. Portsmouth played up to the banner which proclaimed 'You will never break our spirit.' They battled and scrapped. They matched the enthusiasm of their loyal supporters, even if at times they were utterly outplayed.[LNB]Indeed, how the first half remained goalless ranks with 'What happened to Shergar?' and 'Where is Lord Lucan?' in the tapestry of great British mysteries.[LNB]Portsmouth were pulverised, wave after wave of blue-shirted attacks advancing on goalkeeper David James.[LNB]Five times Chelsea hit the post or crossbar. A ripping 25-yard shot from Frank Lampard. A John Terry header. A Drogba free-kick which exploded off James onto the crossbar and then down onto the goal-line before bouncing to safety. Another Drogba effort hit the foot of the post after which the Chelsea striker did a passable impression of Basil Fawlty.[LNB]He slapped the post with the palm of his hand, jumped up and gave the crossbar a smack, wrapped both hands around the offending post and shook for all he was worth as if strangling the life out of it.[LNB]But that was not the worst of it. That was reserved for Salomon Kalou's miss after 27 minutes when Cole slid the ball across to him and somehow he contrived to hit the bar from four yards. From the centre of the goal with James nowhere.[LNB]There may have been more glaring misses in the history of the FA Cup and Gordon Smith's howler for Brighton against Manchester United in 1983 comes to mind. But Kalou's was up there.[LNB]So surreal was that half that Chelsea could have gone in leading 8-0, although Portsmouth might have had two of their own, one when Frederic Piquionne diverted a Kevin-Prince Boateng shot on to the Chelsea post and another when Aruna Dindane should have done better.[LNB]As it was the most lasting memory was of Boateng's lunge on Michael Ballack, a sickeningly late collision of studs on bone which saw referee Chris Foy produce yellow when replays suggested it could easily have been red. It saw Ballack hobble out of the arena minutes later.[LNB]The fates appeared against Chelsea, especially when Juliano Belletti, Ballack's replacement, brought down Dindane to give away a penalty in the second half.[LNB]Boateng's spot-kick, however, was quite possibly the worst seen in a Wembley final, saved with some ease by Petr Cech's legs even though the Chelsea goalkeeper had dived the wrong way.[LNB]Cue Drogba's beautifully-placed free-kick winner and even then there was time for Lampard to miss a spot-kick of his own after he had been felled in the area.[LNB]But as Portsmouth manager Avram Grant, with great dignity, led his players in a tribute to their supporters and Terry went up to accept the cup the cameras lingered on Drogba, a striker who has played at Wembley in six competitive fixtures and scored on each occasion.[LNB]Simply perfection.

Source: Team_Talk