With Euro Soccer Leagues coming to a close we now have the FA Cup on Saturday the 30th of May2015 and the Championship is open to all Premier League Clubs. This year’s FA Cup Final is played at the Wembley Stadium in London, England with Aston Villa playing Arsenal and the kick-off is scheduled for 12:30 PM ET and will be seen on FOX TV.
The stage was set for this Final of the FA Cup last weekend as the Arsenal team defeated the Reading team 2-1, and the Aston Villa team upset Liverpool setting up this match-up for the 2015 FA Cup Final. Annually this tournament is a knockout competition for those teams of the EPL, and just happens to be the oldest associated football tournament on the planet. Even as the Champions League has take some of the power and shine form the FA Cup, many European fans believe the FA Cup Title is the biggest honor given to professional football in Europe. This year the FA Cup association is expecting up to 85,000 fans in attendance on Saturday the 30th of May 2015.
This Tournament for the this Cup was started back in the 1871-1872 season and is open to all teams in the Premier League, League 1, League 2 and some semi-professional leagues. In reality teams from all levels of soccer from Manchester United and Chelsea to some semi-professional village teams of England. The tournament is known for the yearly upsets that occur in this tournament on a yearly basis. It seems as every year in this FA Cup a lower level team upsets one or two Premier League teams. The yearly competition is a knockout type tournament and teams are chosen for each round with a drawing. In this tournament there are no seeds and each round has a draw after the matches in the previous round have ended. The draw also designates the home team and every matchup is played like a single leg of the tournament.
Thus, when a draw occurs the visiting will host any replay games. When teams draw in semis or finals, they will play 2 separate periods of 15 minutes each to determine the winner. If, at the end of those 2 periods the score is still tied, they will have penalty kicks. Each year this tournament has 14 rounds of competition, and this year they had 736 teams that entered this FA Cup Tournament. The 1st rounds started back in August of 2014 and the Final is on Saturday the 30th of May with the aforementioned teams. The defending FA Cup Champions are Arsenal and they have won the FA Cup on a record 11 different occasions. This season Arsenal has had a good season as they presently are ranked 2nd in the EPL. To reach this FA Cup Final they beat Reading 2-1, Manchester United 2-1, and Middlesboro 2-0, Brighton 3-2 and Hull.
The team has a leading scoring duo of A. Sanchez and O. Giroud and in this final they will wear their blue and yellow uniforms. They are listed in the betting odds as the favorites at -190 on the Money Line with the Total 2 ½ over -120 and on the Goal Line -1 -115, while Aston Villa is +570 on the Money Line at +1 -115 on the Goal Line with the Draw at +315!
The Aston Villa team has not won the FA Cup since back in 1957, but previously they had won the FA Cup some 5 times. The last time they made to the finals was back in year 2000 when they lost to Chelsea. Even as this team has struggled in the Premier league this season in 15th place, and after a new coach they seemed to get new life and came of the zone of relegation and advanced through the rounds of the FA Cup to reach this final. To reach this final they beat Liverpool 2-1, West Bromwich 2-0, Leicester 2-1, Bournemouth 2-1 and Blackpool 1-0. If you Bet on Soccer at a Sportsbook surely you know the Aston Villa team has a chance if they can keep their 1 man goal scoring machine in C. Benteke working they will have a chance to beat Arsenal. In England he is one of the most physical forwards and will be a factor in this game. This should be a great ending to a long FA Cup Tournament.