LONDON // The lesser fairy tale prevailed. In almost any other year, for Swansea City, a club that almost slipped into bankruptcy in the fourth flight a decade ago, to win a trophy would be regarded as a great romantic story.
As it was, their comfortable win over Bradford City felt almost anticlimactic – not that Michael Laudrup or any of their 30,000 fans inside Wembley Stadium cared as, in their centenary year, they took a major trophy to Wales for the first time since 1927.
Bradford had beaten Wigan Athletic, Arsenal and Aston Vila on their way to becoming the first fourth-flight side in a final since 1962 but the energy and combativeness that had driven their unlikely progress was meaningless against Swansea's possession game.
They had unsettled Arsenal and Villa with set plays but only won two free-kicks in positions from which they could pressure. They did not win their first corner until the 86th minute.
"It's one thing to win a trophy with Barcelona, Madrid or Juventus but to win it with a small team like Swansea is amazing," said Laudrup, the manager.
"To have the trophy, to lift the trophy, is great, but the way we did it, to win 5-0 – that’s says a lot about our performance. We all know what Bradford have down this season so what they have done is outstanding."
There was a pleasingly old-fashioned feel about the whole day. In the modern world, in which a small handful of teams tends to dominate, some of the gloss has gone off Wembley finals, familiarity breeding if not contempt then at least a certain jadedness.
But Swansea had never played in a major Wembley final and Bradford had not been in one since 1911.
For both sets of supporters there was a sense of this being a day out to be savoured.
Wembley Way was heaving from several hours before kick-off, amass of white and claret-and-amber, fans happily mingling.
There was a queue to be snapped by the Underground roundel at Wembley Park station while policemen, in the absence of any sense of threat, seemed to send more time acting as photographers then doing anything in the way of traditional crowd control.
Once the seal had been set on Bradford’s defeat by the 58th-minute dismissal of their goalkeeper Matt Duke, the hero of so many of the earlier rounds, their fans responded by a mass waving of flags, defiant in the face of defeat, but also a celebration of one of the greatest giant-killing runs the League Cup has ever known.
However outclassed they were in the final, their achievement in getting there should not be forgotten – something Swansea recognised by forming a guard of honour for their opponents.
"I think this final will remain in history a small part because of us and a large part because of Bradford," Laudrup said.
The destination of the cup, though, had not really been in doubt from the moment Nathan Dyer squeezed in the first goal on the quarter hour after Duke had parried a shot from Michu following a break led by Wayne Routledge.
Michu, changing feet rapidly, added a second before half-time with a clever jabbed finish.
Dyer, playing a smart one-two with Routledge, side-footed the third three minutes after half-time and, if that had not finished the game, the red card shown to Duke as he tripped Dyer did.
Jonathan De Guzman, after a lengthy argument with Dyer over who was to take it, converted calmly. De Guzman added the fifth from Angel Rangel’s cross in injury time.
Dyer’s tantrum was a bizarre sour note, an example of self that was out of keeping with the Swansea way, and he was still complaining when he was substituted with 12 minutes remaining.
Laudrup’s disbelieving smile as he directed Dyer to the bench suggested what he thought of his behaviour, although he played the incident down after the game.
But it would be wrong to let that issue detract from Swansea’s achievement.
Perfunctory the victory may have been, but it came as reward for a decade of sensible and inspired management.
[ sports@thenational.ae ]
if you go
WITHIN SAND
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Rating: 3/5
BAD BOYS: RIDE OR DIE
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Going grey? A stylist's advice
If you’re going to go grey, a great style, well-cared for hair (in a sleek, classy style, like a bob), and a young spirit and attitude go a long way, says Maria Dowling, founder of the Maria Dowling Salon in Dubai.
It’s easier to go grey from a lighter colour, so you may want to do that first. And this is the time to try a shorter style, she advises. Then a stylist can introduce highlights, start lightening up the roots, and let it fade out. Once it’s entirely grey, a purple shampoo will prevent yellowing.
“Get professional help – there’s no other way to go around it,” she says. “And don’t just let it grow out because that looks really bad. Put effort into it: properly condition, straighten, get regular trims, make sure it’s glossy.”
Points tally
1. Australia 52; 2. New Zealand 44; 3. South Africa 36; 4. Sri Lanka 35; 5. UAE 27; 6. India 27; 7. England 26; 8. Singapore 8; 9. Malaysia 3
KEY DATES IN AMAZON'S HISTORY
July 5, 1994: Jeff Bezos founds Cadabra Inc, which would later be renamed to Amazon.com, because his lawyer misheard the name as 'cadaver'. In its earliest days, the bookstore operated out of a rented garage in Bellevue, Washington
July 16, 1995: Amazon formally opens as an online bookseller. Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought becomes the first item sold on Amazon
1997: Amazon goes public at $18 a share, which has grown about 1,000 per cent at present. Its highest closing price was $197.85 on June 27, 2024
1998: Amazon acquires IMDb, its first major acquisition. It also starts selling CDs and DVDs
2000: Amazon Marketplace opens, allowing people to sell items on the website
2002: Amazon forms what would become Amazon Web Services, opening the Amazon.com platform to all developers. The cloud unit would follow in 2006
2003: Amazon turns in an annual profit of $75 million, the first time it ended a year in the black
2005: Amazon Prime is introduced, its first-ever subscription service that offered US customers free two-day shipping for $79 a year
2006: Amazon Unbox is unveiled, the company's video service that would later morph into Amazon Instant Video and, ultimately, Amazon Video
2007: Amazon's first hardware product, the Kindle e-reader, is introduced; the Fire TV and Fire Phone would come in 2014. Grocery service Amazon Fresh is also started
2009: Amazon introduces Amazon Basics, its in-house label for a variety of products
2010: The foundations for Amazon Studios were laid. Its first original streaming content debuted in 2013
2011: The Amazon Appstore for Google's Android is launched. It is still unavailable on Apple's iOS
2014: The Amazon Echo is launched, a speaker that acts as a personal digital assistant powered by Alexa
2017: Amazon acquires Whole Foods for $13.7 billion, its biggest acquisition
2018: Amazon's market cap briefly crosses the $1 trillion mark, making it, at the time, only the third company to achieve that milestone
A Bad Moms Christmas
Dir: John Lucas and Scott Moore
Starring: Mila Kunis, Kathryn Hahn, Kristen Bell, Susan Sarandon, Christine Baranski, Cheryl Hines
Two stars
Company Profile
Company name: Hoopla
Date started: March 2023
Founder: Jacqueline Perrottet
Based: Dubai
Number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Investment required: $500,000
Defending champions
World Series: South Africa
Women’s World Series: Australia
Gulf Men’s League: Dubai Exiles
Gulf Men’s Social: Mediclinic Barrelhouse Warriors
Gulf Vets: Jebel Ali Dragons Veterans
Gulf Women: Dubai Sports City Eagles
Gulf Under 19: British School Al Khubairat
Gulf Under 19 Girls: Dubai Exiles
UAE National Schools: Al Safa School
International Invitational: Speranza 22
International Vets: Joining Jack
Nepotism is the name of the game
Salman Khan’s father, Salim Khan, is one of Bollywood’s most legendary screenwriters. Through his partnership with co-writer Javed Akhtar, Salim is credited with having paved the path for the Indian film industry’s blockbuster format in the 1970s. Something his son now rules the roost of. More importantly, the Salim-Javed duo also created the persona of the “angry young man” for Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan in the 1970s, reflecting the angst of the average Indian. In choosing to be the ordinary man’s “hero” as opposed to a thespian in new Bollywood, Salman Khan remains tightly linked to his father’s oeuvre. Thanks dad.
Learn more about Qasr Al Hosn
In 2013, The National's History Project went beyond the walls to see what life was like living in Abu Dhabi's fabled fort: