Wembley Celebrates 90th Birthday as FA Cup Final Approaches

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: April 28, 2013

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On Saturday, April 27, Wembley Stadium, in conjunction with the English Football Association, celebrated two monumental landmarks in its history.

The stadium first broke ground in 1923, hosting that year's FA Cup final between Bolton Wanderers and West Ham United. Bolton won the game, now nicknamed the "White Horse Final," 2-0 in front of a ridiculous 200,000-strong crowd.

This weekend marked 90 years since Wembley hosted that very event, while it also celebrated 150 years of the FA Cup. The first ever final, played in 1872, was won by Wanderers 1-0 in front of 2,000 people at the Kennington Oval—now the home cricket ground for Surrey.

And that's where the celebrations started, at the original home of the FA Cup.

Sir Trevor Brooking, who remains a West Ham legend and now works in an official capacity with the FA, met the current captains of very same clubs who competed in that first final: Wanderers and Royal Engineers.

They got their hands on both the famous trophy and the match final ball itself, signed by the entire Manchester City team.

Both ball and cup were then placed in a glass-sided truck and transported around London in a procession: from the Kennington pitches, where the FA were running free soccer schools for kids all morning, to classic tourist destinations such as Trafalgar Square and the London Eye.

On the move, two freestylers were harnessed into the truck and juggled keepy-ups, causing people to simply stop and stare as they saw men displaying outrageous tricks while crossing Westminster bridge.

At the designated stop points, the public wasted no time in seizing their chance to have their photo taken with the FA Cup, or with previous idols in the game.

Sir Trevor was with the procession in the morning, while Tottenham icons Ossie Ardilles and Ricky Villa met the truck at the Eye—the latter the scorer of one of the best goals Wembley has eve...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - International Football

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