The FA Cup Final (Feat. Jon Champion)
It's a Manchester derby at Wembley (again).
It’s a weekend for cup finals: England, France, Germany, Portugal, Mexico, and the Women’s Champions League, plus promotion playoff finals in Italy and the Championship. But the grandest of them all is the FA Cup, first contested in 1872. It’s the oldest knockout competition in the world, and in the 143rd final—they missed a few years for wars and whatnot—Manchester City and Manchester United will meet for the second straight year.
Jon Champion will be calling the match for ESPN here in the United States. But before all that, he joined the show this week to look back on the Premier League season just ended—he also calls league matches for NBC—and preview the Manchester derby cup final to come. He’ll also be working the Championship playoff final on Sunday, which means he’ll be headed to Wembley two days in a row. We discussed that famous old ground as well as some of his other favorites to visit as a commentator, and I guarantee you’ll learn a thing or two about Goodison Park from this one:
You can also check out the show on Apple Podcasts, Audible, Amazon, and Acast.
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FRIDAY
SERIE B PLAYOFF SEMIFINAL
2:30pm ET, 7:30pm GMT
VENEZIA vs PALERMO. This is the Serie B promotion playoffs, second leg. Relentlessly stylish Venezia triumphed 1-0 in the first, and now they host the Sicilians of Palermo at the Stadio Pier Luigi Penzo with a place in Serie A on the line.
SATURDAY
THE FA CUP FINAL
10am ET, 3pm GMT
MAN CITY vs MAN UNITED. Get the full preview above with Jon Champion!
WOMEN’S CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL
12pm ET, 5pm GMT
With BARCELONA vs LYON, we have last year’s winners against the eight-time champions. Reigning UEFA player of the year Aitana Bonmati seeks yet more silverware with the Blaugrana, but the team from the French gastrocapital will be worthy opponents.
THE GERMAN CUP FINAL
2pm ET, 7pm GMT
It’s KAISERSLAUTERN vs BAYER LEVERKUSEN in the final of the DFB-Pokal, the German Cup. Xabi Alonso’s no-longer-unbeaten Bundesliga champions will try to bounce back from heartbreak in the Europa League final in midweek to claim a German double. Their opponents are way down the table in the second division, far from the days where they won four league championships, and this is an opportunity for them to find some redemption for this season.
THE COUPE DE FRANCE
3pm ET, 8pm GMT
LYON vs PSG. Olympique Lyonnais endured a dismal start to the season but stormed back to a Europa League place with a fine finish. Alexandre Lacazette is now tied for second in the Ligue 1 scoring stakes, behind some guy named Kylian Mbappé. Barring another stunning U-turn, this will be the 25-year-old’s last match for PSG before he heads off (probably) to Real Madrid.
SUNDAY
CHAMPIONSHIP PLAYOFF FINAL
10am ET, 3pm GMT
It’s LEEDS UNITED vs SOUTHAMPTON in the richest game in football. The winner will graduate to the Premier League next season to enjoy the bounty of domestic and international TV revenue that makes England’s top tier a juggernaut.
These are two clubs with proud Premier League traditions: Southampton have competed in 25 of 32 seasons, missing out for a seven-year spell where they plunged into financial disaster. Leeds met the same fate around the same time: they were relegated one year before, in 2003-04, after decades competing at the top of the English and European game. They both found their way back to the first division before both earning relegation from the Prem in 2022-23. Each has a chance to climb back into the big time one year after falling out of it.
TAÇA DE PORTUGAL
12:15pm ET, 5:15pm GMT
PORTO vs SPORTING LISBON in the Portuguese cup. This Sporting side ran away with the league this year, finishing 10 points clear of Benfica and 18 ahead of Porto. But this is cup football, and in Portugal you’re always likely to see one or two superstars of tomorrow. In the case of Viktor Gyökeres, there’s a star of the present: he’s got 37 goals and 12 assists in 44 matches this season, and he could well be on the move to one of Europe’s biggest clubs this summer.
LIGA MX CLAUSURA FINAL
9pm ET, 2am GMT
This is the second leg between AMÉRICA and CRUZ AZUL with the league championship on the line. These two Mexico City clubs are among the most successful in league history, though Cruz Azul hasn’t secured a crown since 1998 and nearly all their success came in the 1970s. Club América are the cream of the crop, with 13 championships spread across the decades, but this is a rivalry match—the Clásico Joven, or Young Classic—in a cup final.⚽︎
