THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WEMBLEY, England — Nwankwo Kanu pounced on a goalkeeper’s blunder to tap in the match-winner and Portsmouth beat Cardiff 1-0 on Saturday to win the FA Cup final for the first time since 1939.
The Nigerian striker was quick to react on a fumble by Cardiff goalkeeper Peter Enckelman in the 37th minute of the 127th FA Cup final, giving manager Harry Redknapp his first major trophy in 25 years of coaching and Portsmouth its first taste of European soccer next season.
"Fantastic. For everybody, especially my family," said Redknapp, whose sister-in-law Pat Lampard — mother of Chelsea’s Frank Lampard — died of cancer last month. "The fans, the players. It’s been a difficult year off the field so this is a dream come true. We’re a very close family — it’s for all my grandchildren and everybody. The players are all great, I love them all."
The former Bournemouth, West Ham and Southampton manager, now in his second spell with Pompey, has taken the south-coast club from relegation candidates in the division below to a top eight Premier League finish and now a Wembley cup final triumph. Next season, it will enjoy UEFA Cup soccer for the first time in its 110-year history.
"It’s a great day," Redknapp said when asked it if was his biggest achievement. "There’s the glory of winning the FA Cup, obviously. In terms of football it was keeping Portsmouth up when I went back there a couple of years ago. That was a much bigger achievement in football terms. Today was a glory day to come here to Wembley and win the cup."
Bidding to become the first lower-league team to win the famous trophy since West Ham beat Arsenal in 1980, League Championship club Cardiff threatened occasionally. But Kanu had one of the worst misses in the world’s oldest domestic cup competition when he missed an open net in the 22nd and hit the post instead.
Cardiff’s only FA Cup triumph was in 1927 and the Welsh club hasn’t been in the top flight of English soccer since 1962.
"A slight mistake cost us," Cardiff manager Dave Jones said. "But we’ve done everyone proud. I hope we’ve given every club hope that they can achieve what they might have thought was impossible.
"I’m very proud of my players, my staff, the chairman and especially the fans. I’m sorry we couldn’t see it through to the death for them."
Jones’ team gave the Premier League’s eighth-place finisher an early scare when Paul Parry got past Sol Campbell only for Pompey goalkeeper David James to race off his line and block his shot with his legs.
But Portsmouth should have gone ahead in the 22nd when Kanu finished off a slick move down the left by twisting past Glenn Loovens and Enckelman. The lanky Nigerian was left with an open goal but, from an acute angle, hit the outside of the post.
Kanu, who scored Portsmouth’s goal in the semifinal victory over West Bromwich Albion in the same stadium, made up for it 12 minutes later with some major help from Enckelman.
The goalkeeper fumbled a cross from the right by John Utaka and the ball bobbed up for Kanu to stab it over the line to the agony of the Cardiff fans behind the goal.
"I kept going, I kept my head down and I scored," Kanu said in reference to the miss. "You have to take your chance and that’s what I did. Portsmouth is not one of the four big clubs, no one could believe we were going to do it and we did it.
"I hope the fans, Harry, everyone at the club, will remember this day and they are going to give me a contract."
Loovens had the ball in the Portsmouth net in first-half injury time with a lob but referee Mike Dean had already whistled for a foul because he had controlled the ball with his arm.
In the second half, Portsmouth appealed for a penalty when Loovens appeared to block a shot from Kanu with his arm as Pompey chased a second goal.
Aaron Ramsey, a 17-year-old Welshman tipped by manager Dave Jones as a star of the future, had to watch the first hour from the substitute’s bench. Jones then sent him on to boost the offence, but it was Portsmouth who went nearer to scoring when substitute Dave Nugent fired an angled shot which Enckelman pushed round his near post.
Portsmouth captain Sol Campbell collected the FA Cup and celebrated winning a domestic cup with three different clubs. He won the League Cup with Tottenham in 1999 and the FA Cup with Arsenal three years later.
Now Portsmouth has its first FA Cup triumph since just before World War II broke out.
"A long time ago wasn’t it?" Redknapp said. "These fans will enjoy it. It’s great for the fans of Portsmouth to see their team win the FA Cup. I’m sure they never would have believed it six years ago when they were second bottom of the old championship every year."