Scottish Cup final

By: Ian Rose | May 25th, 2007

This is it … the ultimate David and Goliath story in Scottish football is just hours away. Celtic, the irresistable force, champion of the SPL and the team that very nearly beat AC Milan in the round of 16 of this year’s Champions League. Dunfermline, the very easily movable object, who have been relegated to First Division where they will play the likes of Hamilton and Queen of the South, while still managing to get to a domestic cup final and earning a UEFA Cup spot. Their road to this final was a tough one - they beat Rangers, Hearts, and Hibernian to get here. But can they beat the champs? Can they become the only team in recent memory to take down all four big-city Scottish clubs in one campaign?

No, no they can’t. Frankly, as much as I love Cinderella stories, they almost never include finals. If you’re a basketball fan, you pick Gonzaga for a couple of rounds, you don’t pick them all the way. Dunfermline are in this game for two reasons - first, they faced both Hibs and Hearts during major locker-room shake-ups and manager crises. Second, they have the most under-rated keeper in Scotland, possibly in Europe, in Dorus DeVries. This is an offense that didn’t score in a stretch of 10 SPL matches, but managed to get four clean sheets of their own over that time because of DeVries’ magic in goal. But, again, it’s not going to last forever.

My pick is 3-1 to Celtic. They’ve looked poor lately, but they’ve had nothing to play for, and now, there’s a Cup on the line. Say what you will about the Hoops - they step up to the big games. I predict a smart game from Gordon Strachan and the Bhoys, and one free-kick goal from Shunsuke Nakamura, as well as a goal from Kenny “If I take enough shots, God willing, one might go in” Miller. I want to like you, Kenny, but you miss a lot of chances and as long as you’re the lone striker for the Scottish NT, that will worry me. I’m a Kris Boyd man. So shoot me.

Anyway, good luck to both sides - let’s see a Cup final to make those overpaid whiners down South jealous. Hampden in May is a hell of a place to play football … in my opinion, one of the greatest places in the world. Let’s have a good game, one worth remembering.