[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMVDeP93Nak"]YouTube- Fulham v Hamburg post match celebrations[/ame]
I'm absolutely made up for Fulham. Went mental when they scored, it's good Liverpool went out, as I think they'd have struggled against them.
Amazing video. The commentator was as excited as the players and the supporters. I love to hear that. His voice and enthusiasm certainly painted the portrait of what Fulham has overcome not only in this competition but their history. I can only dream of being in that stadium last night. It was electric. BTW, I did a double take when they showed the teary eyed close-up (around the 3:00 minute mark) of that supporter clapping. He look nearly dead on Bill Murray. Kind of scary the resemblance.
As I'm sure Delbird would tell you, almost all football fans around England were extremely excited for Fulham. It was one of those very, very rare instances where English fans found themselves cheering for a team that wasn't their own.
The commentator (no idea what his name is) sounds a lot like the one who did the British commentary for the Confed Cup matches involving the US--have people seen those YouTube clips (like [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6w0xwTnd8Kw"]this one[/ame], for example)? Is it the same guy? I like him a lot.
Just to show you how far Fulham have come.. the first European football match I ever attended was Spurs v Fulham back in Jan 1998. It was an FA cup 3rd round game and Fulham were in the third tier of English football and had been in the doldrums since I. Keegan was in charge at the time but I could never have imagined that just a little over a decade later, they'd be in a UEFA cup final, beating the likes of Juventus along the way. Amazing story! Congrats guys!
I think Atletico is a tougher matchup for them. Aguero and Forlan are going to be a tough matchup for Hangeland/Hughes. Liverpool aren't that good without Torres, and Gerrard is having a poor season by his standards.
I never noticed it before but that keeper sure didn't try too hard on Dempsey's shot... his arms are barely extended at all. Anyways, good job Fulham! What a crappy day for us to have technical difficulties at work. Missed the whole thing and the replay.
Some of the complaints about Dempsey not starting earlier in the thread are silly: 1) He's just coming off of an injury and played 90 on Sunday. 2) He's second choice striker, behind Zamora, on the squad... while he's a pretty obvious first choice midfielder, there is much more depth in midfield. 3) Zamora's been having some pretty bad issues with his achillies, and I'm sure Hodgson expected to substitute him sooner rather than later... with that in mind, having a rested, strong Dempsey ready to lead the line up top in the second half would be preferable to a Demps who had to run around in midfield all night.
The goal that gets you to the final > The goal that gets you to the semifinal. That's why Dempsey will score the winner in Hamburg.