The FA Cup sponsored by E.ON
The Final
3pm, Saturday 17 May 2008
Wembley Stadium
Winning club will receive £1,000,000 from The FA
Tony Adams paid tribute to match-winner Kanu after his former Arsenal team-mate won The Cup for Portsmouth.
Kanu's clinical close-range finish after goalkeeper Peter Enckelman fumbled John Utaka's fine 37th minute cross was the strike which clinched a 1-0 victory for Pompey against Cardiff City at Wembley.
And Adams says it was particularly special for Kanu, who reached three FA Cup Finals with Arsenal - against Southampton, Chelsea and Liverpool - but wasn't chosen to start any of them between 2001 and 2003.
"I think in those matches he only played nine minues, but he's a great footballer and I don't think anyone can queston his ability," said the Portsmouth assisant manager and former England Captain.
"I love watching him, I love watching him train. He's a player that excites me and it was great to see him hit the winner this time."
Adams also paid tribute to Portsmouth's superb defence, which has been solid all season - just like the old days at Highbury for their assisant boss.
"We've kept 23 clean sheets and the goalkeeper and defenders have done very well. We've won a lot of games 1-0," he added.
"In the past we weren't that resilient, we went away and got turned over. So what we did this season was make ourselves hard to beat. We set our stall out and it carried us into The Final and won us The Cup."
Teams
Cardiff City
1 Peter Enckelman, 2 Kevin McNaughton, 3 Tony Capaldi, 4 Gavin Rae (18 Trevor Sinclair 87), 6 Glenn Loovens, 7 Peter Whittingham (30 Aaron Ramsey 62), 10 Stephen McPhail, 11 Paul Parry, 12 Roger Johnson, 16 Joe Ledley, 36 Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink (20 Steven Thompson 71)
Subs
13 Michael Oakes, 5 Darren Purse
Portsmouth
1 David James, 5 Glen Johnson, 6 Lassana Diarra, 7 Hermann Hreidarsson, 11 Sulley Muntari, 15 Sylvain Distin, 17 John Utaka (10 David Nugent 69), 19 Niko Kranjcar, 23 Sol Campbell, 27 Nwankwo Kanu (9 Milan Baros 87), 30 Pedro Mendes (8 Papa Boupa Diop 78)
Substitutes Not Used
21 Jamie Ashdown, 16 Noe Pamarot
Attendance: 89,874
Match Officials
Referee: Mike Dean (Cheshire FA)
Assistant Referees: Trevor Massey (Manchester FA) & Martin Yerby (Kent FA)
Fourth Official: Chris Foy (Liverpool FA)