Following on from Boise State

by user Alex Holowczak

This weekend, the FA Cup Round 3 takes place in English Football.

It is a special event on the Football calendar in Britain, as the teams from the Premiership and Championship are thrown in against 20 "qualifiers" from earlier rounds in the biggest knockout tournament in the world.

Unlike the Playoffs in any major US Sport, the FA Cup is completely unseeded. As a result, you can have some brilliant games, and some that are potential "giant-killing" games, where teams from lower down England's football pyramid take on the top teams in the Premiership. Any top team hates an away match to a team from, for example the Conference, because it is not as easy as it looks on paper. Generally, in front of a relatively small, yet hostile and passionate crowd, on an unpredictable bobbly pitch, anything can happen and has happened in the long history of the FA Cup.

This year, for example, non-League minnows Basingstoke Town, who beat League side Chesterfield 1-0 away in Round 1. One of the greatest FA Cup stories happened in 2002, when Wycome Wanderers of Division 2 beat Premiership side Leicester City 2-1 away in the Quarter Finals. The winning goal came from Roy Essandoh, who was only playing in the game due to seeing an Internet appeal from the club for players - such was Wycombe's injury crisis.

Last year, in the Final, Liverpool beat West Ham United with a great goal from Steven Gerrard forcing extra-time. Liverpool ended up winning in a penalty shoot-out.

The competition is one of the few left in the world that has a replay at the alternate ground in the event of a draw, except in the Final. Both Semis and the Final is held in a neutral ground.

The best ties in the 2007 Competition in the Third Round feature two brilliant all-Premiership ties. Arsenal will play Liverpool, and an improved Aston Villa go to Manchester United. There will be the usual prospects for giant-killing too. Macclesfield Town, last in the Football League, take on the mighty Chelsea millionaires at Stamford Bridge. Non-League Tamworth play Norwich City of the Championship at home. League 2's Doncaster Rovers play Bolton Wanderers of the Premiership. League 2 strugglers Torquay United play Championship side Southampton.

This weekend will feature a total of 32 games (this is the last 64 stage) and there is as ever plenty of potentially memorable upsets once again. I hope there are plenty of big upsets, especially if Aston Villa can beat the Premiership leaders at Old Trafford...

After hearing about the Broncos' Corner Back Shooting earlier, let's go with Boise State's example, and hope that 2007 will become the Year of the Underdog, rather than the brutal killing...