It was like asking a pair of heavyweights to put on an exhibition bout after they had engrossed ringside fans for 12 punishing and draining rounds.
It might produce a gripping edge-of-the-seat finale in Rocky films but in reality it's asking too much.
And so it was under the stunning Wembley signature Arch, inside the magnificent £757m structure that the champ and the challenger were asked to put on the gloves one more time.
It was the final the FA and the cup sponsors wanted to whet Wembley's head.
In truth, it was probably the one set-to that was most unlikely to provide a memorable baptism for the national stadium after what the two contenders had been through for the past nine months.
Bruised, bloodied, KO'd and crowned, United and Chelsea have been through it all during their absorbing Premiership, Champions League and FA Cup marathon.
They were out on their feet on Saturday and even the harshest critic couldn't take them to task for not producing a spectacle worthy of a grand occasion on the historic site.
`Our 'Enry' in 1963 below the old Twin Towers against Cassius Clay managed to find a punch to floor the big mouth foreigner.
Unfortunately, the Reds' goal-well dried up this time and they didn't have a blow to sink Jose Mourinho.
Cooper had managed one hit that put Clay on the floor but a touch of mischievousness in the American's corner bought him time and he rose eventually to pummel the Cockney into submission and force the ref to stop the fight.
Connected
Ryan Giggs thought he'd landed one on Chelsea's chin in the 104th minute when he connected with a Wayne Rooney cross and then involuntarily shunted into Petr Cech and nudged the keeper and ball over the line.
Sir Alex Ferguson thought his captain had already been fouled by Michael Essien, Giggs saw nothing wrong with his part in the incident and TV replays confirmed the ball was over the line.
At last the game had provided a big talking point, but still hadn't provided a winner.
Similar close calls were few and far between and a superb rasping Giggs' volley in the 57th minute and Didier Drogba's free- kick that struck the base of the post three minutes later was about as good as it got in terms of memorable chances.
United fans had taunted their Chelsea counterparts with chants of Bring on the Champions after half-time when the Londoners waited on the pitch.
It sounded more like an impassioned plea for the real title-winning Reds to emerge at some point.
But as Fergie has said so much of United's energy and inspiration had been left behind at Goodison at the end of April. They've looked an exhausted bunch since and despite Paul Scholes' continuous promptings in midfield at Wembley, Rooney's discovery of power from somewhere and Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand's stubbornness at the back, this wasn't the United who had enthralled and entertained since August.
How sad that Cristiano Ronaldo should enter his well-deserved summer break with this stale memory ending a personal campaign in which he's been showered with bouquets.
Epic
On a day of historic recollections, Wembley's opening merited an unforgettable dribbling display from the winger to stand alongside memories like Stanley Matthews in 1953, Ricky Villa in '81 and Alan Ball in the 1966 World Cup Final.
But like many of the participants, Ronaldo's tank was bone dry.
When you needed a dash of forward freshness how infuriating for Fergie that Louis Saha was in a suit and Henrik Larsson was just a guest on the big day.
Such was the weariness in Chelsea's defence after their own epic campaign that United's Wembley previous FA Cup goalscorers Denis Law, Lou Macari and Mark Hughes, who were paraded on the pitch in a pre-match ceremony, may have had a bit of a chance of breaking this stalemate.
But with another penalty shoot-out looming and haunting memories of Cardiff in 2005 when Arsenal stole the trophy from the Reds, the game was settled by a piece of striking magic.
Any of the above mentioned illustrious hit-men would have been delighted to have conjured up the Drogba winner five minutes from time as the Ivory Coast forward and Frank Lampard sliced open United's defence.
Edwin Van der Sar might take a critical look at his part in the strike that finally put United's lights out.
Fergie had jokingly said that during the title battle he wished someone had shot Drogba as he kept Chelsea in the hunt.
If he'd had a spare bullet at Wembley his team were so drained all of them would have struggled to lift the gun and would have missed anyway.
It was just one of those days.
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Its time for fergie to resign! Sven for united!
my verdict is that sir alex does not think we can beat the likes of chelsea plating our normal attacking game. fair enough but when heve we beat one of the big hitters playing the cagey stuff we saw on saturday.
The real verdict is that United can't win "big" cup games anymore!!
Since 1999, they've only won 2 cup finals against err Millwall & Wigan. Whereas when they meet a "big" team - ie Liverpool, Arsenal & Chelsea - they've lost those finals.
Similarly in the European Cup since 1999 - whenever they come up against a "big" team in the knockout stages(Munich, Madrid & Milan) they always lose too.
I reckon in 8 years, United have only won one cup game against their main rivals - Arsenal in the 2004 FA Cup semi-final! Have they no "big game" bottle anymore - or is it Fergie's naive tactics?
Shanny, what planet are you from?
mark that is heresy ( but true) you will have the spanish inquisition questioning your sanity. unfortunatley some of our most prolofic contributors jst can accept what is staring them in the face.
Shanny I thought Sven was taking over the bitters. No?
BobbyD i think it would take us getting relegated for some people to admit we're not the most fantastic team in the world ever. Some Utd fans cannot accept critisism. I know one who nearly hit my mate for suggesting we mightnt beat West Ham in the last game of the season! I think most of us can acknowledge that it was a great achievement to win the league this year, and at the same time acknowledge that are need to be addressed, and have needed to be addressed for a while now.
For crying out loud when you think back to the arguements defending our European record and performances in the past 5 or 6 yrs despite the it being seemingly irrefutable that we've grossly underachieved and underperformed in that arena, it shows what your up against
Tactics and missing a player like Sahá werre the detrimental factors.
Fletcher should have been played in a deeper role, he hardly gets past anyone wide (imo, not this fault as he's not the quickest!), pushing Sholes or Carrick in a more forward role and giving the wingers some sight of the ball!
Having said that, both CR & Giggsy needed 'a rocket'
Oh and the ref could have been better!
In the end it looked lke one game too many for both teams!
I think both suffered on the tiring, poor surface!
so de meester if saha had played on saturday who would you have left out??
Weird how Liverpool under Houllier & Benitez - can win all their "big set piece" knockout games - whereas United can't anymore.
Yet when it comes to league formats (i.e. domestic and apart from last year, the Champions League) - then the reverse is true!
They use to say it about Van Nistelroy - but have United been lacking "big game bottle" & "big game players" over the past 8 years?
de meester so applying your theory to get scholes forward and allow fletcher and carrickto sit deep. just who would you have had leading the line up front? and then tell me who your wingers would have been? we would have ended up with 2 deep lying midfield players and a back four to keep drogba under control.
On the other hand Birdy, if you're not willing to acknowledge that there are sometimes mitigating circumstances for United not doing as well as we think they should, then you can never properly understand the reasons for it.
what a boring final.if united were a manchester team i'd be ashamed!
Can i remind everyone that Hargreaves will remain a Munich player until the formalities are complete and even then he probably will still be one.
Alias if youre going to explain away yrs of disappointing European performances on mitigating circumstances then you need to get real. We've flattered to deceive in Europe. You could say, for example, we were unlucky against Porto in having a goal disallowed, which would be true, but by the same token you could also say that a club of our stature, with our players, resources and everything else in our favour shouldnt be putting ourselves in such a position that we're clinging on with a minute to go in our own backyard. You could go through every game we lost and pick out Ifs and Buts till the cows come home but it all amounts to a big series of excuses. You'd do better to hold your hand up and admit we've not performed and not been good enough, then look for the reasons why rather than moan about being unlucky with injuries, offsides etc. The biggest mitigating circumstance is that we've not been good enough when it came to the crunch.
Jeez, what a miserable lot everyone seems to be. I thought misery was consigned to the ManCity posts until now. Cheer Up guys. It's football and nothing more. "Money for hand, back for ground" is a good African adage that describes our footballers. Like the street walkers in the adage, they lie down for anyone that pays the bills. There is no reason to get so worked up over their performance or lack of it. Wembley was fantastic and there are better games to come.
No Birdy, you are wrong. Where my argument came from on that particular topic was to challenge bald unresearched statements that we've underperformed in Europe and we're just rubbish. It had to be looked at in more detail and that's what I sought to do. You didn't like me pointing out the mitigating circumstances for some reason.
If you think we can improve just by everyone saying we're rubbish and it's not good enough - good luck to you.
As usual SAF was found lacking in the tactics department. You have two of the best wingers in the world, one he plays in midfield the other he plays on the wrong side. Scholes stood out like a sore thumb, sending exquisite passes wide left and right, pin point to whomever happened to be there, usually Rooney.(maybe SAF is trying to turn him into a winger as he plays nearly everyone else out of position) This continually had Chelski on the hop but did SAF see this as a tactic? Not a chance. Free kicks into the wall, corners not clearing the first defender, Man U must have the worst average for success in dead ball situations. What do they do on the training field? Team selection was argueably the best under the circumstances but SAF should have let them go out and have fun and play how ever you like. They know where they play the best afterall. Bottom line is SAF cannot motivate them in to winning against well coached teams. The scary thing is look what happened to Leeds and Blackburn after becoming premiership champions. There is no class of 92' around the corner and this squad just isn't strong enough for a sustained challenge.
So we're full circil Alias, back to where we were in January and February with you and the propaganda department insisting that we've not underachieved in Europe, that we've not played poorly far too often, that we've in the main been unlucky due to various factors such as injuries, offsides etc. This despite the fact that we've only been in the Champions League final once. Need i point out that such massive clubs as Valencia can beat this record, and the likes of Porto and Monaco can equal it. Every team in the competition every yr will give you any number of reasons why they got knocked out but the bottom line is they got knocked out.
I'm wrong? Youre the one insisting we've not underachieved and underperformed in Europe
birdy dead right alias is like an ostrich burying his head in the sand and just wont aacept what is plain for all to see. its not easy accepting defeats to the european giants but sometimes you have to take it on the chin and say you were beaten by better teams. but then when you take a look at who has beaten us over the last 5 years it just adds to your argument.
copenhagen,lille,benfica,celtic,maccaabi tel aviv to name but a few. i have asked alaias on more than one occasion would he spend good money on travelling away in europe to follow the reds have never got an answer. up to 2005 i alway took in 3/4 games a season but no more. i have no problem accepting defeat it comes with game but it p,s me off when we just dont turn up and thats what we have had to endure these last 5 years.
BobbyD thats the thing that bugs me about most of our defeats in Europe, when we dont turn up. You look at the games this season at Celtic, Copenhagen, Roma and AC. We weren't unlucky to get beaten in any of them.
My Dad is totally ABU and we've argued for yrs as he always talks up Seria A and La Liga, and no matter what Utd do its no good. I often thought it would be great to trick him in giving us a bit of praise if by jiggery pokery I could change the picture on tv so he wouldnt realise it was Utd and thus give an honest assessment. I think this would an interesting experiment with Alias and some of the other tunnel vision fans. If it was anyone but Utd who turned in the displays we've been turning in over the last 5 yrs or so away in Europe, you'd write them off as crap, yet because its Utd its a different story. Our defeats this season alone have been accompanied by woeful displays, the like of which you'd expect from timid inexperienced European minnows from Norway making thier debut in the competition. Even away to Lille we were brutal and came away with a win by the skin of our teeth. Recognising this seems impossible to some. Maybe they think it will make them less of a fan if they give an honest critisism. I dont know, i cant understand how you could look at our displays in Europe in recent yrs and not honestly hold you hands up and say we've been poor, we've not performed and we've generally got what we deserved. I think its fair enough to highlight an odd case and say we were unlucky there, but when youre doing this match after match, yr after yr to explain away defeats it no longer becomes bad luck
Like I say Birdy, you have to look at it in more detail rather than making broad-brush assessments. That is all I have sought to do.
You keep mentioning defeats by relative minnows in Europe but how many times have we been eliminated from the competition by one of those clubs? In how many seasons has a poor result away from home at one of those teams ACTUALLY MATTERED in terms of our overall progression in the tournament? Apart from last season's debacle in the Group stage, I would say none.
Honestly, do you think I am wrong?
what irks me birdy is that we have approached the majority of these games afraid of losing and have made no attempts to actually go out and win. sir alex has got so little faith in our squad that we can win even against minor opposition. he tinkers and tinkers but still ends up playing drab unimaginative football and to cap it all we usually lose or scrape a draw.
I have to agree those away matches have been horrendous to watch just plain horrible. No wonder the fans were getting entertainment from knocking 6 bells out of each other. I have no idea why we don't just go all out attack just once when it doesn't matter but with our first choice squad just to see if it works.
so alias the several thousand fans who follow united all over europe at incredible expense have no right to expect a better performance even against teams like andelecht and copenhagen?