Luis García and Hayden Mullins clashed senselessly and were sent off late in the game. It was a mad moment with lasting implications. Both would have expected to play in Cardiff, but violent conduct brings a three-match ban, so unless they mount successful appeals, they will be absent on May 13.
Alan Pardew, the West Ham manager, emerged from reviewing the incident with Rafael Benítez, his Liverpool counterpart, and Howard Webb, the referee, to beg the FA for mercy. “In the letter of the law, perhaps they should have been sent off,” Pardew said. “But we're all in agreement that the FA should show some clemency. If they want to do three matches, maybe two this year and one the next. We play each other in the final, it's not affecting anyone else. A tiny incident has cost them both a special day.”
A cynic might suggest that asking the FA to show common sense is a doomed venture and that the hearts of its disciplinary committee are unlikely to melt enough for it to bend the rules. Still, this was an occasion when the punishment is far more severe than the crime.
“For me, the most important thing is that the players apologised to each other and the referee,” Benítez said. “In Spain you have the possibility (to change the length of bans. The incident is not serious; someone must be sensible. You cannot criticise the referee.”
García, the Liverpool attacker who scored against Chelsea in the semi-final last Saturday, had been on the pitch for just two minutes. The substitute tangled with Mullins and appeared to elbow the West Ham midfield player. Mullins then raised his hands and García fell theatrically. Webb showed them both red cards.
Pardew attempted to enter the pitch but was restrained by the fourth official. “I sensed what was going to happen. I wanted to have a word with the referee,” Pardew said.
This match could so easily have been a dross rehearsal for the final. Instead, it was sprightly and entertaining, though about as intense as a village fête until Mullins and García suffered their onset of temporary insanity.
Before kick-off, about 25 West Ham old boys lined up with the teams to pay tribute to John Lyall, the former manager, who died last week. “He would want us to congratulate both sides,” Sir Trevor Brooking, who led the crowd in a minute's celebration, said.
That 60 seconds of joyful mourning encapsulated the general mood at Upton Park, with sadness at Lyall's death mitigated by the club's passage into the FA Cup Final for the first time since 1980, when Brooking scored as Lyall's team beat Arsenal.
Although the race for second place in the Barclays Premiership is still live, Liverpool made eight changes from the side that dispatched Chelsea. Liverpool, after all, have played one shy of 60 matches this season. West Ham made five alterations from the team that beat Middlesbrough.
The impressive Djibril Cissé opened the scoring after 19 minutes. He collected the ball on the edge of the area after a muscular run by Mohamed Sissoko and lashed a rasping low shot beyond Jimmy Walker.
West Ham grew into the game and came close to scoring near the end of the first period. The half-time hiatus did not black out West Ham's purple patch because a minute after the restart they were level in style. Bobby Zamora played a one-two with Teddy Sheringham on the edge of the area, collected the 40-year-old's pass and squared for Nigel ReoCoker to tap in.
Fernando Morientes hit the West Ham crossbar from six yards, but in the 54th minute Robbie Fowler's astute pass put Cissé clear and his mis-hit shot wormed under Walker's body and over the line.
Liverpool moved within three points of Manchester United, who are second. But García and Mullins moving out of contention for the final was the bigger talking point.