Maidstone shows 'magic of the FA Cup' is still alive by pulling off giant upset
IPSWICH, England (AP) — Maidstone manager George Elokobi could sum up the moment in only one way.
“The magic of the FA Cup,” Elokobi said, "is very much alive.”
His team from the sixth tier of English soccer had just pulled off one of the biggest upsets the 153-year-old competition has ever seen.
Maidstone became the lowest ranked team to reach the last 16 since 1978 by beating Championship side Ipswich 2-1 on Saturday. And Elokobi's team did it on the road, in a game where Ipswich had 38 shots at goal compared to just two for the visitors.
The difference was Maidstone converted both of those efforts into goals, first when Lamar Reynolds scored with a cheeky lob as he ran clear through on goal in the 43rd minute, and then when Sam Corne restored the visitors' lead in the 66th after Jeremy Sarmiento equalized for Ipswich.
“We knew we were going to be lucky to get one or two chances, and when they did arise we had to take them,” Corne said.
And so the storied history of the FA Cup, first played in 1871 and the oldest soccer tournament in the world, has another David vs. Goliath upset.
Ipswich, second in the second-tier Championship and pushing for promotion to the Premier League, sits 98 places above Maidstone in the English soccer pyramid. The host dominated the game but hit the woodwork twice in the first half and was repelled by Maidstone's Brazilian goalkeeper Lucas Covolan, who pulled off a string of saves in the final 20 minutes.
“We had to be lucky in the first half but then we had to be resilient," Elokobi said.
The 32-year-old Covolan played for Brazil Under-20s but has spent the bulk of his senior career at semi-professional teams, and has spoken about battling depression in recent years.
“It means so much, because my career the last few years, it wasn’t very good,” Covolan told the BBC. "Now, all the bad parts of the career just comes in my head, and then we just produce this. Unreal.”
It will mean a lot to Maidstone, too, a town of about 180,000 people in Kent, southeast of London.
More than 4,400 fans made the trip to Ipswich — more than can fit into the team's home stadium — and they were all still celebrating in the stands long after the final whistle.
Elokobi, a Cameroon native who played in the Premier League for Wolverhampton, addressed supporters outside Ipswich's Portman Road stadium before the game, urging them to be respectful to Ipswich and just “enjoy the game.”
Now they'll get to see their team play in the FA Cup fifth round for the first time, and can dream about going up against one of the Premier League giants — such as Manchester City — in the next round. The draw for the fifth round will be held on Sunday.
“What we have achieved is something unbelievable," Covolan said. "To be in the last 16 teams in England, it’s brilliant. We kept fighting until the end, bodies on the line and everything.”
___
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
