Long before EA Sports created the immensely popular FIFA video games there was a board game that allowed players to take ownership of football teams during an FA Cup season. Wholesale Soccer Jerseys . Road to Wembley, later known as just Wembley, was a game dictated by dice that gave football clubs a better chance to reach the great old stadium for the FA Cup based on what league they were in. The game had six different colored dice, which would be used to determine how many goals that team scored in the tie. If a team in the top division were drawn at home the owner of that team would use the red dice. This was the best one of the six in the game - featuring two 4s, a 3, 2, 1 and 0 – given the team a 50 per cent chance it would score three goals. To recreate the magic of the FA Cup, where teams from lower leagues can be drawn against top clubs, and to allow true giantkilling acts for teams who were in the third or fourth tier, the games rules dictated that those sides use the white dice when away from home. It featured two zeroes, two 1s but a 4 and a 5. More often than not the lower league club would be knocked out by the dice, as it should. However, some times youd get massive shocks. If you held ownership of that lower league club and you beat the big giant on their pitch it was a fantastic feeling, one very difficult to create on a modern day video game where better teams just had better opportunities and skills to beat lower opposition. Yet, in a world where so much can be predicted sport isnt supposed to be that way. On a weekend where one continent obsessed about PSI levels and hockey players skating fast around drink bottles, the global game went back to the future to give fans a true glimpse of what following sport should be all about. The oldest association football competition in the world may have become a little bit easier to read in its older, more recent years but it is not easy to teach an old dog new tricks and just when some wanted to write this one off it bounced back in all its glory on Saturday by showing modern day football fans just how beautiful it is when its most stunning feature, a giantkilling, is on show. FA Cup fans of different generations all have memories of these games. The 70s had Colchester over Leeds and Hereford over Newcastle, the 80s had Sutton over Coventry and Bournemouth over Man Utd and then in the early 90s came Wrexham over the mighty Arsenal. Depending on your age the highlights and goalscorers from those games are never forgotten. Major shocks also came in finals like Sunderland over Leeds, Wimbledon over Liverpool and, more recently, Wigan over Manchester City. The board game, if you are wondering, ensured teams used away dice for neutral venues. The return of the FA Cup, this season, to the broadcaster BBC in the UK has seen the competition receive more coverage and to promote the tournament they ran a number of previews in December, before the top teams joined at the third round stage, looking at the biggest shocks in FA Cup history. Like most of the ones listed here, rarely came ones where the giant was slayed on its own patch of grass. Who knew that a month later that list would need to be changed? In the buildup to this past weekends matches there was little fuss made about potential shocks. It is the job of the broadcaster to pick potential upsets in television slots, yet it speaks to the real level of surprise of the big shocks this past weekend that most took place at the traditional 3pm local kick off slot. Gone were Tottenham, Southampton, Manchester City and, of course, in disgraceful fashion, according to he who is special, Chelsea. At a time when it really needed it the FA Cup delivered one of its biggest shocks of all. Red dice………..two. White dice……………four. Everywhere football fans turn these days there are articles and analysis about how to make the old pensioner that is the FA Cup relevant again. Gone is the magic, they tell us, gone is the interest. Crowds are down but when assessing the reasons for that, the FA Cup itself is low on such a list. Like so many things in life, something so vulnerable isnt always at fault for its ways. The FA Cup will never be loved the way it once was but this past weekend gave us powerful images that sport, the great distractor from everyday life, can so often deliver. Friday nights affair between Cambridge United and Manchester United ended 0-0 and the outpouring emotion from the home fans and players at the end was almost as incredible as the look in the eyes of the young Cambridge mascots who got to look up at the likes of Angel Di Maria and Radamel Falcao and shake their hands before kick off. Less than 24 hours later, Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho was attempting to shake hands with Bradford boss Phil Parkinson to congratulate him on a stunning victory before the final whistle had blown. It was Bradfords moment. Well, almost. At that point there were still three and a half minutes left and I wasnt getting drawn into that, said Parkinson on the snub afterwards. Good for him. Parkinson would get his moment. Mourinho had his interview and got his name splashed across the story once again. How exhausting. Magnificent he may be at his job, but it is little wonder his time in one place is so limited. Unlike Chelsea, the FA Cup proved to be bigger than Mourinho. It came through English football like a hurricane this past weekend bringing many smiles to fans across the world who had become so complacent to the class system the game, flush with money, had allowed. This is not a tournament that will simply allow the countrys big four to reach the semi-finals. It will return in February down to its last 16 with seven of the top 12 in the Premier League, including the top three, no longer involved. Gone are the teams who wanted it but would never prioritize it. Some teams remain who feel the same but in an era when its never been more difficult to break the monopoly of the top teams and win a trophy suddenly a real chance has opened up for big football clubs to end long runs without a trophy. Back when board games were popular it meant everything to win the FA Cup. These days men in powerful positions at football clubs, with a strong disconnect for positive emotions, have done what they can to convince people that a finish in the top four of the Premier League is more valuable. Dont let them fool you. There are some things you cant put a price on. Winning an FA Cup means so much to fans and players too. Best feeling Ive had on a football pitch, said Arsenal midfielder Aaron Ramsey after winning the FA Cup at Wembley last May. There are still many games to be played but thanks to an unprecedented weekend of surprises we now have teams left whose eyes need to be firmly fixed on the prize come the Wembley final on May 30th. If the dice fall in the right place the FA Cup could fall into the arms of a team desperate to have it for the third successive season. For the all the joy it continues to bring people, that is the very least it deserves. Stitched Soccer Jerseys . And all things considered, the first 40 games have offered a little bit of everything from a hockey club that faced many questions in its first year under new management, with a new head coach and with a number of new faces in the lineup. However, with a recent dip in scoring, it seems some of the same old questions persist and several new ones have been raised after a somewhat troubling homestand. Clearance Soccer Jerseys . First reported by FOX Sports Ken Rosenthal, its unknown if the impetus for the deferral proposal came from players or management, but it never left the preliminary stages. https://www.soccerjerseyschina.us/ . The teams were scoreless for most of the first two periods before Canada scored three times in a span of less than four minutes. Sarah Potomak opened the scoring on the power play.NEW YORK, N.Y. - Dirk Nowitzki called it an insane, crazy ride thats carried him past some of basketballs greats.There have been plenty of games across 17 years like Monday night, when the legs are heavy, the shots a little flat, while playing on the second consecutive night at the end of a road trip.Thats why his latest personal achievement ranked behind continued team success.Im proud of it but more proud that we got the win, he said.Nowitzki made a clinching 3-pointer in overtime that moved him into seventh place on the NBAs career scoring list, and the Dallas Mavericks beat the Brooklyn Nets 96-88 to match their season high with a sixth straight victory.Monta Ellis scored 19 points and made a pair of jumpers early in overtime before consecutive 3s by Chandler Parsons and Nowitzki made it 96-88 with 34 seconds to play. That gave Nowitzki 15 points for the game and 27,412 in his career, moving him past Moses Malone into the No. 7 spot.Rajon Rondo shot 1 of 13 for two points but had 14 assists and 10 rebounds for the Mavericks, who have the longest current winning streak in the NBA. Tyson Chandler finished with 14 points and 13 boards.Brook Lopez had 22 points and 13 rebounds for the Nets but faded after an 18-point first quarter. Jarrett Jack had 20 points and 10 assists.The Nets were without Deron Williams (sore left side) and Kevin Garnett, who rested on the second night of back-to-back games, and dropped their second straight after winning three in a row.Theyre a very talented ballclub, Jack said. They hit some tough shots down the stretch, went up double-digits lead in the fourth quarter, but we kept going, kept fighting, kept fighting and gave ourselves an opportunity to win in the end.Dallas hadnt trailed by more than seven points in any of the first five straight victories, but was down 14 after one in this game. But the Nets managed just 30 points in the second and third quarters after scoring 35 in the first 12 minutes.Well, we picked it up, Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said. It was like a pillow fight defensively in the first quarter. Wholesale Soccer Jerseys China. We just werent there.The Mavs ran off the first 10 points of the fourth, taking a 75-65 lead on a 3-pointer by former Nets forward Richard Jefferson. They led by 11 with under 7 minutes remaining in regulation, but then didnt make a field goal after Ellis basket made it 80-71 with 5:28 left.Brooklyn battled back to grab an 82-80 lead on Jacks jumper with 26 seconds to play before Ellis tied it with two free throws with 10.5 seconds remaining. Joe Johnson missed a jumper that would have won it in regulation.Ellis made the first two baskets of OT, Chandler had a follow shot and a pair of free throws, and Parsons and Nowitzki put it away from beyond the arc.Nowitzki is 10th on the combined NBA-ABA list, where Malone remains seventh. The German forward became the top foreign-born scorer earlier this season.___TIP-INSMavericks: Dallas is 11-0 on the road against Eastern Conference teams and has won 15 in a row dating to last season. ... Dallas also won six straight from Nov. 11-21. ... Jefferson is third on the Nets in their NBA history in points and minutes played.Nets: The Nets havent beaten Dallas four straight times since February 1998 to March 2000. ... The Nets held a moment of silence before the game for former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo and Stuart Scott, the longtime ESPN personality and SportsCenter anchor, who both died in recent days.LOOK FOR LOPEZ?Lopez went 9 for 12 for his 18 points in the first quarter, then took just nine more shots the rest of the game. He said the Nets went a different way afterward behind Jack and Johnson.I didnt want to really try to force anything. I did a couple of times, but like I said, Jack got going, Joe got going, Lopez said. Weve got lots of guys that can contribute on this team and definitely dont want to get in the way of that.UP NEXTMavericks: Host Detroit on Wednesday.Nets: Host Boston on Wednesday.___Follow Brian Mahoney on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Briancmahoney ' ' '