• Rewind to 2009

Blue is the colour

Frank Lampard and Chelsea bid to make their superiority count against Everton at Wembley © Getty Images

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Everton and Chelsea's clash at Goodison Park is one of three cracking FA Cup ties live on ESPN. The sides have history in the competition and we look back to when the famous trophy was within touching distance for both sides as they ran out at Wembley. Click here to subscribe for Saturday's game.

The FA Cup final is a huge occasion for those fortunate enough to get there, the morning build-up, the coach journey to Wembley, the pre-game walk around the stadium for the players to savour the atmosphere. Back in 2009, the Everton players will have savoured every moment, planning a rapid start to shock the heavily favoured Chelsea. But even in their wildest dreams, they could hardly have envisaged a better start as they led after just 25 seconds.

On a swelteringly hot early summer's day in North London, Everton made it clear from the off that their minds had not switched to their holidays just yet. For Louis Saha, a player of great talent but so often struck by injury, wrote himself into FA Cup folklore as he took advantage of John Obi Mikel's error and Marouane Fellaini's quick thinking to rifle the ball beyond Petr Cech to score the fastest final goal in its long and illustrious history.

For Everton it was a game of great significance (although, in fairness, few clubs ever find major finals irrelevant). After one of the better seasons in the club's recent history, they still found themselves finishing nine points adrift of Arsenal, themselves 11 points adrift of third, and the Champions League places. Having been denied passage to the group stages of Europe's premier competition only a few seasons prior, David Moyes' side could see that glass ceiling hanging over them. An FA Cup victory might finally help them break through it.

The game was important for Chelsea too, however. After a season that began under the auspices of Luiz Felipe Scolari, himself a replacement for the unremarkable but not always unsuccessful Avram Grant, things quickly unravelled under the World Cup-winning coach and alarmingly soon after the winter schedule the Premier League crown had already become an unreachable target.

Scolari, signed to such fanfare, was dismissed with ruthless detachment. With a suitable replacement hard to find, club owner Roman Abramovich called in Guus Hiddink to be one of the more high-profile caretakers in footballing history.

There begin the revival. The Dutchman got the team to believe in themselves again, embarking on a run in the league that took them back in touch with the title race, and even going close to repeating the Champions League final appearance Grant had managed the year before. Only Andres Iniesta's late, controversial goal at Stamford Bridge killed that particular dream.

The FA Cup final, then, was a shot at a certain amount of closure after a season of otherwise mixed fortunes. Having overcome adversity as a squad, Saha's goal only temporarily rocked them. Soon back on their feet, it took just 20 minutes for the influential Florent Malouda to cross for Didier Drogba to head home the equaliser. From there the Blues - although they were actually playing in yellow - were dominant, passing the ball with abandon and creating numerous opportunities to take the advantage. But it was only in the 72nd minute that they actually managed to get ahead; Frank Lampard's long-range drive beating Tim Howard's despairing dive and finding the top of the net.

A late clincher from Malouda was wrongly ruled out, replays showed it had just crossed the line, providing Hiddink's men with one last frustrating moment from a season containing many of them. But then the final whistle blew, and a success primarily built on perseverance - as much of a season as that game - could be exuberantly celebrated. Hiddink was a handy focal point for a success of wider meaning.

David Moyes ultimately faced a disappointment symbolic of Everton's greater limitations © Getty Images

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"Credit to him. At half-time he kept things calm. There were no rash changes," captain John Terry said afterwards. "Two years without a trophy, it's been too long. We've seen Man Utd and others winning trophies and it's good to get it [the winning feeling] back."

"We had some wonderful performances in the Premier League and also in the Champions League and this is the highlight, to win the FA Cup," Hiddink noted. "I loved it so much, I enjoyed working with big stars but they knew what it's all about. We have worked so hard since February and I respect these guys very much."

Everton took their defeat in good grace. Ultimately, though, they were outclassed. If Chelsea under Hiddink had finally shed their frustrations with victory, then if anything Moyes and his squad had only seen theirs increased.

Hiddink made a major impression on the squad during his brief tenure, the senior players seeming to respond to his style and, on some instinctive level, realising he was putting them back on track after a few seasons of questionable direction. Even before the game he was presented with an engraved watch and a shirt signed by the entire squad, an indication of the gratitude he had inspired regardless of result.

Everton's disappointment was unsurprising - victory had seemed so close yet ultimately was efficiently denied. In many ways it was an apt reflection of their state as a football club: Punching impressively above their weight considering the resources at their disposal, yet simultaneously still agonisingly short of being able to make that next step up to win trophies and contend for even greater glory.

Defeat came with a sense of resignation, the club condemned to continue its recent path - a lot of credit for their efforts, but never a coronation.

"We deserved to be in the final because the players performed ever so well throughout the season, but we found Chelsea a hurdle too much," Moyes conceded afterwards. "They were the better team and used the conditions better than we did."

Guus Hiddink was the focal point of celebrations that held a wider meaning for the squad © Getty Images

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For Chelsea, winning the FA Cup was merely a consolation at the end of season that was otherwise frequently bitter and full of upheaval. The run under Hiddink over the final weeks of the season - including that deeply unfortunate exit to Barcelona - was a welcome reminder of the squad's potential, but no-one laboured under the misapprehension that winning at Wembley was the formal realisation of that.

That would have to be attained next season, under whoever was appointed as Hiddink's successor. As it was the Dutchman was sent off to a rapturous reception, having helped the club return to an upward trajectory. Everton, meanwhile, were left to wonder when they will ever make that final step.

"It was one of the biggest achievements of my career, winning in the Mecca of world football," said Hiddink. "The FA Cup is something you truly cannot believe."

What happened next? Hiddink would ride off into the sunset, taking his footballing know-how to the international scene with Russia. A disappointing failure to qualify for the 2010 World Cup led to his departure, however, before Turkey made a similar offer for his expertise. Carlo Ancelotti would take the hotseat at Stamford Bridge, and go on to win the Double in his first season with the club. But in many ways the path to that success was born on the way to Wembley, as the Italian would make only gradual changes from the regime he had inherited during the memorable campaign.

Everton, meanwhile, have continued to struggle to break out of their admirable mediocrity. For Moyes, another chance to give his quietly-impressive reign a true crowning moment continues to elude him.

He now has another shot with which to target the FA Cup, with Chelsea again in his way, and ESPN is the only place to see how things unfold.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.