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Press and Journal
3 days ago
- Sport
- Press and Journal
Dante Polvara takes Aberdeen teammates to Charleston Battery homecoming
Aberdeen midfielder Dante Polvara was the guest of honour at his former side Charleston Battery on Saturday. The 24-year-old was acknowledged for his part in helping the Dons win the Scottish Cup with a warm reception from the Charleston support before their USL Cup match against Greenville Triumph kicked off. Polvara also had some of his Dons teammates in South Carolina watching on as Jack Milne, Gavin Molloy and Hibernian-bound Jamie McGrath also attended the game. The American spent time on loan at Charleston Battery in 2023, making 21 appearances and scoring one goal. The Dons players will return for pre-season training towards the end of the month.
Daily Record
26-05-2025
- Sport
- Daily Record
Dante Polvara left Aberdeen pals thinking ‘I can't f*** this up now' as he reveals Celtic penalty advice during shootout
Polvara struggled to watch the penalties and used the reaction of the Red Army as his Hampden guide Dante Polvara revealed that Sir Alex Ferguson's Scottish Cup advice was simple - "All that matters is getting the win'. The Dons' greatest ever manager sent a good luck message and motivational video to Jimmy Thelin and his class of 2025, ahead of their historic Hampden win over Celtic. It certainly proved the case as an Aberdeen team lifted their first trophy in 11 years and its first Scottish Cup in 35 years. Polvara confirmed: 'The message Sir Alex told us there's always a chance and all that matters is getting the win.' Thelin has met Ferguson on several occasions and has built up a rapport with the Swedish boss. He has now followed in his footsteps by delivering a trophy to Aberdeen and by giving Brendan Rodgers' treble-chasing Celtic a bloody nose. This Scottish Cup final went the distance and to penalties but the American was always confident the footballing gods would shine on them. He also felt they were due one on Celtic after they beat them on spot kicks in last year's Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden. Polvara admitted: 'When we equalised everything was a bit still and when it went to penalties, I felt we'd do it. 'Because of what happened in last season's semi-final, I thought we'd have a bit of fortune this year. It was crazy. 'Barry Robson told us about the League Cup final and put a picture on the slide before that one. So it was nice to finally see it, it was amazing.' It has been three-and-a-half decades since Aberdeen got a Scottish Cup parade that they were able to celebrate at the weekend. The midfielder and his team lapped it up. He acknowledged: 'The history of this cup is incredible, it was 35 years since Aberdeen last won it and someone said it's 31 years since there was a proper upset in it. 'I wanted to do something like this when I came here so we'll look forward to next season now.' Polvara came off the bench and netted his penalty in the shootout. It helped that Dimitar Mitov had saved Callum McGregor's opener and Graeme Shinnie had put his away. Johnny Kenny levelled for Celtic but Polvara kept the Dons 2-1 ahead. He insisted he had done his homework in advance. He explained: 'I wanted to take a penalty, one hundred percent. As soon as I knew I wasn't starting, I wanted to come on and make a mark. 'I researched all the stats about penalties, where to hit them and where people miss them. 'I'm a bit of a maths guy because in college I missed a few so I looked into it. So I started researching everything to find the best way. 'If we get to another one I'll maybe have to change it, but we'll see.' He then came back and told those still to take that it was easier than it looked. Polvara added: 'Walking down to take it, I couldn't feel my body but once I scored I came back and told the boys it's so much easier than you think! 'They said that made them way more nervous because they were left thinking 'I can't f*** this up now'. 'When it hits the net it's just pure relief, your body is just numb when you step up to it and I didn't really see the ball. 'I just saw the keeper dive the wrong way and the ball was in the net. 'Your whole body just goes, you let out every piece of energy you have - just pure relief." Polvara was confident with his own penalties but struggled to watch the others. He turned away and didn't know that Dimitar Mitov had saved Alistair Johnston's penalty until he saw the Red Army celebrating. Polvara, talking to RedTV, confirmed: 'I couldn't watch so I turned around then noticed the big screen, so that kind of ruined the purpose of it. 'I glanced at it, thought 'oh sh**' and watched the crowd instead. 'So I then saw their reaction, 20,000 people going wild and thought 'no way, he's just saved it'. 'I was going to watch the next one because I knew Mats would score, I told him he'd do that so I would have watched his.'
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Tears, cheers & beers as 100,000 Aberdeen fans greet heroes
Aberdeen manager Jimmy Thelin called it all "a little bit surrealistic". Captain Graeme Shinnie spoke with glistening eyes about taking an open-topped bus down a heaving street where he used to shop as a child. And chairman Dave Cormack wondered whether he might have been "swinging off the chandeliers" in celebration had it happened a few years before now. But perhaps Scottish Cup final game-changer Shayden Morris encapsulated a remarkable afternoon in the Granite City most succinctly. "This is just unreal man," the Englishman said, awestruck at the sight of close to 100,000 Aberdeen fans engulfing the city's streets to welcome home their Hampden heroes. Morris reckons it was "the best day of our lives" and few of his team-mates would disagree, judging by the smiles on their bleary faces as they hung off the slow-moving bus and cavorted on the Town House balcony. A "couple of the boys are hanging", confirmed midfielder Dante Polvara when asked about the riotous celebrations both on the road back north from Glasgow and when Aberdeen party arrived home. Captain Shinnie's crackly voice hinted it had been a big one. He reckoned he might have got "a couple of hours sleep". As a local boy, he already understood what the likes of Morris and Polvara have learned this weekend, but even the Aberdonian was taken aback by what he experienced on Sunday. 'Aberdeen savour the most perfect game ever played' Shinnie 'could retire today and be a happy man' Aberdeen end 35-year Scottish Cup wait after stunning Celtic in shootout "I always knew that this was possible if you won a trophy for this club," the 33-year-old said of the city centre scenes. "But I didn't expect it to be as good as what it is. "This is what I was always desperate to do. It's phenomenal. You've shared it with your team-mates but now you're sharing it with the city. "There are close to 100,000 fans and you can see what it means to all of them. It's a very special weekend." Cormack has been part of crowds hailing Aberdeen trophy successes in the 1980s, so also had an inkling about what Sunday's celebrations would hold. "This is very special," he said. "It's supposed to be raining today and the sun has come out as well. Maybe if I was 40 I might have been swinging off the chandeliers." The chairman also paid tribute to Thelin, whose debut season at the club has been one of the most polarised that anyone could have imagined. Cormack insisted the Swede is at Pittodrie for the long term and is "not a job-hopper", should his success attract interest from elsewhere. Certainly, days like this should help convince Thelin to stay where he is. "It's been unbelievable. Much, much bigger than I thought," he said, looking every inch his a man who had enjoyed his evening. "You imagine what's going to happen but it was much, much bigger than that. It was actually a little bit surrealistic. "I'm so happy for all these people and all the effort they have given us the whole season, travelling and the tough times. They have been there every time and now they can celebrate together." When Aberdeen last won the Scottish Cup in 1990, I was on a bus embarking on a school trip to Germany, listening to it all unfold on my pocket radio. So being at the celebrations really hammered home how long – too long – it has been since the club last won this trophy, and what it means to the city. The Dons fans lined the streets in their thousands - well into the tens of thousands, in fact - as the open-top bus weaved its way through the city centre. They were in fine voice too, with 'Shinnie, he is one of our own' and the now trademark 'Shady Mo' song being among the choruses belted out as the bus crawled through the throng that filled the granite streets. Prior to the final, there was a mood of trepidation, and very little expectation among the Red Army. What a difference a day can make – this was a scene of jubilation and celebration. It was a fitting reception for the Aberdeen players and staff, who now have their names etched in to the club's history books. As they took it in turns to hold the trophy aloft from the balcony at the Town House at the Castlegate end of Union Street, each lift was greeted with delirious joy. Of course, the challenge will be to build on this success. But this was about savouring the moment, one which saw a city and its football team united as one. Fans lined the streets to see the bus go down Union Street, along Union Terrace and Schoolhill before making its way onto Broad Street. Chris Nicholl, 30, who was at the game, said the experience was "amazing". "It was 35 years of emotion held in for my dad," he said. His wife Leah, 30, added: "He didn't even cry for our wedding!" The win was especially sweet for a father and son who travelled from Australia to support Aberdeen. Allan McCarlie, 51, and his 18-year-old son Jamie flew more than 10,000 miles (16,000km) from Sydney for the match on Saturday. They admitted beforehand people thought they were making a pointless long journey as Celtic were heavy favourites. "I was told I was mad," Allan said afterwards. "Spending so much money to travel from Sydney. "But [now] I am the richest man in the world - priceless memories."
BBC News
25-05-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Could Aberdeen win mark mentality shift in Scottish football?
I wrote Aberdeen off at Hampden on Saturday. Everyone did. But this was history, the year of the underdog. Even when no one else really did, the squad believed they would lift the Scottish Cup and that's the key to any success - to the Pittodrie players post-match, they had that confidence in spite of their previous, and even recent, results against Celtic - 5-1, 5-1, 1-0 and 6-0 in their last four was a statement win and it really feels like a historic day. And not just for Aberdeen. For the rest of Scottish football. To see a team outside the big two do this is an amazing moment. 'It's a massive moment for Scottish football' Aberdeen had two days really to nail their game plan. A plan which was completely against their followed was an incredible performance with an excellent defensive display at the heart of it. That's a difficult thing to do, particularly against this Celtic side.I didn't expect them to limit Celtic to so few chances, but they did so than Dazien Maeda's one-v-one in stoppage time, there wasn't anything really too worrying from an Aberdeen belief that the players spoke about was probably built upon after that first half. Yes, Celtic had so much possession, but they weren't cutting through. The Dons were very good without the such foundations in place meant that when the triple substitution of Oday Dabbagh, Dante Polvara and Shayden Morris was made, Aberdeen were able to go quite Thelin said post-match he felt his side became a bigger attacking threat as the game went on. That wasn't hard, though... Morris is a player I've admired for a long time from when he was down at Fleetwood Town. His speed is such a threat, and Celtic got it wrong dealing with him in the build-up to the was a brilliant move from Thelin because they asked him to do a midfield role without the ball and then be a winger with the Swede did some something different, and it paid should catch the eye of the rest of Scottish football, too. Perhaps even down the road where the underdog story has been strong this season.I have a big history with Celtic, but I'm from Aberdeen and I could only watch those trophy-lifting scenes with Dons showed that with discipline and determination, Celtic can be if they had belief before, they'll have even more belief Dave Cormack was speaking post-match about the finances, the income that will come from this win and the confirmation of European group stage football. That in itself is huge. It will give the club and the fans, in addition to the players, more belief. For now, though, it's bedlam. It's all about the partying and the celebrating, which they deserve to created a slice of history here. And maybe it's just the Cup winner & former Scotland international Shaun Maloney was speaking to BBC Sport Scotland's Amy Canavan
BBC News
24-05-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
'Aberdeen savour the most perfect game ever played'
At the end, the pent-up frustration of 35 years came tumbling out, three and a half decades of waiting. It takes its Aberdeen fans, 20,000-strong and deafening, blasted out their joy while midfielder Dante Polvara approached a live radio microphone. How do you feel, Dante? F-bomb! Followed by another, followed by a hastily abandoned chat. "Apologies to the listeners. You can understand the emotion. Back to you in the gantry."Another attempt soon after. Jack Milne, heroic at the heart of an Aberdeen defence that performed a miraculous metamorphosis from mistake-ridden chumps to hugely resilient does this mean to you, Jack. F-bomb! Milne apologised, but you could understand the agricultural language amid the merry bedlam. Raw emotion. Nothing like was delight and shock in his voice, there was an air of surreality. There was noise thumping in his ears and a beaming smile on his face. If you wanted to know what happiness is then Milne defined it in that moment. This was a day of days for the Dons, a seismic occasion for the club if not a stunning final. It was scrappy, it was sloppy, it was incredibly tense. It was gloves off, bare-knuckle stuff in all its at through a prism of red, it was just about the most perfect game ever played. Aberdeen had the kind of courage that few thought they had, they had belief that nobody could have detected beforehand, they had bottomless fitness was a win that very few saw coming and it was riotously celebrated because of that. There was a visceral aspect to it, a power that only comes when something momentous has have won plenty of trophies over the years, but looking at their fans it almost felt like a first. For some, of course, it would have been. For many, a first Scottish Cup final win, that's for Miller was in the twilight of his career when Aberdeen last won this trophy. At the end, you looked to him to see if there was any emotion. A grin was the extent of it. On their biggest day in 35 years, Miller kept his shape. When club chairman Dave Cormack joined him on radio, Miller gently chided him about his poor technique when lifting the trophy. "You need a bit more practice, Dave." Win a few more was the happy that it was uppermost in their thoughts at the time, but this was a £6m win for Aberdeen - maybe more - for it is they and not Hibs who are now guaranteed European football until December. Aberdeen bark loudest in year of underdog Of course, the portents of doom were written all over it for Aberdeen. They were outlandish underdogs. Celtic, with their 5-1s and their 6-0 in games against the Dons this season, were seemingly invincible. Their capacity to score quickly and often against Jimmy Thelin's side was flagged; two in three minutes in one game, three in 11 minutes in another, two in six minutes in a third meeting this year, three in nine in the most recent had the scent of a treble in their nostrils and Brendan Rodgers had the air of invincibility in his demeanour. Played 14, won 14 at Hampden. The abnormal had become normal, as he put only had vibes. The year of the upset. Crystal Palace, Bologna, improbable finalists in the German Cup, Hibs women winning the league. Maybe there was another shock in the offing, but how many shocks have we actually seen in Scottish Cup finals in the last half century and more. Two. Dundee United beating Rangers in 1994, Aberdeen beating Celtic in 1970. The magic of the Cup rarely stretches to the were mutterings about Thelin. Another shellacking and where would he stand? Since the end of November, Aberdeen have been statistically the worst team in the Premiership. If Celtic did what most expected them to do - win in a relative or complete canter - then Thelin would have lost the faith of many fans. He needed something different and he found it in his formation and in his psychology. A back three for the first time. Milne into the defence after only three starts all season. An end to the Graeme Shinnie at left-back experiment, the veteran having being turned inside out in the tempest of Celtic's attack in recent of the tweaks would have made a blind bit of difference had Aberdeen not brought with them a resilience, a concentration, a discipline and a work-rate that was unending. Their organisation frustrated Celtic. Rodgers said later that his team were too safe, lacked speed, slickness, precision and personality. What they also lacked was the wit of Reo Hatate and Jota. They were not themselves, but even still they hit the Aberdeen woodwork twice and failed with a glorious one-on-one when Dimitar Mitov, a hero on an afternoon of heroes, saved from Daizen Maeda seven minutes from the end of moral had 21 shots to Aberdeen's five, 81.5% possession to Aberdeen's 18.5%, 15 corners to Aberdeen's four. None of it meant anything, not when Thelin's defence was in the mood to defend with their last breath. You lost count of the number of blocks they had, each one chipping away at Celtic's karma. It wasn't supposed to be like this - and it rarely is. Celtic hadn't lost to Aberdeen in 30 conceded an unlucky goal, the Dons then scored one of their own. Two own goals reflected the flawed, madcap nature of this final. There was little shape, little rhythm, little accuracy. There was chaos, there were bodies colliding, players on the floor, coaches going bonkers. In chunks, it was like an under-eights game. Everybody running about with abandon. And it was hard to take your eyes off it went to penalties, the odds were still stacked in Celtic's favour. They don't mind a penalty shoot-out at Hampden. They've won a couple in recent times. Even at that late stage, they were favourites to pull off the Mitov saved from Callum McGregor and everything changed. Celtic's brilliant leader laid low. Their aura not the same anymore. One by one the Aberdeen men held their nerve, not just scoring but rifling in their penalties with an authority. Kasper Schmeichel, on a grim day, went the wrong way for the first three of was the man in the end. In recent months he's been criticised for some of the weaknesses in his game, but he's an immortal now, along with the rest of top bus tour now. European football to come. Hope where before there was dread. The phoenix has risen from the flames. And the party will last a while.
