Scanning an eye across the skyline of modern football, the FA Cup resembles an ancient village hall part-hidden amid the gleaming Champions League spires and Premier League penthouses.
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The old pot contested by Portsmouth and Cardiff City is dismissed as an irrelevance, an anachronism. In fact, the one competition still involving rich and poor has rarely been so important for football's health.
Just listen to Joe Ledley, the Cardiff midfielder: "My dream is to walk around the city and see kids wearing only Cardiff shirts instead of Manchester United ones." Such sentiments will be echoed in towns like Barnsley, vanquished by Ledley's semi-final volley, and countless other clubs under siege from the media darlings of United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool.
Children gravitate towards glamour and, for Cardiff and Barnsley, stirring Cup runs may turn young local heads away from the game's glitterati. Floating voters can be wooed on the hustings of Wembley campaigns.
If Aaron Ramsey runs at Portsmouth's defence, if Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink rolls back the years, and Dave Jones' neat side spirit the trophy out of England for the first time since 1927, then the impact on Cardiff will be immeasurable.
In the more likely event of Harry Redknapp's men prevailing, then the buzz at Portsmouth will also be immense.
Just try deriding the Cup in front of those Fratton Park season-ticket holders who have rewritten Abide With Me in celebration of their first FA Cup final appearance in 69 years:
Pompey, my life, not just a football team;
Til death us part, with you I live the dream;
Onward we conquer, soon the world will see;
Oh, Portsmouth Football Club, Abide With Me.
Try telling Sol Campbell and Hasselbaink that today does not matter as they pile into each other. Try telling Lassana Diarra that today does not provide a perfect moment to remind Arsenal and Chelsea why they were wrong not to cement him into their midfields.
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Try telling Redknapp and Jones that this will not be the pinnacle of their managerial careers, basking in the limelight after some particularly black clouds threatened to ruin them. The FA Cup makes legends out of mortals and will always retain its place in a nation's heart and on football's skyline.
