FanHouse Frank Lampard

It's probably not going to make up for losing the 2008 Champions League final in rainy Moscow, but Chelsea got a modicum of revenge against Manchester United Sunday by defeating the reigning Premier League champions 4-1 in a penalty shootout after a thrilling 2-2 draw after 90 high-octane minutes at London's Wembley Stadium.

The traditional curtain-raiser for the English season featured a little bit of everything, with the two world powers trading blows and giving each other everything they could handle. The game probably had a little more juice than other Community Shield matches due to the longstanding rivalry between the clubs.

As an American fan of the English soccer scene, the FA Cup remains a weird outlier. It has some appeal, yes, but the aura and mystic the well-over 100-year knockout tournament seems to be lost in the Atlantic translation.

In any event, the FA Cup signals the traditional end of the English season and Saturday at London's Wembley Stadium Chelsea beat Everton 2-0 to send short-term coach Guus Hiddink out a winner. It was the fifth FA Cup for Chelsea.