There are times when the marketing aces at the Barclay's Premier League home office must get a little tired of constantly telling anyone who will listen that the league is the greatest in the world. Surely partisans in Barcelona and Madrid would argue otherwise. However smug these assertions might come off, the Premier League did get another amazing game to add to its resume and worldwide popularity in the form of Manchester United's last-minute 4-3 derby victory over Manchester City at Old Trafford. As far as a 90-minute soccer game goes, it's hard to ask for more than anything than this match because it had pretty much everything.
Let's face it, the European method of pulling names out from the proverbial hat to determine the pairings for its knockout competitions is, well, a foreign concept. About the only Stateside comparison is the selection committee drawing up the NCAA Tournament brackets every March.
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.
Circle September 20 on your calendars. That's the day Manchester City comes to Old Trafford in the 2009-10 Premier League season and it'll be bringing a familiar face along --
File this one away under something that nobody, I mean nobody, saw coming.
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Manchester United brought a one-goal lead into the second leg of their Champions League semifinal clash with AC Milan ... among the things they did not bring, however, were pride and an ability to defend.
"Fan" might not even be the right word ... it sort of sounds like Terry has Cristiano Ronaldo posters all over his bedroom walls. And it's a little bit odd, as the nominees for the Premiership's player of the year were just announced, and the top two candidates are Cristiano and Terry's Chelsea teammate, Didier Drogba.

























