FanHouse Manchester United

WEMBLEY, England (AP) -- Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson was banned from the bench for four games - two of them suspended - and fined $32,000 on Thursday for criticizing the fitness of referee Alan Wiley after a Premier League game.

Ferguson received the punishment when he appeared before a Football Association disciplinary panel at Wembley Stadium on a misconduct charge.

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.

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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.

To whit, Thursday in Monaco, UEFA staged its annual gala to determine the groups for the 2009-10 Champions League replete with glitz, glamor and the former Miss Switzerland pulling balls out of pots. Certainly a far cry from a group of middle-aged men sitting together in a hotel room discussing RPI.

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.

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 -- Carlos Tevez.

Monday afternoon suddenly cash-flush City continued it's summer spending spree by inking the Argentina striker to a five-year deal, shortly after he couldn't agree to a permanent deal with the three-time defending Premier League champions.

File this one away under something that nobody, I mean nobody, saw coming. Michael Owen was at Manchester United's training ground for medical tests and could sign with the Premier League champions before Friday is over.

It's not too often that a transfer is actually shocking, but if this one goes down it's a Grade A stunner. After losing Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez it's hard to fathom that Sir Alex Ferguson is chasing down a player who could barely stay on the field during his star-crossed tenure at Newcastle United. In fact, I read somewhere that Ronaldo and Tevez scored more goals the last two seasons than Owen made appearances.

Manchester United ... Barcelona ... the UEFA Champions League final. What more really needs to be said?

Wednesday night in Rome (ESPN, 2:25 PM ET) the best team in Europe will be crowned in a contest pitting the champions of what are considered the two top professional leagues in the world -- the (English) Premier League and La Liga. Oh right, there's the juicy subplot between two of the world's best players, too, with Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi squaring off at the Stadio Olimpico.

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. Milan embarrassed them in every way, winning 3-0.

It's a bit of a shame ... had United been able to get even a draw, it would've set up a battle in the finals between Premier League rivals Manchester United and Liverpool. I guess everyone's entitled to an off day every now and then, but to me at least, Milan vs. Liverpool is a far less appealing final. I'll still watch, but ... not with a ton of excitement.

Anyway, I don't know what United's deal was. They looked more like Scunthorpe United than Manchester United today ... they were timid, they had no rhythm, they looked like they were playing scared. They rarely resembled the team they usually are.

It's time for a quick United recovery ... they can wrap up the Premiership this weekend with a win in the Manchester Derby, and a little help from Arsenal against Chelsea. The chances of them looking this brutal two games in a row, I believe, are pretty slim.

"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.

Terry favors Cristiano for the award, and in a big, big way.

'I could watch Manchester United just to watch him. He does things with the ball that you don't see anyone else in the world doing the at the minute. He is the best in the world at the moment.

'When he is at his best I don't think there are many people who can stop him. When he is running at you like he does with his skills and tricks, you don't know which way he is going.

Straight into the strong, loving arms of John Terry, if Terry has his way.

Don't get me wrong, I love watching Cristiano as much as anyone, but he's supposed to be Terry's arch rival. A simple "he's pretty good" would have done just fine. Admiration for a competitor's game isn't at all inappropriate, but I don't know that the excessive gushing was necessary. Especially when Terry's teammate Drogba has two more goals on the season than Cristiano.