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What was sad was how powerful and dangerous ManU looked until that one slip up by Vidic allowd Eto'o to score. It hurt that Fletcher was suspended and not there to help out, as Carrick (who was bloody awful the whole game, IMO) was late in helping back.

From that point on, Barca was by far the better club. They could concentrate on possession and play their own game at that point. They did a great job of covering their weak back 4 (well, weak back 3 plus Puyol) and average - and injured - goalkeeper by controlling the ball in the midfield and not allowing scoring chances. Shoddy MU passing and cheap giveaways were just as much to blame for that, though.

Still, can't complain about Manchester United's season. Community Shield, Carling Cup, Premiere League title and FIFA Club World Cup champions. Good amount of silverware for one year, particularly with all the injuries this season. Great season for the Reds, and with kids like Macheda, the De Silva twins, Welbeck, Gibson and Foster coming up, they will be a force for years.

And we United fans can smile knowing how Chelsea fans must be gnashing their teeth, considering how many penalty kicks they should have been awarded in their semifinal against Barca.

Wow, you wouldn't swap one win for a trophy? How odd, especially since that trophy pulled Man United level in domestic titles. Of course, the Red Devils will go ahead and break the tie next season. Sorry your boys couldn't even compete for a tin-pot trophy this season. Enjoy bridesmaid status!

Huge football/soccer/whateveryouwannacallit fan here. I love watching Premiere League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A, MLS and even the leagues in Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador and Colombia. Champions League is outstanding, pressure-packed football. And World Cup and European Cup are GREAT fun! I even watch the CONCACAF Champions League. I just love the game. Now that might be because my grandfather (who was born near Newcastle, UK) took me to see the New York Cosmos (with Pele at the time) when I was a kid.

As for why it hasn't caught on over here (yet), well, there are many reasons and I think the previous posters have touched on some of them. I personally believe the game has never been properly packaged here from a coverage standpoint. This is starting to change, with ESPN covering Champions League matches the last couple of years (but still only the really big clubs) and the U.S. World Cup qualifiers, as well as some MLS games. I think a lot of American kids don't identify with the game as they get older because the U.S. has not been very successful on the world stage (except on the women's side). But getting back to the TV thing, the sport just doesn't get enough exposure. I had to buy an extra package to get Fox Soccer Channel and I would have to pay an additional $12 per month JUST to get Setanta (by itself!). So I don't have Setanta, but my package included FSC and GolTV. My wife said I watch way too much soccer one day when I wondered aloud whether Bayern Munich would take off Podolski and bring on Klose.

Hockey languished as a dead sport until the 1980 U.S. team won the gold medal. The next 20 years saw a HUGE increase in the sport's popularity, even if that has dropped off quite a bit due to a horrible commissioner running the league into the ground, but I digress. I think a similar U.S. success in soccer would really be a huge boon to the sport here. As squonkster said, youth soccer has really taken off in the last decade, so those kids are bound to grow up fans of the sport and should help things.

The MLS needs to grow in quality and become a "legitimate" pro league also, in order for the U.S. to take notice of the game. Beckham's arrival helped (I think...at least it did from an exposure standpoint), but if a guy like Messi or Kaka played here, it would help. The MLS also needs to join the world's schedule as far as soccer season is concerned. I also think a relegation system here would be fantastic, although it is unlikely to happen due to the corporations getting their hands on it. I think all the North American pro sports would benefit from a tiered system with relegation.

Hey Uhuru...I don't mind so much if we lose Ronaldo. Despite his incredible talent, he's often petulant and selfish. Besides, you know Sir Alex will make the right deal and grab an Iniesta or Ribery to replace him. And no use whining about injuries to Torres or Gerard, when United had 6 defenders, plus Rooney, Giggs and Berbatov ALL out at the same time for a stretch, and lost Hargreaves for the entire season! I like Tevez, but he honestly was so inconsistent this year that you never knew which Tevez you'd get. Certainly he didn't keep the same form as he had last year, and in many games he did nothing but dribble into too much traffic and shoot 20 yards over the goal when he had options on both sides.

I don't remember a whole lot about the Cosmos game, except that New York beat San Diego 5-0 that day. I don't recall George Best, nor was I ever able to catch him in his playing days. My grandfather told me a lot about the game, but at that age (I think I was like 8 years old), most of it went in one ear and out the other. I was just enjoying the spectacle more than anything. I was more into baseball and (American) football at the time. I do remember watching part of Pele's last game on TV.

Because of a lack of coverage, I didn't really become very informed about the game until around the time Beckham was wowing everyone with his set pieces at Manchester United. I became a fan of that team - Beckham, Keane, Van Nistleroy, etc., and it just grew and grew from there, especially when my daughter started playing premiere travel soccer (she's a goalkeeper on a state cup team here in Florida) a few years ago.