Soccer

A day after rival Liverpool was knocked out of the 2009-10 Champions League, its long time rival Manchester United suffered a shock 1-0 defeat to Besiktas at Old Trafford Wednesday.

However, unlike Liverpool which dropped into the second-tier Europa League, Manchester United is still through to the knockout, but it has to wait until the final matchday on Dec. 8 to win the group. United need at least a point when it plays at Wolfsburg to place first, which could be important with the possibly of a knockout Round of 16 match against teams like Real Madrid, Barcelona or Inter Milan.

SEATTLE -- If the scene occurred in Buenos Aires, London or Istanbul, it would prompt the sort of story you told your friends back home when you wanted to make a point about the difference in passion between foreign and American sports fans, or about soccer's unique ability to unite and galvanize people.

Except it occurred here, in the United States, in a city that has embraced the world's game with a colorful fervor that left an impact on everyone who attended Sunday's MLS Cup final. Fans in Seattle have set a standard that even the visiting supporters worked hard to match (see Real Salt Lake's effort above) and definitely have earned the right to hold their "No Equal" scarves aloft.

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) - Liverpool defeated Debrecen 1-0 in the Champions League but failed to qualify for the knockout stage as Fiorentina secured the last qualification spot in Group E with victory over Lyon.

"I'm very disappointed because we had chances in all the games," said Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez. "We have to be disappointed but at least we won. We did our job today."

SEATTLE -- David Beckham could be an MLS owner in 2012 and the league is considering letting the higher-seeded finalist host MLS Cup as early as next year, Commissioner Don Garber said at halftime of Sunday evening's championship game at Qwest Field. Meeting with journalists, including FanHouse, during what he called "a very memorable night for soccer in America," Garber touched on those issues, the designated player rule, expansion and more. Take a look at his comments after the jump.

Welcome to FanHouse UK's Premier League Rankings, a regular look at who's hot and who's not in the world's best football competition.

Have we followed the crowd and gone Tottenham-crazy after Jermain Defoe's stunning weekend showing? And just what does Arsenal's surprising defeat at Sunderland do to our rankings of the division's most in-form teams?

FanHouse has used the latest, most in-depth objective statistical data, balanced with the purely subjective views of our expert staff, to come up with the answers.

All this - and much more - is revealed below ...

Cesc Fabregas has hinted he could be prepared to end his career with Arsenal, which represents a bold statement from the Spain international, who is still only 22.

His comments will be welcomed by Arsenal supporters, but is it realistic to expect Arsenal to keep their prized asset for the next decade?

It certainly seems unlikely, when even a clubs such as Manchester United cannot retain a hold on their best player when a Spanish giant comes calling.

SEATTLE - Major League Soccer's new champion lost more games than it won during an up-and-down regular season that featured a winless May, a winless September and just two victories on the road. In 240 minutes of play in the MLS Cup semifinal and final, it managed to score just one goal.

Yet Sunday night at Qwest Field, Real Salt Lake confidently proclaimed it was a deserving winner. And nobody really was arguing with them. Despite the unflattering statistics and the absence of the kind of star power that filled the Los Angeles Galaxy's somber locker room down the hall, RSL managed to convert the nonbelievers with an uncanny ability to dictate the flow of their playoff games regardless of the obstacles. Sunday night was the biggest test, and best example, of them all.

SEATTLE -- Real Salt Lake's playmaker, Javier Morales, was lost in the 22nd minute, the victim of a hard tackle from David Beckham. Nineteen minutes later, Beckham and Landon Donovan combined to create a goal by midfielder Mike Magee that put the favored Los Angeles Galaxy ahead. It was hard to imagine then that there was any way the upstarts from Salt Lake City could find their way back into Sunday night's MLS Cup final.

But Morales' replacement, American soccer's prodigal son, Clint Mathis, and striker Robbie Findley led the way. Real Salt Lake has been beating the odds for more than a month now, qualifying for the postseason on the final weekend despite an 11-12-7 record and defeating two heavily-favored playoff opponents on the road. On Sunday they again made the impossible possible, tying the game at 1-1 on a second-half goal by Findley and riding goalie Nick Rimando and Donovan's stunning miss to a 5-4 win in the penalty kick shootout.

SEATTLE -- If David Beckham, Landon Donovan and the Los Angeles Galaxy are the focus of this Sunday's MLS Cup final (ESPN, 8:30 p.m. ET), then Real Salt Lake is the afterthought. The relatively anonymous, five-year-old club from the nation's 49th-most populous metro area could not be more different than the star-studded team whose presence forced organizers to release several thousand more tickets to fill the increased demand.

SEATTLE -- It's common knowledge that soccer fans are a bit of a different breed. They care less about comfort and more about spectacle. The sight of a whole section of supporters singing, waiving enormous flags and lighting flares would be shocking at Yankee Stadium or Heinz Field, yet it's expected at soccer venues around the world and is becoming relatively common in MLS. That passion also affects change -- executives know it's not a good idea to upset these people.

More so than any other American sports league, MLS has embraced that relationship. While fans elsewhere struggle with nonsense like the BCS, personal seat licenses and Daniel Snyder, MLS supporters have driven the league's evolution (speaking out against gimmicks like the shootout), have worked directly with clubs on ticketing and marketing and enjoy an annual audience with the commissioner that is unimaginable in any other league.