LONDON, England - Chelsea had to lean on the heroics of Didier Drogba in the 116 minutes to escape past Manchester United and win their fifth FA Cup title in front of a full packed multi million brand new Wembley stadium.

As I have said in my previous piece, the first team who could score a goal should win the FA Cup. Chelsea proved that in spite of crippling injuries to their key players, Andriy Shevchenko and Michael Ballack.

The blues were made of sturner stuff as they held the Red Devils and unleashed the `Drog' in the second half of extra time to finish off their season with their another title.

It was Mourinho's 5th title with Chelsea since he took charge in 2003. He won two Premiership titles and two Carling Cups trophies. Only the Champion's League title for Chelsea remains evasive for the `Chosen One'. They will just watch Liverpool take on AC Milan for Europe's most famous trophy on Wednesday in Athens, Greece.

The match did not do justice to the grand opening of the world's most famous stadium, the Wembley, with no less than the future King of England, Prince William declaring the stadium officially open, although lots of matches have already been played in the venue the previous weeks.

It was a thrilling game for Chelsea and Man United fans as one could feel hearts pounding every time there were chances or half chances of scoring goals. But for neutrals, the tight defending showed that the match was a bore.

It was really tight from the start with Man United getting the upper hand early. Wayne Rooney and Ryan Giggs led the Red Devils attack only to be frustrated by the world class defending of Peter Cech. Rooney had a couple of solo runs but Cech was always ahead of him to stop the ball from going to the back of the net.

Their best effort however, was a Ryan Giggs shot from point blank which Cech caught with his body over the goal line. Video footage showed the ball went across the line and should have been a goal. But the referee saw otherwise and Giggs' complain went into deaf ears and the match had to go on.

It was not an all Man United affair though, as Chelsea also had their own chances or half chances, with Drogba and Frank Lampard leading the attacks. Lampard who scored 21 goals from the midfield this season, missed a chance after a pass from Drogba early in the first half. Drogba, who also found the back of the net 32 times this season, had his own despair he also failed to hit the target earlier.

But nobody could steal the thunder from the `Drog' as he made sure the day belonged to him. The build up came from Mikel and a one-two pass from Lampard opened Man United's defense.

There, Drogba found him self alone with only goalkeeper Edwin Van De Sar to take care of. He then slipped past the ball over his head to record his 33rd goal for the season and cement another winning season for the Blues in spite of all the in-fighting talks.

Chelsea is not certain if they could keep their marquee players next season. AC Milan has already announced that they will pay Chelsea £28 million to get Drogba to pair with Ronaldo up front. Lampard and John Terry are not settled yet after they failed to sign contract extentions. Lots of Italian and Spanish clubs are interested to see their signatures on the dotted line.

Lampard and Terry are asking for contract similar to expensive Shevchenko and Ballack. Sheva is reportedly getting £121,00 a week while Ballack £120,000. Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich was reported on the national tabloids of refusing to bow down to the two England international's demands. The report said Abramovich told the pair to take their offered contracts or leave the club.

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

This Wednesday Liverpool, take on AC Milan for the Champions League title in Athens. The Reds are the underdogs once again. The last time they met in 2005 for the same title in Instanbul, Liverpool were also the underdogs. They even trailed at halftime by three goals until they rallied in the second half and drew the contest at 3-3. They then frustrated Milan in the penalty shootout to win their sixth European title.

Milan are ready to seek revenge and want the title again. They have a formidable team with Kaka leading the charge. They also have Gennard Gatuso, Clarence Sedorff, Andre Pirlo and probably one of the best defender in the world Alessandro Nesta. Liverpool have captain Steven Gerald, Dirk Kyut, Daniel Agger, and Peter Croach to lean on.

Frenchman Djibril Cisse is dying to come back to Liverpool after one year loan spell with Marseille. The £14million man from Auxerre wants either he plays for Liverpool next season or be sold to another Premiership club. Cisse broke his leg twice playing for Liverpool but scored 14 goals with Marseille this season according to the News of the World tabloid.

Cisse is married to an English lady and his family is in Liverpool.

FORGET BASKETBALL

The RP national basketball team is being lavished with millions of pesos and support from the country's biggest conglomerate, San Miguel Corporation. But look at their performance at the Asian Champions Cup in Iran. They were slaughtered by a Syrian club twice. Is Syria really that good now a days that the RP national team look like high school players against them?

San Miguel should think a million times or should have thought about it a long time ago. Stop investing in the giant's game because Filipinos are not tall. We have sent an all professional team to Iran in preparation for the Asian Olympics qualifying tournament. Against mobile seven-footers our 6ft-8 centers are no match. Our tallest cager Asi Taulava, who is even a questionable Filipino, was plastered and could not even give a decent fight. He was like a flyweight boxing a super heavyweight.

Their performances were luckluster but not single reporter or columnist in the national and local dailies have blasted them. I know the reason why. I worked long enough with the Philippine media. Basketball qualifying for the Olympics? It is like Watford winning the Premier League.

San Miguel officials wake up and invest in soccer instead. Give the money you give to basketball to soccer and the Philippines can beat China, Korea, Japan and anyone. We can even qualify and win the World Cup. In soccer we do not have any physical disadvantage. In basketball, the Filipinos lack one of the most important thing to succeed, `height'. GOD BLESS