Major League Soccer's top honor goes to the Columbus Crew who where favored to win the championship. This is the teams first franchise championship. The managed to beat out New York's Red Bulls.

Chad Marshall snapped a tie in the 52nd minute and Frankie Hejduk added an insurance goal 30 minutes later as the Crew recorded a 3-1 triumph over the New York Red Bulls on Sunday in the MLS Cup Final.

League MVP Guillermo Barros Schelotto recorded a Cup Final-record three assists to help deliver a championship in his second season in MLS. Fittingly, the captain claimed MVP honors for Sunday's match as well.

"I'm still a little numb," said Columbus coach Sigi Schmid, who became the first head coach to win MLS Cup titles with two different teams. He won in 2002 with the Los Angeles Galaxy.

"You go through a lot of emotions when you win a game like this. I'm happy for our team and the city of Columbus. We stuck together all year. We're a team. The group was tremendous and worked hard every day. That's what got us here and that's how we did it."

Columbus cruised to the Supporters' Shield during the regular season but did not have much success against the Red Bulls, who took two of three meetings -- including a 3-1 victory at Giants Stadium on October 18 as New York was making its playoff push.

But the Crew were up to the task when it counted. In fact, they hardly let the Red Bulls garner any momentum at all.

After New York forward John Wolyniec leveled the match in the 51st minute, Columbus immediately answered and reclaimed the lead -- this time for good.

"I believe we were a better team the second half," Schelotto said. "The first half was tough for us. After our second goal, I thought we would settle down and were a better team at that point. I thought that we would hold on and clamp down on them and take it to the end and win."

Schelotto delivered a perfect corner kick right in front of the net to Marshall, who knocked home what proved to be the game-winner.

The Crew maintained control throughout the rest of the second half with an aggressive offensive mentality -- and that paid off once again in the 82nd minute.

Schelotto lofted a high lob pass to Hejduk, who scored on a header to essentially put the game out of reach, all but officially bringing the Philip F. Anschutz Trophy to Columbus.

"I think we were the better team with better chances to score," Red Bulls coach Juan Carlos Osorio said. "We limited them to one chance and they put it away. We came out strong in the second half, got back in the game.

"Then to give up a goal so soon off a corner was very disappointing. It was too easy. My guys played with pride and passion, and that's all I can ask for."

Alejandro Moreno, who led the Crew with nine goals this season, opened the scoring in the 31st minute Sunday. From the right side of the box, the Venezuelan forward dribbled a soft roller just past the outstretched arm of New York goalkeeper Danny Cepero. The ball slipped inside the left post for a 1-0 lead.

"The field was a little weird. It was spongy, it took us a while to get used to it," Marshall said. "We were under a lot of pressure in the first half and getting that goal against the run of play was what we needed at that time.

"They're an offensive-minded team and that's what we expected. They're good at switching around to confuse defenses and with the speed of Dane Richards, we're lucky to have gotten away in the first half with just one goal."

Early in the second half, the Red Bulls answered as Wolyniec redirected Dane Richards' pass with his left foot and poked it past goalkeeper William Hesmer to knot the game at 1-1.

But Schelotto and company ultimately were too much for New York, as Columbus claimed the league title in its first-ever appearance in the MLS Cup final.

It was a fitting end to what was often a dominant regular season for the Crew, who compiled 17 victories and 57 points during the season. That included a nine-game unbeaten streak that lasted more than two months before, ironically, the Red Bulls' aforementioned 3-1 triumph in October brought it to an end.

Schelotto posted a league-best 19 assists and added six during the postseason.

The Crew rebounded after missing the playoffs the last three years, as they finished in sixth in the Eastern Conference each campaign. They defeated the Kansas City Wizards, 4-1, in their first-round aggregate series before outlasting the Chicago Fire and their stingy defense in the conference final.

"We had a rough spot in June and July, but we put that behind us," Moreno said. "My hat's off to Sigi and it's great to win in L.A."

For the Red Bulls, the road to the title game was a lot rockier. In fact, they needed a bit of help from Columbus to even qualify for the playoffs.

New York had a chance to clinch a spot in its regular-season finale, but dropped an unimpressive 5-2 decision to Chicago. However, the Crew's 1-0 win over D.C. United delivered the fourth and final Western Conference playoff berth to the Red Bulls.

They upset the two-time reigning champion Houston Dynamo in the first round and advanced to the MLS Cup final with a 1-0 victory over Real Salt Lake in last weekend's Western Conference final.

Schelotto became the third player to win both league MVP and MLS Cup MVP honors in the same year.

Tony Meola was the first, accomplishing the feat in 2000 as he backstopped the Kansas City Wizards to their MLS Cup championship. Carlos Ruiz did it two seasons later, following a 24-goal season with a golden goal in the Cup final to give the Los Angeles Galaxy their first MLS title.

Can University of Michigan be good at basketball again? They haven't been good since the fab 5 days. Some how they made it to the 2k Sports Classic Finals. Although, Duke is not the greatest team this year either, they have always been a good competitor due to their awesome leadership of coach K. Michigan's new coach might actually get them back to March Madness. They might actually give close by Michigan State some competition as MSU is always a great team thanks to Coach Tom Izzo.

The University of Michigan men's basketball team fell short in its bid to upset its second top-10 opponent in as many nights as the Wolverines dropped a 71-56 decision to Duke (No. 10 AP/No. 5 ESPN/USA Today) in the championship game of the 2K Sports Classic benefiting Coaches vs. Cancer Friday night (Nov. 21) at Madison Square Garden. U-M (3-1) put forth a strong effort in the first half and trailed by just eight points at the break, but the Blue Devils (5-0) opened the second half with an 8-2 run to build a double-digit lead that stood for the remainder of the contest.

Michigan will have another crack at Duke in two weeks when the Wolverines host the Blue Devils on Saturday, Dec. 6, in front of a sold-out crowd of 13,751 in Crisler Arena (ESPN).

Sophomore Manny Harris (Detroit, Mich./Redford HS) notched his third 20-point effort of the season, finishing with a game-high 25 points while hitting all but one of his 12 free-throw attempts. Junior DeShawn Sims (Detroit, Mich./Pershing HS) had another strong outing, tallying 10 points and three rebounds off the bench. Sophomore Kelvin Grady (Grand Rapids, Mich./East Grand Rapids HS) gave a solid effort with a game-high six assists to go along with five points and four boards, while senior/junior Zack Gibson (Grand Blanc, Mich./Grand Blanc HS) contributed six points and five rebounds.

Michigan, which advanced to the championship game with a 55-52 upset win over No. 4-ranked UCLA less than 24 hours before tonight's tip, had trouble finding a rhythm on offense for a majority of the contest. U-M finished the game shooting just 36 percent from the field (19-of-53), including 27 percent from three-point range (6-of-22).

Duke extended a 39-31 halftime lead to 14 points by putting together an 8-2 run while limiting the Wolverines to just two free throws in the first 3:39 of the second half. Harris kept Michigan in contention by scoring the team's first nine points of the half, including a fast-break dunk that cut Duke's advantage to 47-38 with 15:14 left in the game.

U-M had difficulty gaining any further momentum as the Blue Devils held the Wolverines without a field goal for a span of 7:04 while pushing their lead to 59-42 at 8:37. Harris and Sims gave Michigan hope by combining for the team's next 12 points, but U-M was unable to draw any closer than 65-53 in the remaining minutes of the game.

Duke jumped out to a 9-2 lead in the first 3:06 of the action, converting on four-of-six attempts from the field while limiting the Wolverines to just a pair of Harris free throws. Gibson stepped up and delivered back-to-back layups to narrow the gap to 9-6 at 14:36.

With the Blue Devils leading 12-6, Grady came off the bench and promptly hit the team's first three-pointer before draining a soft baseline jumper to keep the Duke lead at 14-11 with 12:32 remaining in the first half. Sims followed Grady's lead as he entered the game and collected a pair of baskets to cut the deficit to 17-15 at 11:02.

Duke came out of the television timeout and strung together an 8-0 run over a span 1:55 to extend its lead to 25-15 with 8:57 left until the break. The Blue Devils sustained a double-digit cushion over the next three minutes of play until freshman Stu Douglass (Carmel, Ind./Carmel HS) knocked down a triple in transition to trim the Duke advantage to 29-22 at the six-minute mark of the first half.

Michigan scored five unanswered points in the closing minutes of the half, with junior/sophomore Anthony Wright (Sterling, Va./Oak Hill Academy) draining a three-pointer and Gibson slamming home two off fifth-year senior C.J. Lee's (Pittsford, N.Y./Pittsford Sutherland HS) steal, resulting in a 35-29 Blue Devil lead with 2:42 to play. Duke responded with four quick points, but Harris hit a tough jumper in the final minute to keep the deficit in single digits, 39-31, heading into the break.