The Community Shield, the curtain-raiser for the Premier League.
It was important because it was a clash between the Premier League champions and the FA Cup winners. The level of the participating teams was self-evident.
In terms of the quality of the teams involved, it was somewhat like the Super Cup in other leagues.
But if one said it was unimportant, that was because it differed from the Super Cups in other leagues. Teams could make six substitutions, which made it essentially a preseason match. Besides, as everyone knew, the Community Shield was really a charity match.
Many people even generally believed that the Community Shield carried a curse.
That was, teams that won the Community Shield often failed to win the Premier League title in the new season.
Of course, that was nonsense. It was not always true, but the probability was still fairly high.
As a result, there had long been a saying that certain teams would strategically give up on the Community Shield to avoid hurting team morale and focus on challenging for the league title, using the match mainly to give their players experience.
But it also depended on the circumstances.
For example, this year's Community Shield featured a Manchester derby. It was a match no one could afford to ignore.
Before the match, both teams had built up a tense, decisive atmosphere, making fans around the world look forward to a peak showdown in the Community Shield. Yet when the match began and both sides revealed their starting lineups, many people felt deeply disappointed.
Why?
Neither side had fielded its key players!
Maybe it was because they had taken part in Van der Sar's testimonial match, but Manchester United had made major adjustments to their lineup.
De Gea was in goal. The back four