greenred wrote:Battle of goalscoring goalie and the 'big tall bloke'
Alex Bellos
Sunday December 18, 2005
The Observer
In Europe, it is regarded as a mildly diverting Christmas distraction. In South America, it is seen as the pinnacle of club sporting achievement. You can judge for yourself if you are up in time for Liverpool play Sao Paulo live from Tokyo on BBC2 this morning.
Fifa have taken over the event, embellishing what was a one-match duel between the champions of Europe and South America, known as the Intercontinental Cup, with the champions of the four other continental confederations. The spirit of inclusivity gave the two favourites little more than shooting practice in the semi-finals.
Liverpool will be hoping it is third time lucky, having lost here twice before, in 1981 and 1984. Sao Paulo won in 1992 and 1993 and victory this time would make them Brazil's most successful club.
Enjoying a record run of 12 clean sheets, the European champions are the in-form team. The Brazilians will be playing as if their lives depended on it. Sao Paulo, with reported disquiet in their ranks about money and loyalty, had a couple of scares in their 3-2 defeat of Saudi Arabia's Al Ittihad.
The greatest threat to Liverpool comes from an unlikely source. Sao Paulo's top scorer this year is their goalkeeper, Rogerio Ceni, 11 of whose 21 goals have come from free-kicks.
Ceni is the captain and heart of the team, which, like most of the best Brazilian clubs, is basically a mix of young or recently discovered talents about to move to Europe and ageing stars just off the plane home. Cicinho, the sprightly right wing-back, chose Real Madrid over Manchester United this year, although his transfer in January is now in doubt since Vanderlei Luxemburgo was sacked from the Bernabeu. Cicinho is seen as the long-term replacement in the national squad for captain Cafu, who was in the Sao Paulo team for their 1992 and 1993 titles.
Former Parma team-mates Junior and Amoroso are the most glittering of Sao Paulo's European returnees, with Amoroso scoring two goals in the semi-finals. Rafael Benitez will also be watching Lugano, the Uruguay central defender, who was recently rumoured to be on Liverpool's shopping list.
Since Sao Paulo won the Copa Libertadores in July, their minds have been on preparing for Tokyo, the justification for a poor eleventh place in the Brazilian league. As a measure of the seriousness of their planning, the club consulted Brazil's Sleep Institute for advice on jet lag, and battery-powered electrical stimulators were distributed to players during the flight to Japan to keep their muscles active.
On arriving in Tokyo - five days before Liverpool - the focus had been lost, with the Brazilian press reporting arguments between the team about their winners' bonuses and irritation at Amoroso, who had allegedly signed a pre-contract agreement with a Japanese club. The players imposed a temporary ban on contact with journalists.
Paulo Autuori, Sao Paulo's coach, was calm after watching Liverpool's 3-0 semi-final victory over Costa Rica's Deportivo Saprissa. 'It wasn't anything I didn't already know,' he said.
According to Junior, it is wrong to call Liverpool favourites. 'Their game is about trying to get high balls to the big tall bloke,' he said of Peter Crouch. 'We have to be careful of that. But we are capable of being champions. There are lots of quality players in our team.'
This year's event is Fifa's second attempt at organising a world club competition and its chances of survival appear better than the first version.
Manchester United and Real Madrid took part in the inaugural Club World Championship in Brazil in 2000, which was won by Sao Paulo's city rivals Corinthians and whose format was quickly abandoned.
Wow.... the only article worth reading so far in english...... it sums it up quite nicely.. although I doubt you don't want this title that much... I see members counting the hours to kick-off........ ahahhaha but you're going to lose...
. I'd like to know your criteria to put the score
