MANCHESTER UNITED - WORLD CHAMPIONS

 

 

Even forgetting the farce in Brazil, United do have a decent degree of experience of Intercontenental competition. Before the Club World Cup started up, the Intercontinental Cup was run as a mini-competition between the winners of the European Cup/Champions League and their opposite numbers in the Copa Libatadores. The last United team to be involved in that competition were what remained of the trable winners of '99 - they faced Brazilian side Palmeiras(coached by Luis Felipe Scolari) at the International Stadium. Me, I was in the middle of my A Levels at the time, so had to tape the match, but when I got home, I saw the Reds win 1-0, making us the first English team to win an intercontinental title.

This time around, the team standing between us and global glory is Liga Deportiva Universitaria de Quito aka LDU Quito or La Ligas. They play in Serie A, the Ecuadorian Serie A that is. They started up in 1930 and have since become one of the biggest names in Ecuadorian football, winning nine league titles. More recently though, they gained even more credibility, winning the 2008 Copa Libatadores, making them in theory, the best team in South America. They've been credited with unearthing a lot of the players that have taken the Ecuador national team to the last two World Cups and as South Americans, they take intercontinental competition very seriously indeed.

European fans, particularly British fans, do not take intercontinental club competition particularly seriously, even if the United players and fans are starting to. And even then, world was United were starting to switch back to GMT even before the final was played, so they could return to Premiership action in good condition. Still, it was the Club World Cup final and some part of me must have recognised the occasion given the tenseness I felt pre-match, and I was a long way from the International Stadium. We went 4-4-2. Rafael at right back, Rio as captain. Ronaldo right mid, Carrick and Anderson centre mid, Park left mid, Rooney and Tevez up front.

Well credit where credit's due, LDU were well up for the rumble, carving out an early attacking opportunity which they really should have scored from. After that though, United were the main attackers, battering the opposition goal, but LDU, surely the underdogs in this tie, certainly knew how to defend. Every ball that went into the LDU box was either dealt with by their defence or goalie Jose Cevallos got in the way. United had the class and had the local fans drooling all over them, but couldn't find the net. And LDU could never be counted out. As the whistle blew for half time I just became more nervous, if we weren't careful we were going to get mugged.

Things looked even more ominous at the start of the second half as one of our guys got red carded. Nothing we could complain about but it certainly fired up LDU and our defence was busy for a while. United are never going to lie down though and finally in the 73rd minute came up with the goods. Carrick found Ronaldo who slid the ball to Rooney and the England assasin stuffed it in the net! The weight was lifted from United's shoulders for a bit only for the nerves to return late on as LDU came up with a late attacking surge. We managed to keep them out. Tick tick tick. Then the final whistle blew and don't try telling the United players that this competition doesn't mean anything.

Elsewhere, there were some loose ends to tie up. Firstly, Adelaide United managed to beat Al Ahly 1-0 in the fifth placed playoff at the International Stadium, the A-League team hitting an early winner. Given that the Egyptian side are legendary in their part of the world, that was a bit of a shock. And then later on in the International Stadium, Gamba Osaka beat Pachuca in the third place playoff. Gamba got the only goal of the game in the first half and held on despite finishing with 10 men. Congratulations to Gamba who gave us quite a match in the semis, though this competition still seems to be dominated by European and South American sides, at least the J-Leaguers can claim to be best of the rest.

Manchester United though, can claim to be not only the best club side in the world but the first Premiership team to win the Club World Cup as we currently know it. That makes it two trophies so far in 2008/09 and 2008 isn't even finished yet. As for the players, well it's the first intercontinental medals of any kind for Rio, Vidic, Evra, Ronaldo, Carrick, Rooney, Berbatov, Nani and Rafael. For van de Saar and Tevez it's their first intercontinental medals with United(van de Saar having previously won the Intercontinental Cup with Ajax in '95 and Tevez with Boca Juniors in '03). But no one in the squad can claim to have won this particular trophy before.

Back closer to home and Aberdeen faced Inverness CT at the Caledonian Stadium in the SPL. The Dons were attacking from the start and Charlie Mulgrew opened the scoring with a freekick. Caley then started to attack but couldn't find an equaliser before half time. In the second half the Donds were looking for more and Gary McDonald and Mackie put the Dons three up! Caley had a good attacking run late on but weren't even able to come up with a consolation goal despite claims they should have had a pen on one occasion! The Dons look well on track after thier third win in a row involving three quality goals puts them well in the mixer for a European spot.

Elsewhere, Hearts drew 0-0 with Dundee United at Tynecastle in a game where both sides were going all out but the Edinburgh side did have the better match, though neither side could make the most of the opportunities they were given. Kilmarnock lost 1-0 to St Mirren at Rugby Park with the vistors scoring the only goal of the game in the first half. Killie had the slight edge in the second half but weren't able to use it to find an equaliser. That leaves Aberdeen in 5th place in the SPL, four points behind Hearts and a Europa League spot and five points ahead of Kilmarnock and the bottom half of the table. A very comfortable position going into Xmas.

South of the border, there was some Premiership action going on while United were in Japan. The biggest eyebrow raiser was Villa beating West Ham 1-0 at Upton Park with a late og allowing Martin O'Neil's crew to collect the three points. The biggest league game of the weekend though involved Arsenal drawing 1-1 with Liverpool at the Emirates Stadium, Arsene Wenger later complaining that his team shouldn't have had a man sent off. That leaves United sliding down to 4th in the Premiership and currently having to settle for a Champions League preliminaries spot. We're two points behind Villa and a direct route into the group stages but still one point ahead of Arsenal and a Europa League spot. We still have two games in hand though.

Merry Xmas people.

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