I really envy the Japanese futbol fans for having such an opportunity to experience world-class action nearly every year! Well, to be precise, its 5 times! Year 2005 – 2008 & 2011. This FIFA Club World Cup will be held again in Japan next year whichafter the competition will be moved to Morocco for the subsequent 2 years.
So every year, this competition will have the best teams from each continent to battle out who’s the best of the best. 18 Dec 2011, Santos took on Barcelona at Yokohama’s Nissin Stadium, I believe everybody has got their guess correct – Europe’s Barcelona easily cruised past the South American’s with a score of 4-0 which left the South Americans speechless in Japan (I know for the fact that the South Americans couldn’t say Japanese anyway).
Result is the one separating a winner and a loser. Put this 4-0 scoreline aside. If you managed to catch this game, you were treated to a game full of great passes, individual close controlling and intelligent goals. Barca is known for their tiki-taka style of play – their short and sharp one-two passes literally tore the South Americans’ midfield apart. That explained why Barca had 71% of the game possession compared to Santos’ 29%.
Barca was not in the hurry to launch crosses into the box while Santos seems to be losing their usual self by allowing the Catalan players to turn the game into an exhibition game. Santos’ number-11, Neymar, looked out of position until probably into the third-quarter of the game, amazingly he looked alive (again). And if you are those sort of futbol player who always find no one to pass in your game, you would fall in love with Barca’s futbol. Especially in Barca’s attacking third-half, there were no shortage of off-the-ball running cum supporting run for Xavi! Supporting players were always the one making the first move, the inter-positioning change which made the game-flow looked like an ever-moving jigsaw puzzle, its real beauty.
Barcelona won this FIFA Club World Cup for the second time. Golden and Silver Ball went to Messi and Xavi respectively. All time top scorer of this competition is Messi (again) with 4 goals. So will the Catalan players retain the crown back-to-back next year? Hopefully I can be in Japan to blog about this “LIVE”!
11 thoughts on “FIFA Club World Cup 2011”