Spanish Football Club Real Madrid have crowned themselves FIFA World Clubs Champions after defeating Japanese Club Kashima Antlers 4 - 2 in extra-time in the Final. Tough game which surprised everyone with Kashima putting in an excellent performance & could have taken the Final.
In the end the huge physical effort put in by the Japanese made them pay the price of allowing spaces & dropping in concentration. This & some bad luck - Antlers hit the post in extra-time - allowed Real Madrid to pull away in the final part of this very interesting encounter.
Kashima had their plan & never swayed from it throughout the whole match. Intense marking & defending looking for counter-attacks. Real Madrid may have sinned of going into this Final with "over confidence" but soon were put back to Earth by Kashima. Real Madrid got ahead first with Karim Benzema opening with his 9th min goal. However, Kashima then gradually gained control & equalized in the 43rd min through Shibasaki & went ahead in the 51st min, again Shabaski.
Danger lights appeared & Real Madrid put in an extra effort to find the equalizer in the 60th min through a Cristiano Ronaldo penalty after Lucas Vazquez was fouled in the goal area. The match was then end to end stuff & Real Madrid was suffering up to the 90th min. Kashima was dominating totally & took the game into extra-time.
It was during the extra-time that Real Madrid pulled from experience, quality & pride as Kashima fell in intensity & tiredness took its toll. In two actions Cristiano Roanldo scored in the 98th min & again in the 118th min to get his HAT-TRICK. Curiously Ronaldo had been playing badly & having an ordinary night until he exploded in just 10-15 mins.
The controversial moment was when the referee forgave a possible second yellow card to Real Madrid defender Sergio Ramos. Had it been shown it would have left Real Madrid with 10 men & given Kashima a big advantage. No doubt this will be a big talking point post-match.
Lastly, outstanding game from Modric, Benzema & Lucas Vazquez, while Navas made some important saves.
Another title for Real Madrid which claims the World Clubs Champions title to rounds off an extraordinary 2016.
FC BARCELONA proclaimed themselves the 2011 "FIFA Club World Cup Champion" after defeating Brazilian Club SANTOS 0 - 4. Its the second title of this character for Barça which won their last back in 2009 in Qatar.
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| Lionel Messi |
FC Barcelona demonstrated - if there was any doubt - that the Club is currently the "Best in the World", & their midfielder LIONEL MESSI once again raised for the occasion to be voted the MVP, ie he was prized with the competitions "Golden Ball". I personally would have given Barça defender Dani Alves a prize as I thought he was the true "Man of the Match", however the organizers decided to give XAVI HERNANDEZ the "Silver Ball" & NEYMAR the "Bronze". This last more marketing than for merit in my opinion.
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| Messi scores goal |
Barça scored first after dominating the start of the match & the ball via MESSI in the 16th min. The Barça "dancing" continued & XAVI scored the second in the 23rd min, while the knock-out came via FABREGAS with a third in the 44th min. It was obvious that Barça was too much for Santos who were not even smelling the ball.
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| Xavi scores for Barça |
The second half was more relaxed from Barça´s perspective as they continued maintaining the ball, creating chances & were unlucky not to have scored a bag full, except for a fourth & final from MESSI in the 82nd min. Santos had a chance via Neymar which Barça goalie Valdes stopped with authority. Said this, it was the only dangerous moment that Santos gave Barça.
In fact, it was a "cake walk" for Barça, with their authority stamped all over the Final that eclipsed Santos who´s Football was seen to be way below Spanish Football level, or European level.
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| FC Barcelona |
Last week the World press slammed Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo for not being up to the big occasions, that is, the last "clasico" game against Barça. Barcelona can do this, & it did again, this time with Neymar who was non-existent. The kid was overwhelmed by the stage, lights & the Football Team in front of him. A learning experience for Neymar? Perhaps. The player is still young & learning? Perhaps too.
But allow me to put in my opinion. The player could be just a promise, a prototype of "Robinho" that looked like he would eat the World & ended up eating himself. Perhaps this defeat is good for Neymar to balance his short & explosive career: less show, less dancing & marketing, & more Football; disciplined & thought out Football. He did look like a "rooster" tonight, running around without cause & almost headless ( yes, a bit cruel from my part, excuse me).
By the way, the eye-ball looks between FC Barcelona President Rosell & Neymar at the end with medal presentations smells of "agreement". Said this, I don´t see Neymar fitting into the disciplined team tactics & style of Barcelona Coach Guardiola. However, anything is possible.
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| Neymar - Messi |
Congratulations to FC Barcelona for a great Final & totally deserved title.
The last time FC BARCELONA won the FIFA World Clubs Championship was back in 2009 with the below image showing the moment. The Spanish Football Club has a chance to regain the "Best Club in the World" title this year & the draw has been done matching the winner of the ESPERANCE (Tunez) - AL-SAAD ( Qatar) match as Barça´s first game
FC Barcelona begins its participation starting in the semi-finals phase (15th of December) in a tournament played in Japan & between the 8th - 18th of December
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| FC Barcelona 2009 |
The final is scheduled for the 18th of December & it is expected that the teams ( in theory ) should be Barça & Santos. The latter however has to get passed Mexicans Monterrey which has other ideas, plus beforehand Auckland City (New Zealand) & Japanese Clubs Osaka / Nagoya are also in with hopes.
