Club World Championship 2008 Review
Michael Tuckerman reports
The fourth edition of FIFA's Club World Cup to be held in Japan
has come and gone, and once again the tournament was played in front
of enthusiastic crowds and featured some outstanding football.
For the second year in succession a European team walked away
with the title, with English giants Manchester
United beating Ecuador's LDU Quito 1-0 in the final at a packed
Yokohama International Stadium.
The win was a triumph for United coach Sir
Alex Ferguson, who brushed off doubts from a dismissive British
media as the reigning European champions became the first British
side to lift the trophy in its current incarnation.
J. League outfit Gamba Osaka finished third after they overcame
Pachuca 1-0 in the 3/4 playoff, with Masato Yamazaki scoring for
the second game running, after he also got on the scoresheet in
Gamba's absorbing 5-3 defeat at the hands of Manchester United in
the semi-finals.
Australia's Adelaide
United won the Fair Play award from FIFA, but they will be more
pleased with finishing fifth, after they beat Egyptian giants Al-Ahly
1-0 in the 5/6 playoff.
Adelaide's run to fifth was also a financial triumph, with United
now likely to break even following an exhaustive - and expensive
- romp through both the AFC Champions League and the FIFA Club World
Cup.
Wayne Rooney was awarded the Golden Ball for the Player Of The
Tournament, with the temperamental striker in sparkling form in
Japan.
Recovering from a slight injury strain, he came off the bench
to score twice against Gamba in the semi-final - before tormenting
LDU Quito throughout in the final, as Rooney scored the game's only
goal after United had been reduced to ten men.
In 2009 the tournament will move to the Gulf where it will be
hosted by oil-rich Abu Dhabi for two years, before returning to
Japan for the 2011 and 2012 editions.
The final whistle in Yokohama heralded the end of almost thirty
years of intercontinental football in Japan, and while the Club
World Cup will return to The Land Of The Rising Sun in 2011, there's
no guarantee that FIFA's intercontinental jamboree will continue
to call Japan a permanent home.
For now, Japanese fans must be content with reliving the memories
of past Club World Cups.
They've enjoyed some outstanding football played by some of the
best teams in the world, and 2008 was no exception.
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