"Saprisa? Where is this team? How good is its strength?" When John Smith told George about Tottenham's opponent in the semifinals over the phone, George, who had just stepped off the plane, asked confusedly. Adele. Because he has been busy leading Tottenham in the Champions League and league battles, and also distracted from handling various affairs within the club, George does not know much about the Club World Cup. He only knows that this time he represents Southampton. In the Americas, the Brazilian team Sao Paulo will play, and the others are not clear.
"It's a club from Costa Rica." Obviously, Adele has done much more homework than George. "In the first round of the game, they defeated the Oceania champion Sydney FC with a goal and won the semi-finals of the Club World Cup. Qualification for the finals. In terms of strength...it’s just a small role. I don’t think we need to waste too much energy on it.”
When the Tottenham team arrived at Tokyo International Airport on a special plane, the Club World Cup had actually officially begun, and the first round had ended a day earlier. Among them, Saprisa and Ittihad defeated their respective opponents in the first round and successfully reached the semi-finals of the Club World Cup!
As the Champions League champions last season and the most famous and powerful team in this Club World Cup, Tottenham naturally do not need to play in the first round of the game, or the qualifying round. They only need to wait for the qualifying round to end. Just start from the semi-finals.
Although FIFA and Blatter have always claimed that the creation of the Club World Cup was to "allow clubs on all continents to have a world-class club competition", in fact, due to the huge gap in football level and attention on each continent, The strength and popularity of the participating teams are also uneven, forcing FIFA as the organizer to make adjustments to the schedule, allowing the participating clubs from South America and Europe to start directly from the semi-finals!
The reason why the Toyota Cup (including its predecessor, the Intercontinental Cup) can have such a strong influence within the World Cup even though only the Champions League champions and Copa Libertadores champions participate is because in the hearts of the vast majority of fans, South America The football level in America and Europe is the highest among all continents, and Oceania, Asia, North America and Africa are not ranked at all!
In order to ensure that there will not be a large number of one-sided killings in the Club World Cup, and also to take care of the emotions of the European and South American participating teams, Blatter and FIFA can only modify the schedule in this way. However, even though Blatter racked his brains and finally replaced the 25-year-old Toyota Cup with the Club World Cup, and did a lot of publicity and promotion work with great fanfare, there are still many fans who don't buy it. Just pay attention to the finals. In this way, the Club World Cup is undoubtedly no different from the Toyota Cup it replaced, except that the schedule has become longer and there are a few more boring and no-suspense games!
In George's previous life, even more than ten years later, FIFA had no way to change this situation. Even if occasionally a team from outside the two continents reaches the finals unexpectedly, the championship trophy has never escaped the hands of Europe and South America. In terms of results, there is no difference at all from the previous Toyota Cup!
Therefore, it is not surprising that George despises the Club World Cup and cannot even remember the participating teams - in his eyes, the only one who has the ability to cause trouble for Tottenham is Sao Paulo, who is divided into the other half. . As for other teams, they are just there to make up the numbers!
At the same time, after learning that the opponent in the Club World Cup semi-finals was Tottenham Hotspur, Saprisa's morale suddenly fell to the bottom!
Although it is very unambitious to say this, my family knows their own affairs. From the head coach to the players below, they all know that it is simply a fantasy to defeat Tottenham and reach the Club World Cup final!
Perhaps in Costa Rica and North American football, Saprisa can still be called a strong team. But to say that it has the ability to compete with Tottenham is obviously an international joke. Both FIFA and Saprisa himself are well aware of this.
This is the main reason why FIFA divides Sao Paulo and Tottenham into different halves. If these two protagonists were to meet in advance in the semi-finals, how many fans would go to the venue or sit in front of the TV to watch the final?
Although Tottenham had three full days to prepare for the game, George only arranged one day for the players to adapt to the field training, and also set aside one day for the team to cooperate with the club's work to participate in commercial promotion activities, expand and add Tottenham Influence and market share in Japan!
In this way, in this relaxed atmosphere of preparation, the time came to December 15th. Tottenham ushered in the Club World Cup semi-final against Saprisa at the Yokohama International Stadium!
Because of concerns about ticket sales and fan recognition for the Club World Cup, FIFA decided to host the Club World Cup in Japan, the home of the Toyota Cup. Blatter believes that Japanese fans who are used to the Toyota Cup should It can be more accepting of this new event of the Club World Cup, and at the same time, it can also maximize the interests of the organizer, that is, FIFA!
The dismal ending of the first Club World Cup five years ago not only damaged the reputation of this tournament, but also caused FIFA to almost squander all the wealth it had accumulated during the Havelange era. So this time, Blatter, who has always been reckless, had to act cautiously.
George didn't recognize any of the players in Saprisa's starting lineup, but the substitute goalkeeper aroused his interest - Keyrol Navas, the future number one star of Costa Rica, and the one who decided to send Casilla away in the future. One of Sri Lanka's key figures. He just entered the first team this season and serves as the substitute goalkeeper in Saprisa!
To be honest, before getting Saprisa's eighteen-man roster, George had no idea that Navas had actually played for Saprisa. However, now that he has met him, there is no reason for him to miss this future top goalkeeper - even if Tottenham has Cech and can't use it, they can dig him into a satellite club to train him first, and then sell him later. There is no loss at all in exchanging money!
There’s not much to say about the game. Facing Saprisa, whose overall strength and technical and tactical levels were far behind their own, Tottenham easily won a victory - with Drogba as the starting center and Klose coming off the bench. Both scored twice, Arshavin and Ronaldo scored one pass and one shot respectively. Dutch veteran Edgar Davis also scored a goal in stoppage time, locking the score at 7-0!
In the first meeting of the Club World Cup semi-finals, North American champion Saprisa was bloodbathed by European champion Tottenham Hotspur with seven goals!
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