Mohammad Abou Tarika scored two lovely goals (in which the enigmatic Flavio played a big part), sandwiching a Cuauhtemoc Blano inspired goal for Salvador Cabanas. The Ahly fans were happy, and the Club America fans sang non-stop and had some cause for cheer with the goal. Both of these however, were outnumbered by the Inter fans.

It seems that the tickets for the final(s) were sold combined... a matches 6/7 ticket. So understandably, there are a lot of Inter fans. They have come out early, watch an average game of football, and really enjoyed themselves and made a day of it. The sang in fits and spurts, and cheered for Ahly every now and then (there was some Egyptian red mixed in with the vats of Internacional fans).

Barca fans however were more or less nowhere to be seen. There were of course thousands of Japanese fans wearing Barca shirts, but that is because the Japanese fans have plumped for Barca before the tournament started, and all the bootleg merchandisers are just selling Barca/Ronaldinho stuff, and all the Japanese fans are buying them in droves.

I mean that the "real" Barca fans were missing. The travelling contingent, people like the friendly (but arrogant) types we met in the Wall Street Club in Roppongi. The Inter fans displayed a real zest for football, and are enjoying the event. The Barca fans don't seem to be really concerned.

This just adds to the feeling that Europe doesn't really care.

BTW the guy from La Gazzetta dello Sport is playing Minesweeper in front of me.

Well a match that was expected to be completely empty has in fact managed to draw a quite sizeable crowd, the stadium is quite full, although it's probably a lot of people who were able to get cheap tickets, or saw the Barca match last night and just wanted to get in on the action before it was all gone.

It must be said about the Japanese fans, that although they are not the most knowledgable bunch, the certainly are enthusiastic. The oohs and aahs for Ronaldinho's every touch yesterday have been closely matched by the gasps everytime Auckland City second-half substitute Teruo Iwamoto has touched the ball. A decent player in his younger days, he offered his services to Auckland City for the tournament, and as far as PR and media battles go, Auckland City have been winners, because that's one of the only reasons that there are fans in the ground.

There are a few Koreans set up in the corner though, with a banner that says "Best in Corea". They are singing and chanting a bit, and even though there's only about 30-40 of them, they're making a fair amount of noise.

Auckland unfortunately have no fans, all you hear is the occasional yell of a perhaps drunken expat every now and then. Football is not really big in New Zealand, and from my own experiences living in Dunedin (the home of Otago United, who play in the same league as Auckland City), i'd be shocked if they they played in front of crowds of more than 50-100 people.

Although Auckland haven't really played above their level (amateur), especially their players when interacting with the media. Always chatty, and happy to share their experienices, we hope to bring you some material from them after the game.

It's 3-0 to Jeonbuk right now, after 88 minutes, and i'm sure everyone here would love it if Auckland could score a consolation goal, which would be their first of the tournament.

The general impression from most media sites, and European fans, is that no one cares about the Club World Cup.

I started a thread about it on a forum I frequent, and apart from a few replies, the majority of the people replied with "Who cares" or "What a joke" or "It's a Mickey Mouse Cup" things like that.

So really how should FIFA make people care about a tournament such as this?

The concept of a Club World Cup is fantastic. The idea that the best clubs around the world might be playing in a tournament against each other really should be mouth-watering. It's the one thing we never really get to see in football (apart from the confederation regionals of course), and it's the one thing that really should give us a great taste of international matchups. Truthfully speaking, the World Cup is generally rubbish. National football teams are generally disjointed, because the players play together for about a month or two every year. They also have a lot of players who have already played 50-65 games for their clubs already. End result - tired, disjointed teams, playing against other tired, dsjointed teams. Don't con yourself into thinking that the end matches of the World Cup are exciting stuff, it's usually not the case. What is more accurate, i'd say, is that the football at the start of the tournament is so dire, that by the time the football has improved you think that you're watching Brazil... which is not the case, unless you are actually watching Brazil... losing to France, in a boring, somewhat insipid match. What really does increase interest is the World Cup, is that fans have vested national interests, and so seeing a stubmling, frustrating match is fine, as long as it's a win for their team (which most will still confuse with it being a good football match).

The problem is that out of the many hundreds of countries worldwide, only 32 actually play the World Cup, and although you can adopt a team for the tournament, it's really not the same thing as your own country playing. But for many of us, there will never be any chance to see our teams play at the World Cup... who knows when India will qualify for example?

Now consider club teams, everyone supports them, from all over the World. Arsenal fans in Malaysia are just as passionate as the ones in England, kids in Africa drop everything to watch Premiership and La Liga matches, and immigrant communities means that club fanbases are scattered EVERYWHERE. So there's no question that club football has far more support.

Now club footballers also train together for the whole year, and are proper teams. And the best club sides have the best players in the world, something that national teams can't have (although the Qataris tried didn't they!).

So then feast on the thought of this, a tournament featuring the top 5 or so teams from each regional confederation, in a true test of the footballing styles and ability of each, and the best examples of the footballing ability of those regions. Imagine the benefits to those clubs, as well as FIFA... Club fans have way more enthusiasm and they would be out in numbers from all over the world. This would be a tournament that is potentially bigger than the Champions League, and money would flow in from all firections, and merchandising opportunities would be huge.

The problem is UEFA, and making Europe care, because it seems like they don't. In South America, it's the biggest thing going, and one of the big incentives for winning the Libertadores. Contrast that to the Champions League, where winning it means "Oh shoot, we have to go and muddle around in Tokyo for a week in December". Not on.

A global club competitions would truly present fantastic, varied football, but it needs to be carefully thought up and organised. In the short term, perhaps things could be improved by adding in the UEFA Cup and Copa Sudamericana winners, as well as perhaps the runners-up from various confederations. And qualifying could be introduced easily enough.

Looking up from just outside Tokyo National Ground:



Live here from the Tokyo National Ground in... yes, Tokyo.

The second match of the Club World Cup, and Mexican outfit Club America are taking on Jonbuk Motors of Korea.

Arguably, Korea have come through a much tougher, rigorous competition to get here, because the Asian Champions League has some very tricky teams.

But Club America are easily the more talented side. With Argentine Claudio Lopez, a world-class player in his prime at Valencia not so long ago, and Cuahtemoc Blano, the volatile, temperamental, but brilliant and talented entertainer, America's attack is going to be very difficult to handle. Add to that a few Mexican internationals with World Cup experience, and Nelson Cuevas, the Paraguayan winger-striker who is either unbelievably good or unbelievably bad, we should be in for a cracker.

Admittedly, we don't know too much about the Koreans, but they have the legendary Choi Jin Chul at the back, and a reputation for producing good, solid players with decent technical ability.

Alright, i'm off for the kick-off! Hoping to see Lopez's left foot in action, and that bunny hop of Blanco's!

Post-Match:

Well, the game was quite drab. The Auckland players put up a good show, and gave a good account of themselves.

You can read a match report here from Ian.

Jennifer writes her thoughts on the matter here, and Chris has written an Auckland & Al-Ahly inspired piece about talent here.

It was fun getting lost and found in Japan on our way from Tokyo to Toyota City, and we got to ride the Shinkansen (bullet train), and watch Arsenal vs Chelsea in an "authentic" American bar in Nagoya where the burgers had optional fried egg toppings. Super!

Enjoy some pictures:

What might have been! They were testing out the match systems before the game, and the scenario below would have been much more desirable...


An opportunity from a set-piece, one of very few in a dire first half. Predictably, it came to nothing.