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.

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.

I'm here at the Tokyo National Ground (Kokuritsu Kyogi Jo!) for the Club World Cup first semi-final between Al-Ahly of Egypt and Internacional of Brazil. The atmosphere should be great tonight. Against Auckland, the Ahly fans were in good voice, many had travelled, and many Arabs and Africans living in Japan had united to lend support to the African Champions.

As for Internacional, well their fans have travelled in the thousands from Port-Allegre in Brazil for this game. South American football takes the Club World Cup/Toyota Cup very seriously, because for years and years it has been their only chance to disprove the so-called "superiority" of the European teams. The Brazilian press is out here in full force (making life very difficult for us in terms of getting access to the team), and i've been spotting their fans out and about in Tokyo over the last 3 days or so.

Both teams play in red, so i'm looking forward to the Ahly fans and "Torcedor Colorado" (Inter fan collective) really livening up the stadium tonight.

Stay tuned for our coverage. Sadly, now that all the bigwig media persons have shown up (they didn't bother for the "lesser" games, oh no sirree), I have a feeling we have to sit in rubbish seats, and that we aren't even in the press box anymore. What a load of wank! If anything we should be rewarded for getting out that and being enthusiastic for the first two games that others didn't even care enough to show up for.

Oh well.... the squad lists have been handed out, and Alexandre Pato (the "Duck", Brazil's most exciting young player) will be starting, so i'm excited.

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.

Ads for the Club World Cup at Tameike-Sanno station:



The Toyota Stadium:



Chris, Ian, Jennifer and Mauricio, along with myself, are your OleOle blog team for the Club World Cup in Japan.

We're here in Toyota City right now, in the media room of the Toyota Stadium getting ready for the kick-off of the first match.

The Oceania champions, New Zealanders Auckland City FC, will be playing the African champions, Al-Ahly of Egypt. Now clearly, for several reasons, this is an absolute mismatch and Al-Ahly are clear favourites. In fact, Auckland are the worst team in the competition by a country mile. The "Champions of Oceania" tag is hardly worth anything since the Australian League jumped ship and joined the Asian Football Confederation, so the Oceania "Champions" League involves teams from countries like Fiji, Samoa and Tonga. Also, the funniest thing as that Auckland FC are not even the best team in New Zealand. This title is accorded to the New Zealand Knights, who unfortunately (in this context) play in the Australian A-League. The actual New Zealand Football Championship is composed of semi-professional clubs, and the players for Auckland City FC are a bunch of part-timers. There will however be a draw for Japanese fans, with the presence of Teru Iwamoto, a Japanese footballer of some reknown who offered himself to Auckland for the tournament, in a stunt similar to Sydney FC signing Japanese legend King Kazu for last years' edition of the Club World Cup.

Compare this scenario to that of Al-Ahly of Egypt, who won a rigorous and difficult tournament comprised of teams from all around Africa. Additionally, Egypt won the last African Cup of Nations, and several players from that cup-winning side play for Al-Ahly. The Egyptian league has provided several good players over the years - like Mido, Hossam Ghaly, Ahmed Hassan and of course the legendary Hossam Hassan. Egyptians players in general have a very high technical level.

However, what does affect them is that they are physically much weaker than European sides, especially when you have to play in the African heat for large parts of the year, it's not conducive to building muscle. Egyptians have also shown themselves to be extremely temperamental over the years, and they might break down in the face of physical play. What makes this matchup interesting then, is that this bunch of part-timers from New Zealand (a country with a strong rugby background, where the footballers are as physical as anywhere) is that they will be offering 150% commitment in every tackle, making the most of their appearance on the big stage. Al-Ahly will be rattled, and it remains to be seen whether their skill can persevere.

Anyhow, kick-off is in half an hour, so we should be going. Stay tuned!