Congratulations, Lille! You have been officially awarded the prestigious title of Pissy French Bitches 2007 (previous holders: Arsenal). They are now (a) blaming Man United for the over-crowding in the away end and (b) claiming that the game should be replayed because the referee let Giggs's goal stand. Both of which are bullshit.

Let's start with the free-kick. Yes, quite often the referee tells the teams that they have to wait for the whistle to restart play. He didn't do that this time. So when Lille spent too much time faffing around setting up their wall and Giggs took advantage of that, they have only themselves to blame. It's understandable that they feel hard done by, especially since they'd previously had a goal disallowed for a push on Vidic, but reacting as if they were going to take their ball and go home is needlessly petulant. It's the sort of behaviour I'd expect in my rec league (where, instead of referees, you call your own fouls and the teams award each other "spirit points" after the game; yeah, it works about as well as you'd expect), not from professional footballers.

As much attention as is being paid to this -- and when I finally saw the game, I was a little disappointed, because I was expecting a bigger kerfuffle -- the more serious issue is the trouble with the away fans. There are conflicting reports as to what exactly happened, but basically: there were too many fans in the away section of the stands, possibly because of people using fake tickets, possibly because of stadium staff not actually checking tickets and just letting people in. Some of those fans felt that they were in danger of being crushed and tried to climb out, and the security people dealt with this by spraying tear gas at the crowd. Which, as you can imagine, was a big help. The whole thing is just boggling to me. I mean, having to segregate away fans behind wire fences is boggling enough in the first place, considering that I'm used to North American stadiums where you can sit anywhere. I can accept that it's necessary in other places, but if you're going to do it, isn't the point to make it less dangerous for the fans, rather than more so?

Right, so: Massive organizational fuck-ups aside, what about the game? Well, United started brightly enough, with lots of possession, but not enough of it was in the final third of the pitch. Although they lined up in the 4-4-2 I was hoping for (hallelujah!), they were lacking the final ball to the strikers or players really driving forward from midfield. Lille did a good job of harrying them and closing down space in the midfield; I thought Jean Makoun was their best player and it's easy to see why United were interested in him. Gradually, though, it was looking as if the game would peter out into a scoreless draw, until Giggs stepped up to give United a crucial away goal. I hope they'll go all out to win the return leg at Old Trafford, because I thought a lot of their problem on Tuesday was due to their usual caution in European away games, despite the purportedly attacking formation.

There's nothing FIFA likes better than a big, cheesy, slightly pointless awards ceremony. So I thought I'd do the same. (Albeit without the women in kimonos, thunderously bad Europop, phallic balloons and whatnot.)

Best Player
Deco. He scored a great goal for Barcelona in the semi-final, came thisclose to scoring another one in the final, and was always vital to the team's passing and movement. This is one case where I think FIFA actually got it right. Although Deco looked thoroughly unimpressed when they gave him his prize, which consisted of a big gold key and a Toyota Prius. (Who needs a Hummer or a Bentley when you can drive a Prius, eh?)

Best Game
The semi-final between Barcelona and Club America. Maybe not the best if you wanted to see a close contest between two evenly matched teams, but for the sheer entertainment value provided by watching Barcelona open a giant can of whoop-ass on the hapless Mexicans? Oh yeah.

Best Fans
The Internacional supporters, who were consistently the loudest group at any of the matches. (And also the most intoxicated. Coincidence?) They even sang and yelled through the entire Club America-Al Ahly match yesterday, when 90% of the stadium was off lining up for food and buying replica Ronaldinho shirts.

Best Venue
Yokohama. Despite the hassle involved in actually getting to the stadium, this was by far the best place to watch a game. No running track around the stadium, proper toilets (yes, this is important to me) and even some not-half-bad food, if you like fried things with cheese, which as it happens I do.

Miss Congeniality
Auckland City FC, for being the friendliest team to talk to in the post-game mixed zone. Possibly this is just because they were the only ones who actually spoke the same language as I do, but nevertheless: nice guys, those Kiwis.

Worst Outfits
The white sweatsuits that Jeonbuk Motors wore for their warmups, which made them look like refugees from a 1970s gym class.

Bad Hair of the Tournament
(Awarded on a team basis, since I did the individual ones before.) This one has to go to Barcelona. I've already discussed the wonder of Ronaldinho and his girly headband, but on top of that you've got Puyol's misguided attempt to look like the drummer from Def Leppard, Marquez's Mexican gangster ponytail, Thiago Motta's greaseball 'fro, Eidur Gudjohnsen's albino comb-forward... it's no contest, really.

Runner-up: Club America. The underdogs made a valiant effort, but really it was just your standard Latin America bad hair rather than anything truly extraordinary.

Most Pleasant SurpriseThe relatively low number of yellow cards handed out (and not a single red!). Unlike the World Cup, where it seemed like every tackle was a foul, or every foul was a booking.

Most Annoying Thing
The way that they cut away from replays of any of the fouls on the stadium screens. I know they don't want to incite the fans by showing replays of controversial incidents, but these fans are so placid I don't think they'd be incited by a whole army of Gary Nevilles making obscene gestures at them.

Runner-up: FIFA's appalling mapmaking skills, which meant that finding the media centre at any given stadium was usually the biggest challenge of the day. I guess they figured that if you could do that, you were qualified to cover the match. But come on, how hard is it to draw the maps so that north is up?

So much for my prediction that Barcelona would win. Maybe I jinxed them?

Barcelona started calmly, passing the ball around the way you know they always do, but Inter had a few decent early chances, and the first corner of the game fell to them. (Although they only had two in the whole match, versus Barca's 11 -- all of which were wasted in Arsenal-esque fashion.)

The Catalans then had a couple of decent shouts for a penalty, as first Eidur Gudjohnsen and then a minute later Ronaldinho were taken down in the box, but they got nothing from the ref.

Barcelona also had several good chances to score, for Gudjohnsen, Deco and Ronaldinho. Perhaps the best one came with a free kick on the edge of the box, which Ronaldinho sent low through the wall (I wonder if he was trying the same thing as he did against Werder Bremen), but it was easily saved by the keeper.

It was scoreless at halftime, as Internacional brought Fabian Vargas on for Alex, while for Barcelona Belleti replaced Gianluca Zambrotta, who'd picked up an injury at the end of the first half. I think this might have hurt Barça in the second half, because some of their most effective moves had been coming from Zambrotta bombing down the right wing in support of Ludivic Giuly, while Inter tried to stifle Ronaldinho on the left.

Barcelona had several more good chances, though -- trying to develop their play through the midfield, while Inter sat back and waited for a chance to break with a long ball or a diagonal pass out to the wings. From the 75th minute on, most of the pressure was coming from Barça -- perhaps realizing that they didn't want this to go to extra time.

But it was Internacional who eventually broke the deadlock. With Carles Puyoly backing off him, Iarley played Adriano through with only Marquez to beat. He skipped past the tackle and slotted the ball home. Cue the Inter bench erupting and a herd of players in neon orange jackets stampeding onto the field.

Then it was just a question of Inter protecting their lead for the last five minutes, although they didn't seem all that inclined to just sit back and soak up the pressure. First Deco almost equalized with another of his trademark shots from 30 yards out, but Clemer just got a hand to it, and then Ronaldinho was knocked over in the D to win a free kick in a dangerous position, which he curled barely inches wide.

Overall, it was a much more even game than I expected, and I suppose that Internacional deserved the win as much as anyone. Certainly Frank Rijkaard seemed to spend his whole post-match press conference talking about how Inter were so much better prepared and whatnot. (I've decided that's his whole role as a manager: being deprecating about the team in interviews. That and pacing around in front of the bench looking pensive. It's a tough job, really -- especially when you've got hair like that.)

And finally, some notes on a few of the other key figures tonight:

The fans
The other bloggers have already commented on this, but although the Barcelona fans definitely outnumbered the Internacional contingent, there were only one or two pockets of them that were actually making some noise. I suspect those were the travelling supporters rather than the local ones -- the rest of the crowd mostly restrained themselves to booing vociferously every time Ronaldinho was tackled or an Inter player went down injured. I was disappointed that there wasn't a bigger group of Inter fans, because the ones that I saw were all completely mental, and I think that would've improved the atmosphere a lot. (I was also disappointed that they didn't try to invade the pitch at the end of the game, but that's another story.)

Ronaldinho
Ronaldinho had quite a few good moments in the first half, but nothing to show for it. It seemed to me that he was trying to be too tricky -- maybe playing to the fans like he did in the semi-final -- rather than trying to just play. And he sort of vanished in the second half, as Inter got better at shutting him down.

Pato
Pato didn't look intimidated by the game, considering that this was only his third professional match. He was more than willing to shoot every chance he got -- although some of those chances, I think he would've been better to pass instead. There were also a few sloppy touches on the ball that looked to me like they came from a combination of inexperience and overconfidence. All in all, he wasn't as effective tonight, and it wasn't a complete surprised when he was subbed off in the 60th minute. I suppose you could say that the Duck had his wings clipped.

(Also, it has just occurred to me that his yellow boots sort of look like a duck's feet. I wonder if he does that on purpose.)

This is it: the one we've been waiting for since the beginning of the tournament.

I've heard quite a few people arguing that Internactional are going to pull off a surprise win tonight. But I think Barcelona should still be the favourites (although the team is still trying to play down their chances just in case they don't win).

Internacional, of course, aren't going to be pushovers the way Club America were on Thursday. And I'm sure the Brazilians will be determined to step up their game after they didn't exactly impress in their semi-final. But they had to rely on their young guns -- Pato and Luiz Adriano -- to win their last game, and somehow I doubt that they have the quality and experience to match Ronaldinho and co. tonight.

I've got a perfect record with my predictions so far, and I think Barcelona are going to win this one. In a couple of hours, we'll find out if I'm right.

In the meantime, we've got a performance from some J-pop group I've never heard of, and a bunch of giant balloons on the pitch that I'm guessing are meant to represent the six football confederations. God love FIFA.

This could have been one of the more interesting games of the tournament, seeing as it featured two teams who were fairly evenly matched. But the first half, at least, was rather dire. The highlight was probably the small group of America supporters in the corner with their very big drum. If I have a headache at the end of this, I'm going to blame the Mexican FA.

Club America had a few chances in the first half but just weren't able to score. I have a vague idea that I've commented here before about their woeful finishing.

Al Ahly broke the deadlock a few minutes before halftime with a free kick from Mohamed Aboutrika, which was curled in beautifully over the wall and past the keeper.

Club America responded by bringing on Cuauhtemoc Blanco at halftime, and he created the equalizer with a perfectly flighted cross that Salvador Cabanas headed home.

The game did spark to life a bit in the second half, but it was too late for me because I'd already fled inside to the media centre to warm up before the next match -- and bemoan the lack of anything resembling tea that might've helped with that.

Club America kept pressing, but to no result. Quite a few of their best chances fell to Claudio Lopez, who'd come on partway through the second half, but each and every time he just barely failed to connect.

Al Ahly went ahead again in the 79th minute, with another goal from Aboutrika -- who's currently the tournament's top scorer, with three goals in as many matches -- after he played a one-two with Flavio that split the Club America defence.

The final result: 2-1 to the Egyptian team. That might have been a bit harsh on Club America, especially if you judged the teams only on their second-half performance, but credit to Al Ahly because they played hard from the very beginning of the game. (Here's a telling statistic: Al Ahly committed 25 fouls versus America's 10. They basically just went out there and kicked the shit out of them.)

We're here in Yokohama for the opening act in tonight's doubleheader: the match between Al Ahly and Club America for the dubious honour of third place. The stadium's only about half full right now -- although there are lots of fans in Barcelona and Internacional wandering outside, fuelling up for the final later.

But let's pretend for a moment to be interested in the game ahead of us. I'm betting on Al Ahly to win this one. They've looked like a solid team in the first two games, although without any obvious stars like Inter or Barca have. Club America, on the other hand, were lucky to win their opening match against Jeonbuk, and are probably still reeling from that 4-0 thumping by Barcelona on Thursday.

Team news: For Club America, Claudio Lopez and Cuauhtemoc Blanco have both been left on the bench, after having failed to do much of anything in their first two matches. Midfielder German Villa has also been dropped, while Matias Vuoso and Juan Mosqueda both get their first start. Al Ahly will be fielding a virtually unchanged lineup, with the exception of backup keeper Amir Abdelhamid, who comes in for number one Essam El Hadary.

This year may have been Auckland City FC's first experience with the FIFA Club World Cup, but they're hoping that it won't be their last. I spoke to some of the players and coaches after their final game, and they all agreed that they had really enjoyed the tournament.

Midfielder Paul Seaman felt that the team had played better in their game against Jeonbuk than in the first match against Al Ahly, and they were unfortunate not to have scored at least once. "The luck went against us," he said. "We gave up two easy goals. We need to organize better at the back."

Still, he was happy with the team's performance overall, after the effort that they had put in leading up to the tournament. "We worked hard to prepare, but there were some things that were out of our control, like changing coaches."

One thing that was in his control was that missed chance 10 minutes into the second half, and Seaman was still kicking himself about it after the game. "I couldn't believe I missed that!" he said. "It would have been easier to have scored than missed. I just took my eye off the ball."

Seaman is a youth football coach when he's not playing, and he said that was exactly the sort of thing he'd tell his players not to do. Unfortunately, though, he won't get a chance to pick up any coaching tips from watching the final between Barcelona and Internacional on Sunday, because the Auckland team was flying home on Sunday -- back to their day jobs, presumably.

Assistant coach Paul Marshall said that with Australia moving to the Asian Football Confederation, leaving an easier path to the Club World Cup for the other teams in Oceania, it will have an impact on football not just in New Zealand but in other countries as well.

"Developing nations see that they've got an opportunity to compete on this stage, and it's the second biggest tournament in the world," Marshall said. "It's a great initiative by FIFA."

The team is hoping to come back to the tournament next year, but they expect to face some stiff competition from the other teams in the New Zealand league. "There are one or two teams that we know will be trying to qualify," Marshall said.

It's possible that they could try to strengthen the team by signing more players like former Japanese international Teruo Iwamoto, who's been a big hit with the fans here.

Assistant coach Craig Alexander praised Iwamoto's contribution to the team. "Teru brings assurity and calmness to our game. He allows the team to play better possession football, because he's got such a range of passing. We try to take the sting out of the game, so that he can present what he can do."

Alexander echoed Seaman and Marshall in the hope that Auckland will be returning to the Club World Cup next year. "We may be amateurs," he said. "But we're also quick learners."

So far, the World Club Cup has gone exactly the way you would have expected. All the higher-ranked teams have beaten their opponents, and it's going to be the favourites Barcelona and Internacional in the final, while Auckland and Jeonbuk duke it out for fifth place tonight.

I'm sure that's good news for the marketing and ticket people, who want to see the big names go as far as possible, but for a neutral observer, it's a little bit disappointing. How great would it have been to see one of the heavy hitters stumble, or the minnows pull out a win? It's the unpredicability of football that makes it great, after all.

Okay, now I get all the hype about Barcelona. Because they really are just stupidly good. They put on quite a show for the fans last night against Club America. The Mexican team battled bravely, but they were inevitably outclassed.

Barcelona started with probably their strongest 11, with the possible exception of Iniesta in place of Xavi -- although I think even that is justified, based on their current form. Club America, on the other hand, left Cuauhtemoc Blanco on the bench to start, but even the Mexican legend couldn't help them when he came on at halftime, with his team already two goals down.

From the opening, Barcelona showed none of the skittishness that Internacional suffered from in their semi-final, passing the ball around confidently. But in fact the first chance of the game fell to Club America, as Claudio Lopez was played through on goal tripped up by Victor Valdez in the box. No penalty, though -- and I think that if it had been given, or if he'd been able to put his shot on target, we could've seen a different game.

Instead, Club America spent most of the first 45 minutes camped out in their own half. The first goal came just over 10 minutes in, with Eidur Gudjohnsen finishing off a beautiful passing move by Barcelona -- complete with a tricksy backheel from Ronaldinho.

Club America started to work themselves back into the game eventually, but then. but then in Barcelona struck again in the 30th minute from a corner which Rafael Marquez bundled into the net at the far post. Although the Aguilas had a few chances to catch Barça on the break, they were usually snuffed out either by the defenders or the linesman's flag.

Barcelona started the second half just as strongly, with some of their best moves coming from Ludovic Giuly scampering down the right wing. And one of those moves ultimately led to their third goal: Giuly's shot was parried by Ochoa and fell to Ronaldinho, who had more than enough time to gather it calmly and place it past the keeper.

It was all Barça in the closing minutes, putting on quite the display of exhibition football -- all little flicks and dummies -- while the poor Club America players just chased them around. The icing on the cake was a goal for Deco, set up by -- who else? -- Ronaldinho, who shrugged off a couple of defenders and laid the ball off for him to blast into the far corner.

For me, the impressive thing about Ronaldinho was not just the tricks but his physical presence on the ball -- I don't know how many times in this game he had a swarm of defenders around him but still managed to wriggle free with a combination of skill and strength to get the shot or the pass away.

If I had a complaints, it's that I would've liked to hear more noise from the supporters. Before kickoff, the Barcelona fans behind the goal had all these giant banners unfurled in the stands, but that seemed to be the extent of their participation -- other than oohing and aahing every time Ronaldinho had the ball. All the noise was coming from a tiny pocket of Club America supporters in the corner, who didn't stop singing and drumming for the entire 90 minutes. There may not have been many of them, but they were certainly loud. (Well, I guess they needed something to distract them from their team's performance.)

And finally, the Bad Hair of the Day Award. This time it goes to the man, the master: Ronaldinho. Yes, he's probably number one in the world in this department, too. (Runner-up: Carles Puyol and his heavy metal mullet.)

Just over an hour to the game, and the stadium is starting to fill up with fans. The vast majority seem to be supporting Barcelona -- I don't think I saw a single Club America jersey -- although they don't look particularly Spanish, either.

So will their team come through for them tonight? Well, it depends on which Barcelona -- and especially which Ronaldinho -- shows up. Their attack has been blunted with injuries to Samuel Eto'o and Lionel Messi, but Ronaldinho can more than make up for that if he's on his game -- as he has been recently.

Everyone knows about Barça's stellar record. They've won La Liga 18 times, the Copa del Rey 24 times, and the Champions League twice, along with a boatload of other trophies, but the Club World Cup is the one that still eludes the Blaugrana.

Club America are also no stranger to big games, with 10 Mexican league titles and 5 CONCACAF Champions Cup trophies, and they're unlikely to be daunted by the Yokohama stadium, since their home is the 100,000-seater Azteca. But the Aguilas will be relying on the aging talents of Cuauhtemoc Blanco and Claudio Lopez, and I don't think it's going to be enough.

The verdict: Barcelona are the heavy favourites tonight -- provided they've recovered from their jetlag and the strain of getting through the Champions League group stage recently.

Oh, and the really important issue of the uniforms: America are the home side, tonight, so I expect that Barça will be wearing those blindingly orange away kits -- the ones that make them look like giant pylons. They're truly fugly, but still not enough to disguise how beautifully Barcelona can play. Personally, I can't wait for kickoff.

Edit: The teams just came out for the warmup, and Club America are in head-to-toe yellow, while Barcelona are in their traditional blue and red stripes. They're definitely going to win tonight, in that case.