I just can’t express the joy I’m feeling to be here in Japan as part of Ole Ole  Media Team. It’s always been my dream to finally be recognized as the passionate yet sensible sports journalist that I try to be in every word I write. Ole Ole saw that and I cannot express how greateful I am for that. And SM and Mike are great guys! I'm certainly on a good team!

Enough of me for now. Let’s talk about football.

The Fifa Club World Cup is a new competition. It came to replace the previous formula South American team versus European team (which was the way to determine the best club in the world from the 60’s until the late 90’s)

In 2000 Fifa sponsored the tournament hosted by Brazil and won by local team Corinthians. That was the beginning of a new page in the history of world football but also a burden that Corinthians’s supporters had to carry for years. That’s because at that moment it was not all clear that Fifa’s sponsored tournament would replace the one game formula that had been around for more than 30 years. Also, every Brazilian football fan anxiously awaits the moment to say that his team is going to Japan to be the World Champion and in that case, plus the fact that Corinthians was invited to participate in the tournament as the host team for winning the National League in 1999 but still fails when International Competitions are played outside Brazil, Corinthians’s fans had to hear the mockery of all other club’s fans until Fifa officially recognized their tittle.

This year 8 teams from 7 different continents are fighting for the tittle. The formula of the competition still favors the South America Copa Libertadores Champions and the UEFA Champions by giving them a free pass straight to the semi-finals.

For the other 6 teams a place in the finals will have to come with a lot more sweat and suffering.

For most of them playing Boca Juniors or Milan in the semi-finals would already represent a tittle. A vindication that they are among the best of the world.

For some players like the young Benjamin Totori. A fast, talented 21-year old striker from The Solomon Islands who plays for the New Zealander team of Waitikere, this is his chance to show himself to the world. “For me it’s so important I wish we had won the game and that was very sad but I think I was able to play well specially in the second half and hopefully catch the eyes of somebody from a bigger team. I’m still learning, I’m only 21 and people don’t know me but I tried my best to enjoy this opportunity. I’m happy for that.” Told me the hopeful Totori.

His team couldn’t the past the Iranian team of Sepahan who won the opening match 3 x 1 and now will have the chance to get their revenge against Japan’s Urawa Red Diamonds. The two teams faced each other in the AFC Champions League not even a month ago and in that opportunity Urawa won.

That might be a very interesting game and maybe the beginning of another great football rivalry.

I’m Mano Gil writing straight from Shinjuku – in the greater Tokyo area – exlclusive for Ole Ole.

Sayonara!

When I used to play football (badly, I might add), our coach used to drill into us the importance of not conceding goals inside the first five minutes of each half. Waikatere United must have missed that lesson, because they conceded twice within the first five minutes of their clash with Sepahan. Indeed the Kiwi side seemed to have left their concentration on the tarmac at Narita Airport, as Iraqi striker Emad Mohammed pounced twice to score an opportunistic brace with less than five minutes played.

Whatever verbal spray Waikatere coach Chris Milicich gave at the break - it failed to take. As midfielder Abdul Wahab Abu Al Hail ambled forward four minutes after the restart, he clearly reckoned that a strike on goal was as good as, if not better than knocking the ball aimlessly around the midfield. Nevermind that his shot was straight at occasional New Zealand international goalkeeper Simon Eaddy, since the ball simply rocketed straight through Eaddy's arms to bounce down just inside the goal-line.

3-0 to Sepahan after 50 minutes - by the same stage last year Auckland City hadn't even conceded a goal to Egyptian side Al Ahly! It was around about this point that Sepahan started to attempt some exhibition football, and coincidentally around about the same time that Waikatere seemed to realise that the match had actually be in progress for a good fifty minutes or so.

Eventually Waikatere began to press forward, with Benjamin Totori occasionally looking dangerous, despite at times demonstrating the kind of first touch you'd expect from a brick wall. Finally the pressure paid off in the seventy-fourth minute as Sepahan goalkeeper Mohammad Savari dropped the ball into his own net from a floated free-kick. Maybe he had been sharing notes with Simon Eaddy, or perhaps he was petrified by the sight of Danny Hay bearing down on him like a mack truck, bald head shining menacingly under the bright lights of the National Stadium. Whatever it was, the goal was eventually credited as an own goal by Sepahan defender Hadi Aghily, not that it stopped Danny Hay from partying like it was 1999... the wily old fox.

Eventually Mexican referee Marco Rodriguez blew full-time, sparking a press conference that was almost as lively as Waikatere had been on the pitch. Coach Chris Milicich conceded that it wasn't particularly helpful to "wake up in the fiftieth minute," and suggested that "stupid errors" had cost his side the game. Bizarrely, a Japanese reporter enquired if the weather conditions had played a role in Waikatere's defeat. If he thinks it's cold in Tokyo in December, maybe he should visit Invercargill!

So Sepahan roll on to the grudge match that everyone expected, with coach Luka Bonacic suggesting that his side respects, but does not fear J-League side Urawa Reds. It's back to the day jobs for Waikatere United, though. They gave a decent enough account of themselves here, but one can only wonder what might have been had they not left their game boots inside the dressing room for the first five minutes of this match.

New Zealand side Waitakere United are only hours from the biggest match of their lives, with captain Danny Hay admitting this week that the "weight of the Oceania Confederation" was resting on his team's shoulders.

Yet while Waitakere United go into their clash with Sepahan as rank outsiders, for several players the match will undoubtedly represent a chance to gain recognition on the world stage.

Striker Daniel Koprivcic started his career with Croatian lower league outfit NK Graficar and represented the New Zealand under-23 side, before resuming his career with Auckland-based Central United. He hasn't quite scaled international heights since signing for Waitakere United, but a globally televised clash with Sepahan may represent the best way to get himself in the shop window.

Commins Menapi is a name familiar to many Australian football fans - he plied his trade in the old National Soccer League for Sydney United, before switching to NSW State League side St George. Menapi is a legend in Soloman football circles, not the least for scoring twice against Australia to secure a stunning 2-2 draw in the 2004 Oceania Nations Cup.

Englishmen Neil Emblen and Darren Bazeley came to New Zealand to play for the now defunct New Zealand Knights in the Australian A-League, but have since landed at Waitakere United, who play in the top flight of New Zealand football, the New Zealand Football Championship. Together with former Sheffield Wednesday midfielder Neil Sykes, they add considerable experience to a team comprised mainly of amateurs.

Danny Hay is perhaps the man who can lay claim to having seen it all before. The former mainstay of the New Zealand national team played for Leeds United in the UEFA Champions League, but these days supplements his income through teaching in Auckland. The Waitakere captain knows how important a clash like tonight's could be for his younger players, and he'll keep a calm head at the back for the Kiwi underdogs.

Whatever the outcome, Waitakere United will fly the flag proudly for the Oceania Football Confederation. With many suggesting that tonight's fixture will represent little more than an exercise in damage limitation, the Kiwi side will nevertheless take to the pitch at the National Stadium in Tokyo with a spring in their step and perhaps thoughts of also springing a major upset. It's now or never, with the opening game of the 2007 FIFA Club World Cup less than two hours away. 

"For some of us it's a long way... from the cradle to the grave. When you've got no loving. When you got no love" howls Murder City Devils front-man Spencer Moody on their brooding Empty Bottles, Broken Hearts album. I was listening to that record on the Shinkansen as I made my way up from the Pacific coastal town of Shimizu to the megalopolis of Tokyo, and it made me think about some of the sacrifices that professional footballers make for their careers.

I used to be an intrepid traveller. It all started when my high school German class somewhat fortuitously applied for a Government grant for a paid two-week "excursion" to Germany in the mid-1990's. As the only school to actually apply for the grant, we reasoned that we had a decent chance of getting on the next Lufthansa to Frankfurt. Okay, so it was actually a hair-raising All Nippon Airways flight that landed us in the German heartland, but the point is that we made it, and pretty soon I was munching on bratwurst and watching Borussia Dortmund trounce 1.FC Köln with the best of them.

That particular trip started my love affair with travel, and I've been back to Germany many times - most enjoyably to follow the fortunes of my beloved Socceroos at the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Yet something was different when I left my comfortable home in Shimizu late this afternoon, to hit the road in search of good times and glory at the FIFA Club World Cup. I left behind my wife.

Spencer Moody spoke often of the daily grind of touring in a rock'n'roll band and the strain that it placed on relationships, and it was no surprise when the seminal Seattle soundsters split up amidst a blaze of acrimony in 2001. One could argue that the stress is not that dissimilar to that experienced by professional footballers who are constantly on the road - if you take away the sex, drugs and rock'n'roll, of course.

Take recently crowned European Footballer of the Year, Kaká. The Brazilian superstar is not only a sublime talent in the AC Milan midfield, he will also celebrate his second wedding anniversary on December 23. The deeply religious Kaká is no doubt handsomely paid for his services, but how much does that compensate for the many nights and days he spends on the road away from his family, in pursuit of glory for both club and country?

Perhaps Commins Menapi of Waikatere United is a better example. The 30 year old Soloman Islands international has a wife and small child living in Honiara, yet the powerful striker plies his trade in the New Zealand Football Championship. And while Kaká can retire to a life of luxury, there'll be no such luxury for the likes of Menapi, who currently shares a small apartment in Auckland with fellow Solomon Islander Benjamin Totori.

How will being away from family and friends affect Mexican team Pachuca at the Club World Cup, a team who hail from a country renowned for its close-knit families and communities? The argument is often made in regard to Japanese players, several of whom have failed to make the grade in Europe, yet who have had little trouble resurrecting successful careers upon returning to the J-League.

Perhaps the strange, recent story of Stephen Ireland concocting a dead grandmother best illustrates some of the pressure that professional footballers are under. The fact that Ireland was too scared to inform his club and country that he wanted to skip Eire's clash with the Czech Republic in Prague because his girlfriend had just suffered a miscarriage is sad enough. Yet the media backlash that his naïvity provoked is almost as sad, with all and sundry lining up to blast Ireland for his "stupidity." Ireland is just 21 years old. In what other profession would an employer castigate their employee for wanting to spend time with a significant other during a time of crisis, no matter how ill-conceived the excuse?

International travel, in this day and age, is a fact of life. Much like everyone connected with the FIFA World Club Cup, I am delighted to be able to watch the tournament unfold in front of my own eyes. But I can empathise with those players who leave family behind in their pursuit of professional glory. Some of them will earn enough to retire off the game, but many of them won't. Perhaps the next time I jump to my feet to criticise Shimizu S-Pulse's tricky Brazilian Fernandinho for a misplaced pass, I'll stop, and consider the sacrifices that he has had made to come halfway across the world to entertain me in what is, after all, just a game.

こんばんは and welcome to Tokyo for the FIFA Club World Cup!

I've been fortunate enough to visit Tokyo several times, the last of which wasn't necessarily the most enjoyable day I've had recently! I always enjoy a trip to the big smoke though, and speaking of smoke, check out the photo I took from the Shinkansen on the way up here!

 
Nothing says "land of contrast" like some good old fashioned air pollution juxtaposed against the background of one nature's most iconic landmarks.

I also took a photo of the view outside my hotel window, just in case anyone thought I was secretly watching the tournament at home on the tele! I did that last year, but somehow my constant yelling of helpful tips at Ronaldinho never got through to the buck-toothed wizard. Maybe I'll have better luck this year when Milan and their Aussie goalkeeper Zeljko Kalac hit centre stage, although with 40,000 maniacal Urawa fans potentially coming along for the ride, I might struggle to be heard!

Anyway, feel free to sit back, relax, and enjoy the sights, sounds and... smoke, of the 2007 FIFA Club World Cup!