Chapter 412 No Suspense
"Saprisa? Where is this team? How strong is it?" When John Smith told George to Tottenham's opponent in the semi-finals by phone, George, who had just got off the plane, asked Adele next to him in confusion. Since he had been busy leading Tottenham in the Champions League and League battlefields, and had to be distracted from handling various affairs within the club, George did not know much about the situation of the Club World Cup. He only knew that this time the Brazilian powerhouse Sao Paulo was the Brazilian powerhouse. He didn't know anything else.
"It's a club from Costa Rica." Obviously, Adele did much more homework than George. "In the first round, he defeated Oceania champion Sydney FC and qualified for the semi-finals of the Club World Cup. As for strength... it's just a small role, I don't think we need to waste too much energy on it."
When Tottenham arrived at Tokyo International Airport on a special plane, the Club World Cup battle had actually officially begun, and the first round of the game ended a day ago. Among them, Saprisa and Etihad defeated their respective opponents in the first round and successfully reached the Club World Cup semi-finals!
As the Champions League champion last season and the most famous team in this Club World Cup, Tottenham naturally does not need to play in the first round of Raoshizi, or in the qualifying round, and just wait for the qualifying round to finish and start from the semi-finals.
Although FIFA and Blatt have always claimed that the establishment of the Club World Cup was to "make clubs of all continents have a world-class club event", in fact, due to the huge gap in football levels and attention in each continent, the strength and popularity of each participating team are also uneven, forcing FIFA, as the organizer, to make adjustments to the schedule, so that the participating clubs in South America and Europe will start directly from the semi-finals!
The reason why the Toyota Cup (including its predecessor, the Intercontinental Cup) has such a strong influence within the World Cup when only the Champions League champions and the South American Liberators Cup champions are involved is precisely because in the minds of most fans, the football level in South America and Europe is the top of all continents, and Oceania, Asia, North America and Africa are not ranked at all!
In order to ensure that there will be no one-sided abuses in the Club World Cup, and to take care of the emotions of European and South American teams, Blatt and FIFA can only modify the schedule in this way. However, although Blatt racked his brains and finally replaced the 25-year Toyota Cup with the Club World Cup and did a lot of publicity and promotion work with great fanfare, many fans still don’t buy it and will only pay attention to the finals at most. In this way, the Club World Cup is undoubtedly no different from the Toyota Cup that was replaced by it. The schedule has become lengthy and there are a few boring and unsuspecting useless games!
In George's previous life, even more than ten years later, FIFA had no way to change this situation. Even if a team from two continents occasionally reached the finals, the championship trophy never escaped from Europe and South America. As for the result, there was no difference from the previous Toyota Cup!
Therefore, it is not surprising that George will look down on the Club World Cup and even the participating teams cannot remember clearly - in his eyes, the only one who has the ability to cause trouble for Tottenham is Sao Paulo who is assigned to the other half of the zone. As for other teams, they are simply used to make up the numbers!
At the same time, after learning that the opponent in the semi-finals of the Club World Cup was Tottenham Hotspur, Saprisa's morale suddenly fell to the bottom!
Although it is not ambition to say this, their family knows their own affairs. From the head coach to the players under them, they all know in their hearts that it is simply a fantasy to defeat Tottenham and enter the Club World Cup final!
Perhaps Saprisa can be regarded as a strong team in Costa Rica and North American football. But to say that it has the ability to compete with Tottenham, it is obviously an international joke. Both FIFA and Saprisa themselves know this.
This is the main reason why FIFA has divided São Paulo and Tottenham into different half-zones. If the two protagonists meet in advance in the semi-finals, how many fans will go to the scene or sit in front of the TV to watch the final?
Although Tottenham had three days of preparation time before the game, George only arranged one day for the players to perform field adaptation training, and also took a day to let the team cooperate with the club's work to participate in commercial promotion activities, expanding and increasing Tottenham's influence and market share in Japan!
In this way, in this relaxed atmosphere of preparation, time came on December 15. Tottenham Hotspur ushered in the semi-finals of the Club World Cup with Saprisa at Yokohama International Stadium!
Because of concerns about the ticket sales of the Club World Cup and the recognition of fans, FIFA has set the venue for this Club World Cup in Japan, the hometown of Toyota Cup. Blatt believes that Japanese fans who are used to the Toyota Cup should be more acceptable to this freshman event of the Club World Cup, and at the same time, they can also maximize the interests of the organizers, that is, FIFA!
The bleak end of the first Club World Cup five years ago not only damaged the reputation of the event, but also almost squandered the little wealth that FIFA has saved in the Avilange era. So this time, Blatt, who has always been wanton, had to act cautiously.
George, the starting lineup player of Saprisa, did not recognize any of the substitute goalkeepers, but the substitute goalkeeper aroused his interest - Kyrool Navas, the number one star in Costa Rica, and one of the key figures in the future Real Madrid's decision to send Casillas away. He just entered the first team this season and served as a substitute goalkeeper in Saprisa!
To be honest, before getting Saprisa's 18-man roster, George had no idea that Navas had played for Saprisa. However, since he met now, there was no reason for him to miss this future top goalkeeper - even if Tottenham had Cech in charge, he would dig him into the satellite club and hone it out, and then sell it for money in the future, it would be no loss!
There is nothing to say about the game. Facing Saprisa, whose overall strength and technical and tactical level are very different from his own, Tottenham easily won a victory - Drogba, who served as the starting center, and Klose, who appeared on the bench, both scored twice in the game, Al Shawen and Ronaldo passed and shot one by one, and Dutch veteran Edgar Davis also scored a goal in injury time, locking the score to 7-0!
In the first match of the Club World Cup semi-finals, North American champion Saprisa was killed by European champion Tottenham Hotspur!
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Chapter completed!