Comments on: Brazil’s Corinthians capture FIFA Club World Cup. You know what that is, right?

By: joeyt360

joeyt360 — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 19:42:06 +0000

(Btw, that’s because it’s in reverse chronological order, decade by decade, and not counting this one.)

By: joeyt360

joeyt360 — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 19:40:05 +0000

Oh, good lord, because the PR department is where you go to find out what’s really significant.

By: marcdaarg

marcdaarg — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 08:26:07 +0000

Joey, why would my ego be hurt if I’m not even South American? Yes, you tell me! Maybe I’m disturbed with this article because i’ve been following football for ages and I DO KNOW that South American clubs (like their national teams) have been winning matches against European clubs (and European national teams) very very often?
Check the stats from the International Cup, Club World Cup and the World Cup if you don’t believe me.

“Maybe they have pretty decent soccer in South America.” Yes, maybe they do, and maybe that’s why all major European clubs have South American players playing for them (Messi, anyone?).

The guy who wrote this artcle seems puzzled that a European club has lost the CWC this year, but completely ignores that this was not even remotely the first time and won’t be the last.

I wish my country had a “decent soccer” like the one they play in South America. MAYBE this way we could win something.

By: charliej11

charliej11 — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 02:57:31 +0000

Wait are you lying to me because I don’t follow the Euro leagues much?

I just went to Man Us website.
On the first page of Man Us history page, the first thing they mention is the Club World Cup in the last decade. THE FIRST THING !

By: charliej11

charliej11 — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 02:50:11 +0000

Riiiiight.

By: joeyt360

joeyt360 — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 23:15:00 +0000

Before calling someone else stupid, you might want to learn the difference between club football and international football.

Man, this thread has attracted a lot of fragile egos that need a cookie!

By: joeyt360

joeyt360 — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 23:13:16 +0000

Even when they do win, no European club remembers who won the CWC five years later.

By: charliej11

charliej11 — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 20:46:37 +0000

Thanks for assuring me.

I rest assured that after they don’t win, THEN they didn’t care….

By: marcdaarg

marcdaarg — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 11:56:49 +0000

“For South American teams it’s a chance to “play with the big boys,” to remind everyone that Europe may be where the money is in the global game, but they play some pretty decent soccer in South America, too, of course.”

PRICELESS COMMENT!

Yeah, Brazil has only 5 WORLD CUP titles (world record). England has 1, France has 1, Germany has 3.
Yeah, I guess they play “pretty decent soccer” in South America. LOL!

Obama, please forbid American from talking about football! PLEASE! We need some new legislation concerning this.

By: joeyt360

joeyt360 — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 21:31:00 +0000

thenoahcd – Dec 16, 2012 at 6:33 PM

By: joeyt360

joeyt360 — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 21:30:24 +0000

Because they have every reason not to? It has no real history to Chelsea, it doesn’t drive revenues, most of Chelsea’s fans don’t see it, etc etc etc. It clearly takes a back seat to both domestic league and UCL results, and you run into the problem where it’s awfully hard to prioritize everything.

Barcelona slaughtered their opposition last year, and did not win either the Champions League or the Spanish League. I can assure you they wouldn’t stop to think for two seconds about trading trophies.

By: charliej11

charliej11 — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 17:56:20 +0000

How do you know that the Chelsea players/organization don’t care as much ? They were trying to win.

Because they didn’t win ?

By: futbolhistorian

futbolhistorian — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 02:01:41 +0000

Who called Steve Eurocentric?

By: joeyt360

joeyt360 — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 21:47:34 +0000

I know, as an American, how frustrating it can be to feel as though you have not had your on-field exploits recognized.

But. . . yeah, Chelsea doesn’t care about this result as Corinthians does. Their fans don’t care as much, the organization doesn’t, the players on the field don’t.

I also know, as an American, that calling Steve Davis Eurocentric is a laugh riot.

By: profootballcaulk

profootballcaulk — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 12:43:26 +0000

You know this actually makes sense geographically but I would be nervous, if I was the powers-that-be, that a lot of empty seats would sour the idea. It is too often in japan and all 4 US televised games were nearly half empty from the camera angles I could see with the consolation game nearly void of fans.

If the venue were to be a soccer-specific locale then a packed house of ~25,0000 may actually look good to a television audience.

If it was poorly attended then we would hear the same old USA just ain’t ready for the sport.

By: pmacd82

pmacd82 — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 08:34:32 +0000

Put the tournament in the U.S. where Mexican, European, MLS, and South American fans will fill soccer specific stadiums and then you’ll see the tourney take off.

By: donjuego

donjuego — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 05:15:35 +0000

Count me as one who follows this tournament every year. I don’t understand at all this call for changes. It is actually quite wonderfully pure. Six regional champions. A bracket to a world champion. Wow. Why do we need more? Why do we need non-champions. Why would we want a world champion that is not a regional champion? I don’t get it. Maybe what we really need to do is just all appreciate it and recognize it for the glorious world championship that it is.

I have to agree with others that the whole “lack of motivation” angle is thin and lacking substance. It is often the easy journalistic angle in sports to talk about “wanting it more” and “desire” when in fact both team wanted to win completely. You can only have one winner even when both teams want it. Watching the game Chelsea looked plenty motivated. Corinthians played wonderfully. Either team could have won, Chelsea had their chances, but failed to put them away.

By: charliej11

charliej11 — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 02:37:21 +0000

I am becoming a fan of this site until this.article…Chelasea didn’t want to win the CWC ? Do their fans know this ?

Just stupid everytime an English team gets outplayed the US media reports they didn’t care..whether is is a MLS exhibition game or the championship of the world..they seem to have a lot of apathy. I am starting to wonder why apathy is an exceptable excuse…isn’t part of being a Champion caring more than the other guy, wanting it more ?

Corinthians were the better team, if you want to think was apathy……..go for it….you are wrong.

By: thenoahcd

thenoahcd — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 23:33:48 +0000

Reporting a supposed lack of motivation on the part of Chelsea is lazy, and represents a Euro-centric view of world football. Just because a team is way wealthier (Chelsea’s yearly payroll rivals Corinthians’ *total franchise value*) doesn’t make it the better team. It’s not like Chelsea sent their second tier players. They obviously wanted to win, and many of them cried at the finish. You can’t seriously believe that an international club trophy is unimportant to the club, coaches, and players.

I believe you’ve missed the two real stories here:
Firstly, this final should generate a conversation about the style of play that we saw on the pitch. While many of the great European clubs mount more deliberate attacks and boast the best strikers in the world, the counter-attacking focus of Corinthians proved more effective, just as it did in their winning (invictus) campaign in the Copa Libertadores.

Secondly, the tournament should expand, and FIFA should publicize it better. This final shows that the competition from South America is up to the challenge posed by the better paid European teams. FIFA would do well to quadruple the number of teams, reserve places for African, Asian, and North American teams, and in so doing improve the tournament and use it to increase the popularity of the game in places like China and the USA (whose leagues and talent pools both have great potential if the game picks up more fans in both countries).

By: profootballcaulk

profootballcaulk — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 22:41:51 +0000

Steve,, you’re a good guy so I’m gonna post this because you like the calm debate. Your title and article sound to me like ‘loser’s lament’. If Chelsea had prevailed you may have written they outclassed their SA rivals, coringao were outta their league, etc… I will admit that timao wanted it more as evidenced by the plethora of their torcida, Banda de Loucos, o fiel all arriving in Japan. The building my mom lives in, in Sao Paulo, literally shook with excitement after the goal. Her parking lot had a car fire presumably from errant fireworks. I hope not from a SPFC sticker in the window but that is a whole other story.

I will go so far as to say they were the better side on the pitch this morning. In 10 games I think that Chelsea would have the upper hand but this 2012 edition of Corinthians would not be embarrassed just look at today’s results for any questions. The team is not so much of a sum of its parts as it is a well balanced, well defending team with Cassio being the man of the match. I further think if it was not for the Libertadores that they would have repeated as series A champs but that is only speculation. You know who could be patted on the back for this team? I would say Mano Menezes had a large part in constructing the current roster in no small way.

Yes I watch the Brasilerao! Ha ha
Thanks for the great site!

By: joeyt360

joeyt360 — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 21:48:48 +0000

Post-Bosman, the players follow the paychecks nearly all the time, and nearly all the time, the paycheck is in Europe. You go up and down the roster any time a match like this is played, and the European club is often better–often the best South American player in the game is playing for the European club. That’s just the way it is, which is why any time the European club loses, people will talk about motivation.

In order to make the tournament better, honestly, at the present time I would consider involving two European teams in it.

By: futbolhistorian

futbolhistorian — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 18:34:09 +0000

The tournament has been played 51 times. a European team has won it 26 times, a South American team 25. I do find it interesting, though, that so often when the European team loses in the final, we hear the “you have to wonder about their motivation” talk. You know, sometimes the South American team was pretty darn good, and was just simply better than the European team. It happens.