July 3 – Real Madrid Conquer the World
HERE in England we don’t really pay the World Club Championship too much cadence. Whether it’s the same ignorance that saw the national team not bother with the World Cup until 1950 or just an insular mind-set, the rest of the world tends to get much more excited about the tournament that declares the best club side in the world every year. This annual contest kicked off today in 1960 when European Cup winners Real Madrid took on Penarol, the Uruguayan winners of the new Libertadores Cup.
Back in it’s original inception the competition took the form of a two-legged play-off, with Madrid and Penarol kicking it off with a goalless draw in Montevideo before the two teams took the summer off and did all again in September at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid.
In front of 125,000 adoring Madristas Real tore Penarol a new one, going 3-0 up in the first ten minutes thanks to goals from the original Galacticos, Di Stefano and Puskas. Like so many before them, the South American side were unable to cope with the golden age Madrid side, eventually losing 5-1.
The Uruguayans got their revenge on Iberia the next year though, defeating Benfica to lift the cup.
Despite the apathy showing in Europe, and particulary England, down in South America it’s different kettle of fish entirely. Prior to the competition’s inception South American sides saw a chance to play Europe’s elite as a golden opportunity to show their skills to the traditional birthplace of the modern game. Football fans in Brazil and Argentina even got excited by Exeter City’s 1914 tour of South America, with Brazil even putting together their national team for the first ever time to welcome The Grecians.
As football in Europe has industrialised and become the all-conquering behemoth that we see today, South American’s football business nous has lagged behind, meaning that the challenge has now become one with a different focus.
With sides such as Internacional and Sao Paulo playing the likes of Barcelona or Liverpool in recent years where the wage of one European superstar will compare with the whole squad of plucky South Americans, the tournament is now a chance to upset the financial odds and prove that there is no one churns out quality young players like the South Americans.
The competition was given the old FIFA re-branding exercise in 2000 and is now known as the FIFA Club World Cup and features the champion clubs from all six continental confederations. Manchester United will be Europe’s representatives in Japan this December and will be favourites to face the winners of last nights clash between LDU Quito of Ecuador and Fluminense of Brazil, which we’re not going to hedge our bets with despite Quito’s 4-2 aggregate lead.
Watch highlights of AC Milan’s win over Boca Juniors from last year below and head over here tomorrow as we’ll hit you with some more footballing knowledge.
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J-Rock on July 4th, 2008
Go LDU! Quite a game, you’ve got to gutted to score a hat-trick in a final and lose!
July 3 - Le Hand of Hod? | On This Football Day on July 3rd, 2009
[...] team that play in white were doing better than Spurs could ever dream of today, so read about that here and hot-foot over here tomorrow as we all try and get through this footballing barren spell [...]
Tom QPR on July 3rd, 2008
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/feedarticle/7626684 LDU win!!