The Club World Cup starts with Real Madrid as favourites, but Flamengo closes the European streak: when and how to play

The latest edition of Club World Cup exclusively for seven teams. When this Wednesday (a 4pm, DSports), in Morocco, al ahly (Egypt) e Auckland city (New Zealand) will play the first of their scheduled matches, which will serve the winner to complete the quarter-final draw, the competition as we know it will begin to wear itself out. The president of the Fifa, Gianni Infantinoannounced the creation of a new format with 32 teams which will start to be played from 2025 and which has questions for the 2024 edition.

Currently, the winners of the liberators and the Champions League, who previously played in the Intercontinental Cup, go directly to the semi-finals. The last time an Argentine club was in the top four in the world was five years ago. Although at national team level Argentina are at the top, in this competition, Argentine clubs are not protagonists.

There are seven participants: the Conmebol representative is flamenco; Seattle sirensof CONCACAF; real Madrid (UEFA); Auckland city by the Confederation of Oceania (OFC); wydad casablanca (guest) and the Al Ahly second in the African Champions League, both for the African Confederation (CAF), along with al hilal by the Asian Confederation (AFC).

Since the pilot test of the Club World Cup in Brazil in 2000 and the consecutive dispute in 2005, only interrupted by the pandemic in 2020, FIFA has organized the top competition between the best teams of each confederation at venues in several Asian and African countries. . The one that begins today in Morocco will be the nineteenth edition and has Real Madrid as the favorite, who have already lifted the trophy four times and three in a row: 2016, 2017 and 2018.

The Intercontinental Cup he suited Argentina teams better. When it was played back and forth between the champions of Europe and South America or, even, in the editions on neutral ground and in distant Japan. Because in the 19 editions that the Club World Cup has had, There are no Argentinian teams among the champions. It’s not a bad thing to hit Conmebol, as the Brazilian Football Confederation has lifted the cup four times -Corinthians, twice, Inter and São Paulo- and finished as runners-up five times: Palmeiras, Flamengo, Gremio, Santos and Vasco da Gama.

The Argentine representatives

For the Argentine Football Federation (AFA), the bill is different. As soon as four teams reached the finalwithout conquests. In 2007 Boca played it in Japan. Miguel Ángel Russo’s team lost 4-2 against Milan. The goals of the Argentine team were from Rodrigo Palacio and Pablo Ledesma, who was also sent off. That team’s right wing goalscorer was Hugo Ibarra, the current Xeneize DT.

Estudiantes were close to the feat in 2009, when they faced Barcelona in the United Arab Emirates in the final. El Pincha was two minutes from the consecration: with a goal from Mauro Boselli, the team led by the current president Juan Sebastián Verón and directed by the remembered Alejandro Sabella, maintained the minimum difference until the 43rd minute of the second half, when Pedro equalized Esso . In extra time Lionel Messi made the difference and the Catalan team retained the title.

In 2014 it was played -like the current one- in Morocco. Saint Lawrence could not face the most successful in the history of the Club World Cup, Real Madrid, who defeated Edgardo Bauza’s team with goals from Sergio Ramos in the first half and Gareth Bale in the second.

Japan, 2015: with one from Messi and two from Luis Suárez, the Barcelona He cut Marcelo Gallardo’s chances of winning the only title he didn’t get with River. It was a 3-0 with no reaction skills for a team that had practically no figures, against one that had them all.

The rematch came in 2018, but it wasn’t. Doll’s team failed to beat then more modest Al Ain and after a two-goal draw – both from Rafael Santos Borre– and a penalty missed in the second half by Pity Martínez, who fell on penalties 5-4. They finished third after beating Japan’s Kashima Antlers 4-0.

off the map

That there are so few Argentines in the Club World Cup statistics is a direct -and obvious- consequence of the absence of the Argentine champions in the Libertadores. And that has to do with just one problem: your wallet. Brazilian institutions have a much greater purchasing power than Argentine ones and manage to fully repatriate their stars. In pink there is Flamengo, Conmebol’s representative in this World Cup Pedro And Giorgion De Arrascaeta (called up in Qatar 2002 by Brazil and Uruguay respectively), a Arturo Vidal, Gabi, Bruno Henrique, David Luiz – to mention at random – who has played in the Champions League. Top of the range.

The Mengão It was the limit that Vélez found in the last few Libertadores. The difference between one team and another is easily summarized: on one side the aforementioned stars and on the other the hope, out due to injury: Maximiliano Perrone, just 19 years old, was the fundamental piece of Cacique Medina’s team. Lucas Pratto and Walter Bou the letters of experience, to accompany a young man of good support and big claims who collided head-on with an overall score of 6-1, which can show the difference between the Brazilian and Argentine teams or, at least , explains because the clubs representing that country reach the Club World Cup and can even beat the European powers.

There is Creole malice, (raw) talent and other qualities that fail to assemble competitive squads for Argentine clubs. Without a good portfolio, reaching the club world cup is a feat reserved for a handful of teams who, by mystique or shooting, can kick the scoreboard. It is so difficult that, it is said, only River, Boca, San Lorenzo and Estudiantes have managed to stand shoulder to shoulder with the elite.

The monopoly of Mexican clubs in Concacaf had an average of impasse in the Champions League: The Seattle Sounders from the USA came to represent the North American leagues at the Club World Cup. The increasingly powerful Major League Soccer (MLS) has its representative and poses as much threat to Mexicans as Brazilians do to Argentines. If it’s for wallet, there’s no shortage of dollars.