No one has posted a Latinokos diary yet today, so I figured that I would throw one out there to keep this going. I am working on a more political diary regarding CAFTA and its reception in Costa Rica. It’s not ready yet so this one will discuss the most important issue in Latin America; Futbol.
In the most recent international competition, the FIFA world club championships, the Brazilian club Internacional defeated Ronaldinho’s team Barcelona for the championship. This tournament pits the top club (as determined by each regions own qualification strategy) from each region in a knock out tournament. The two most powerful regions, UEFA (Europe) and South America (CONMEBOL) have their teams go straight to the semifinals. The other four regions play each other for the right to get to the semifinals.
This years representatives were:
CONMEBOL (South America): Sport Club Internacional
UEFA (Europe): FC Barcelona
CONCACAF (North America, Central America, and the Caribbean): America (Mexico)
CAF (Africa): Al Ahly (Egypt)
AFC (Asia): Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors FC
OFC (Oceania (New Zealand and Pacific Islands)): Auckland City FC (New Zealand)
In the quarter finals Ahly beat Auckland 2-0 and earned the chance to play Internacional
Jeonbuk lost 1-0 to America. America moved on to face Barcelona.
Not surprisingly, Internacional and Barcelona moved on from the semifinals beating their opponents 2-1 and 4-0 respectively.
Barcelona was the heavy favorite and, to many, outplayed Internacional. Internacional knew they were facing a strong attacking side and so entered the game knowing they were going to mark Barcelona’s attackers extremely close, play their forwards up top and play for a counter attack. It’s classic soccer "rope a dope". The attacking team gets most of the play but never gets a clear shot at goal and become frustrated, eventually opening their defense for a counter. Internacional played their strategy to perfection and a late strike by substitute Adriano sent Barcelona home the losers.
This tournament had a rocky beginning in 2000 and has been resurrected (with a slightly different format) last year. It looks like FIFA has the format and timing worked out now so that this will be an annual event. Clubs are paying more attention and the celebrations for the 1st place (and frankly the third place) teams in their home countries are growing. All 3 years the champion has come from Brazil.
The 2000 tournament was won by Corinthians (defeated fellow Brazilian Club Vasco de Gama). Last year the champion was Sao Paulo (defeated Liverpool). Note: Saprissa, from my second home of Costa Rica won third place that year. Warning, the next time there is a lull in LatinoKos and I don’t have something else fully prepared, I’ll post on Costa Rica’s domestic league.
Thanks for indulging me and keep the LatinoKos diaries coming.