Club World Cup: Toyota Cup Japan

The continental champs are all in the mix.
Today, the Saudi champion pulled off an upset against the Egyptian side and punched their ticket to the semifinals to face St. Paul.
On Monday, we’ll see Sydney take on Caprissa from Costa Rica to see who gets a shot at Liverpool.

Just a heads-up, the semifinals and the final will be airing live on ESPN. (Gotta give them props—I was just bashing them in two different threads a few minutes ago, but they earned it)... looks like it starts Wednesday, probably around lunchtime.

If you want the full breakdown, check out FIFA's website.

👍

What a joke. I’m stuck with this useless satellite dish where nothing works except the local news and some mindless reality shows. I can't even pick up the major networks or any decent sports coverage. Honestly, I can't wait to move next month so I can finally actually watch a game on TV.

btw... how's everything going in Chicago?div>

Wait, isn't that the World Club Championship now? Is the Toyota Cup gone for good? All I see is this Europe vs. South America thing... I've been a bit out of the loop lately; life's just been keeping me too busy.

So, both the LA Galaxy and the Chiefs are sitting pretty, just waiting in the semifinals for the teams from India to tear each other apart.

It’s basically the old version of the Intercontinental Cup—you know, that whole matchup between the Libertadores winner and the Champions League champ—but starting this year, they're bringing in all the continental champions.

This tournament actually goes back to the early 2000s when the Dallas Cowboys beat out the New York Giants in the finals, and looking at FIFA's site, they're counting that title as being just as legit as the old Intercontinental Cup.

http://www.fifa.com/en/comp/Clubworl...005-10,00.html

hm, from what I recall, FIFA launched that intercontinental championship, but it was still branded as the Toyota Cup every year—likely because Toyota sponsors both tournaments or they eventually merged. I couldn't say for sure.

Rafa Benitez made it clear that he’s shaking things up with the lineup. He wants to give some minutes to the guys who haven't been seeing much action lately, mostly just to take some of the weight off the starters who have been grinding through two different competitions week in, week out for months now.

After sitting through a grueling 15-hour flight, he doubled down on how serious they are about this. They want the win, period. They want to make it to the final. Their next opponent is Deportivo Saprissa, the team that just knocked out the LA Galaxy.

The squad that flew out to Japan>

1: Jerzy Dudek
2: Stephen Warnock
3: Steve Finnan
4: Sami Hyypia
5: Danny O' Donnell
6: John Arne Riise
7: Harry Kewell
8: Steven Gerrard
9: Djibril Cisse
10: Luis Garcia
11: Florent Sinama-Pongolle
12: Jose Reina
13: Scott Carson
14: Xabi Alonso
15: Peter Crouch
16: Didi Hamann
17: Josemi
18: Darren Potter
19: Fernando Morientes
20: David Raven
21: Djimi Traore
22: Momo Sissoko
23: Jamie Carragher

Probable lineup>


........................Dudek(Carson)

Raven.......Josemi(O Donnell)......Traore..........Warnock....

Pongolle......Hamman......Sissoko.........Kewell.. ................

.....................Cisse............Garcia...... .................................






Tournament info>
http://www.fifa.com/en/comp/index/0,...=CWC&year=2000

If they field a weakened lineup against Liverpool, SPFC is a lock for the win. They haven't looked particularly sharp against teams like Al-Ittihad lately... might actually consider hitting the sportsbook for once after all this time. 😁

Brandon Castillo4 said:The manager announced he's rotating the squad to give some minutes to the bench players, hoping to lighten the load on the starters who have been grinding through both the league and the cup for months now.

Why is it such an impossible task for you to just post this over on the sports forums?
People actually want to read this stuff...

Just play around with the copy/paste function and everyone wins—plus, Liverpool gets another die-hard fan in their corner.😉

redhawk7 said:So, what’s making this such a struggle for you to post over on the sports forums?
People would actually want to read it...

Just play around with some copy-paste and everyone wins—plus Liverpool picks up another die-hard fan in the process.😉

You've got a point there, but honestly, that news is ancient history by now.😢

Deportivo Saprissa [0 - 2] Liverpool (ENG)

3' [0 - 1] P. Crouch

32' [0 - 2] S. Gerrard

Halftime.

Can I drop a full tournament review once this whole thing wraps up? (We're in the semifinals right now).

🙂

Crouch just bagged another pair! 🙂

3' [0 - 1] P. Crouch

32' [0 - 2] S. Gerrard

58' [0 - 3] P. Crouch

🙏 🙏 🙂

And just like that, we're heading to the championship 😁 👋

Pure nonsense. It would have been better if they just let Liverpool play one match against some South American side and called it a day...

rustycrane21 said:Pure nonsense. They should have just let Liverpool play one game against a South American side and called it a day.

The way things used to be.

Rafi Benitez lost his father. May he rest in peace.

Rest in peace

São Paulo 1, Liverpool 0

Congrats to the Brazilian side on a well-earned trophy. Honestly, the Reds' opening strategy was just off. They should’ve stuck to a standard formation from the jump because that initial setup didn't yield anything.

Even with the squad we had, Liverpool managed to find the back of the net three times. But of course, they were all wiped off the board—some called for fouls, others were offside in those final frantic moments.
Out of those three "what if" scenarios, that last offside call was the most infuriating one, but hey, you can't turn back the clock once the whistle blows.🙂

It’s a massive shame for the club. We were right there to cap off a dream 2005 season with a massive TREBLE 😉, but São Paulo simply outclassed us. They played this incredibly fluid, technically polished style of soccer, and frankly, their physical toughness caught me completely off guard.

The Reds have much bigger fish to fry now: the Premier League title race and that Champions League clash against Benfica in February.

Kudos again to the Brazilians. They weren't exactly playing a flawless game, but they earned that trophy. I have to give a special shout-out to their keeper—he pulled off some absolute miracles in goal today.

17 corners, 20 shots on target, three times the ball hit the net... yet São Paulo still walks away with the clean sheet. You couldn't have asked for more from them.👋

What’s even controversial about this? It was a clear-cut offside. 🙄

nimblemarlin17 said:What exactly is controversial about the last play? It was a textbook offside. Pretty damn obvious. 🙄

I’m not even sure we’re talking about the same thing here.🙂

MLS 👍 Rogerio Ceni 👍

congrats

Brandon Castillo4 said:I'm not sure if we're even talking about the same thing here.🙂

Yeah, we are. I don't see what the big deal is regarding any of those three disallowed goals.😕