The FIFA Club World Championship Thread

[Baddar]

United are playing Gamba Osaka in the Semi Final on Thursday morning. Kick-off is at 10.30am, and it's live on five. That means I'll have to finish early to watch it.

The Final is at the same time, same channel on Sunday.

Anyone know United's squad for it? I know it's a 23-man squad, but all that manutd.com have confirmed at the moment is that Rooney and Neville are in the squad.

[METALMAN]

On FM 2009 I won the final 6-0 against Urawa Reds. Before that I wasn't aware of this tournament's existence.

[Baddar]

United played in the competition in 2000 instead of defending the FA Cup. And failed miserably.

To be fair though, they had to play 3 games and top a 4 team group to make the final back then. They only need to win one game to make the final now.

Edited December 15, 2008 by LL's Boy

[METALMAN]

Oh yes I remember that one too. I remember Beckham getting sent off and Roy Keane scoring an own goal. It was quite amusing to watch altogether.

I just thought it was discontinued from then because the competition was such a failure.

[Baddar]

*Looks at the Wiki*

It didn't take place again til 2005. Liverpool lost in the final that year. Barca lost in the final the following year, and Milan won the final in 2007.

EDIT: Unconfirmed, but this is believed to be the squad that travelled...

Goalkeepers: Van der Sar, Kuszczak, Foster.

Defenders: Neville, Evra, Ferdinand, Vidic, O'Shea, Evans, Rafael.

Midfielders: Ronaldo, Anderson, Giggs, Park, Carrick, Nani, Scholes, Fletcher, Gibson.

Strikers: Berbatov, Rooney, Tevez, Welbeck.

Edited December 15, 2008 by LL's Boy

[The Future]

Gamba Osaka have a real talented player named Endo who could possibly cause problems but if Ferguson has studied the opponents and knows about him we shouldn't have much trouble.

[Matt]

I want to know why there's a 5th/6th playoff before Utd have even entered.

[Captain Kirk]

European and South American teams don't go in till the semi finals. Other continents teams have to qualify for the semi's with the teams going out their qualifiers facing off.

[The Future]

Foster has injured his hand so Amos has been called into the squad.

Should be interesting to see whether the Gamba Osaka fans are outnumbered by United fans.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

My mate is going to watch the Gamba/United game although he's a Liverpool supporter

English football is huge in Japan and gets good television and newspaper coverage and I was briefly listening to the radio yesterday and they were talking about the Man Utd/Spurs game. Funny.

They also pimp big for Barcelona but the Gamba fans will give United a very very warm welcome and will just be looking forward to seeing their team play Man Utd even if they get destroyed by them. Japanese fans seem under no illusion about the difference in quality which lifts the weight massively off the players.

[AJ]

Might catch the final on Sunday but will definitely miss Thursday's game. Watching that would require me to get up halfway through my sleep, and it's difficult trying to get enough during the day anyway.

[Darloboy]

It's a shame you're not pulling out of the FA Cup again, we were the lucky losers because of that in 2000 and got a nice trip to Aston Villa for it

[Baddar]

If the tournament was still in the same format as it was back in 2000, United probably wouldn't have gone to this competition. If they did they would've sent their reserves over to play.

There's no way United would pull out of the FA Cup again after the stick they got for it last time.

[METALMAN]

The ridiculous thing was that it was the FA that pressured them to take part in that tournament.

[King Ellis]

Was that the old 'If you play in this competition then it'll help England get the World Cup in 2006' chestnut?

[The Future]

Yeah that's what it was.

[Hobo]

Go Gamba!

[Matt]

Go Gamba!

[FireDoughnut]

I'm going to try and watch this while at work.

[9 to 5]

It's on channel 5 for anyone in the Uk wanting to watch.