The World Cup underway

The Club World Cup is well underway in the USA. I have not been able to follow sufficiently, just seeing highlights, and watched the 1-1 between Real Madrid and Al Hilal and last night’s surprising and happy 2-1 victory of Inter Miami over FC Porto, with a victory goal by Lionel Messi on one of his signature free-kick goals. 

The idea of a Club World Cup is good; club football is much better than the national team football that suffers from excessive nationalism, while seeing how clubs across continents do against one another at the highest level has been something we have been waiting for, and which has been refreshing. Besides Bayern Munich’s 10-0 thrashing of Auckland, the level has been quite high and European sides have not been able to dominate as expected, and last night Europe’s best side, Paris St. Germain, lost 0-1 to Brazil’s Botafogo in yet another upset for European arrogance. 

All this said, the tournament also has problems: the opaque qualification process and playing times to fit TV viewing, but not the health of the players, who are playing in excessively hot weather (also, coming at the end of the season for many teams, the players arrive tired at the tournament). Also, we see the tournament take place in a non-footballing country where stadiums have been only half-full for many matches, and only many of the Latin American fans create anything that feel like a passionate atmosphere.

All this said the tournament appears here to stay, and I hope that FIFA will think about this tournament not only as a money machine, but also as a new scenario to get the best clubs to face one another. 

I hope.

Portugal`s second Nations League title

The UEFA Nations League started as a boring tournament to replace the many friendly matches in the national team calendars, and it has grown to become a tournament that teams look forward to winning, so it was with expectations that Spain and Portugal faced one another in the fourth final of the tournament.

Spain were favourites and dominated the first half of the first half. Real Sociedad's Martin Zubimendi brought the Spaniards ahead expectedly after 20 minutes, but only five minutes later the outstanding PSG player Nuno Mendes equalised for the Portuguese on a great play. 

But another real Sociedad player, Mikel Oyarzabal, brought Spain ahead yet again. 

40-year old Cristiano Ronaldo may not have the physical strength he once had, but he remains a marvelous footballer, and in his 221st national team appearance he scored his 138th goal when he deservedly equalised for Portugal in the second half. 

Shortly after Ronaldo had to leave the pitch though, much against his will, having to watch a strong Portugal side put pressure on the Spaniards. 

2-2, and after extra time the match had to go into a penalty shootout that Cristiano Ronaldo could hardly watch, but it was the veteran striker Alvaro Morata whose penalty was saved by Diogo Costa, giving Ronaldo and Portugal their second Nation League title. UEFA Nations League may not be the most prestigious tournament, but it was certainly an exciting final worth watching.

PSG Champions

The Champions League title has eluded Paris St. Germain for a long time, but now that it finally came it certainly came with style. 5-0 is the greatest difference in a European final ever, and it was not too little as the Parisians were far superior to the disappointing Milanese.

Perhaps it was as expected that Inter came out with a defensive attitude, but this was clearly not working as a highly motivated Parisian side tore apart a shaky defense after 12 minutes with the Moroccan Achraf Hakimi scoring the opening goal after 12 minutes against his former club, and the young Desire Doue scoring a second for PSG after 20 minutes. Inter really had no response, and in the second half one would have expected them to move forward but a far more intelligent PSG side again went a ahead 3-0 on a brilliant counter-attack where Doue scored his second at the greatest stage.

After this is was really over. PSG were clearly enjoying the match while Inter clearly just wanted the match to end. Kvisha Kvaratshkelia made it 4-0 and Senny Mayulu made it 5-0.

Despite it all it is worth congratulating Inter's players who took the heavy defeat with dignity, while for PSG it was particularly fantastic to see Luis Enrique lift the trophy. 

It is in place to congratulate PSG fans, although at the same time it is a shame that the celebrations in the French capital turned violent, when all most fans really want to celebrate is the great victory of a great football team.