Rise of the Minnows

 

Well, damn, I thought the 2nd Round of the FIFA Club World Cup was poised to get interesting,... but I didn't anticipate quite how interesting that latest tranche of games would be. It's almost like 'Night of the Lepus'....

The big boys of Europe continue to sputter,.... while the rest of the world - some of them, anyway - are looking more and more dangerous.

We saw the first proper upsets of the competition, with Inter Miami nicking a late win they scarcely deserved over Porto (thanks, inevitably, to a trademark Leo Messi free-kick going straight in), and then Flamengo somehow did the same to Chelsea (not quite such an apparent mismatch in class there, the sides perhaps quite evenly balanced in fact; but Chelsea looked to have been absolutely dominant in the first half, yet somehow failed to build on their early lead; then had a stone-cold penalty turned down [the story of their EPL season still continuing....]; then conceded two silly goals; then had Nicolas Jackson get himself sent off [although the straight red was a bit harsh: it was a case of lightly raking his studs down an opponent's shin as he misjudged where to put his foot down, rather than steaming into the guy at full pace with a raised foot - only really a yellow card infraction]). And European Champions Paris St Germain went down rather tamely 1-0 to Brazilians Botafogo (one of the less fancied South American sides in this competition), leaving them quite likely to only qualify second in Group B.

Boca Juniors scored first, and made mighty Bayern toil to a narrow win. Al Hillal toughed out a draw against Salzburg, just as they had in their opener against Real Madrid. Monterrey put up an impressive peformance in a goalless but entertaining draw with the much higher-rated River Plate. And Esperance de Tunisie, one of the least talked-about African representatives, bagged themselves a win - albeit against a fairly woeiful Los Angeles.

Even some of the weaker teams went down fighting, with Wydad Casablanca, Urawa, Pachuca, and even the Seattle Sounders all coming up with a goal (to scupper our clean-sheet hopes for the round!!); Ulsan managed two, briefly putting the wind up Fluminense! And the Mamelodi Sundowns - my sentimental favourites, who I would dearly love to see squeak into the knockout phase - were constantly dangerous against Dortumund: scored three, could have scored more,.... might have won the game but for some suicidal goalkeeping/defending.

Even the two most out-classed teams in the competition (after poor little Auckland), Al Ain and Al Ahly, showed a lot of improvement. But for a couple of catastrophic goalkeeping errors gifting Manchester City a comfortable lead within 25 minutes or so, and then a very soft penalty awarded against them on the stroke of half-time, Al Ain might have done a lot better in the game. It wasn't until the last 20 minutes or so that City really began to ratchet up the pressure and push for the additional goals they needed to be able to finish top of the group with only a draw against Juventus on Thursday. For much of the match, the Abu Dhabi team were well in it, often catching City out with quick breaks; Chadli, in particular, had two or three excellent chances to score. And Egyptian champions Al Ahly actually look a very decent footballing side, but they've been let down twice now by some atrocious finishing (they really should have put Inter Miami to bed by half-time in the tournament opener).

Contrary to pessimistic predictions before the tournament, NONE of these teams are absolutely terrible (not even Auckland: I believe they've still got it in them to pick up a goal or two, and give Boca a bit of a scare), and many of the non-European sides have actually proved themselves pretty useful. Auckland, of course, and Al Ain and Al Ahly (although these latter two surely haven't yet produced their best in America), and Seattle and Los Angeles and Miami (apart from glimpses of the magic of Old Leo, and the superlative form of their veteran Argentinian goalkeeper, Oscar Ustari, they look pretty pedestrian too) are the only teams that look well out of their depth. But Miami could well sneak through to the Round of 16, thanks to the Messi Factor (and the fact that Porto have been so poor). Almost anyone else could still produce a bit of an upset. And 24 of the 32 teams still have at least a hypothetical chance of qualifying for the next stage. Not many people predicted that.

Bring it on!!  (Come on, Sundowns!!!!!!)