Champions on Earth

LDU Quito 0-1 United
FIFA Club World Championship : attendance 62,619
Yokahama, Japan live on Five.Tv and a mobile phone
Managed to watch the first 15 minutes on the Tv before pedalling off to work. Well no interest in work it was a time spent on the web service on the mobile phone and the online service offered by the BBC. It's not a good way to follow a match. Got a phone call from the Biffa herself bringing me up to speed with the Vidic red card, Rooney goal and some heroics from Van de Sar.

So Champions of the World! Unfortunately the line doesn't scan with the two line song "Champions of England, Champions of Europe". Maybe the line "Champions of Earth" will be added.

I liked the picture above. Note Rafael appearing to be shouting in Sepp Blatter's ear. United return home with 5 million USD, a gold cup, medals and Rooney gets a Toyota car. FIFA get some kudos for this competition as United took it seriously.

Onward to the World Final

Gamba Osaka 3-5 United
FIFA Club World Cup Semi-Final; attendance 67,618
Live from Yokohama on Five.Tv

From the comfort of a sick-bed sofa I watched a comfortable United performance at 1030h in the morning. 2-0 up by half time, the game slipped into easy mode for the second half. Just when you think time is being played out, and the supposedly injured Rooney comes on it all changes. Went to the kitchen to put the kettle on and Osaka pulled one back. But a flurry of goals from Rooney and Fletcher made it beyond reach at 1-5. To be fair to Osaka played a good game, with bright open play forcing Van der Sar to do a bit of shot stopping. Even managed to score two more goals to make the result more flattering, one of which was a dubious penalty decision by the ref.

Technology might do a miracle bringing clear moving pictures from half way round the world, so how come the sound is so bad. Muffled drumming and muted chanting like a cheap 1950's jungle movie soundtrack. On top of which there are a couple of commentators stating the bleeding obvious.

So on to the final on Sunday. It's not the most prestigious cup, though in future years this will change - the original World Cup of 13 teams in 1930 went unnoticed, the press still harp on about 1966 but forget that some games had less than 20,000 turning up, Wembley had greyhound racing one night so a match had to be switched to an athletics stadium. Now everyone scrabbles for a bit of the action. So a fair chance of winning as the opposition doesn't come from Brasil or Argentina. Only downside is I'm working on the busiest Sunday of the year. Looks like I'll be relying on match trackers on the web - 3 minutes behind the events. There was no radio coverage today. Manchester's Key 103FM claims it covers every United and City game at home, away or abroad. It just serves up old records, drivel talk and annoying adverts like every other commercial radio station.

Five.TV to show United games

After days of searching the web I eventually discovered that Five TV (used to called Channel 5) will be showing United's two games in Japan - 18th and 21st December. See Liveonsat.com

For those in the Armchair Army the next ten United games in all five competitions will be on Tv. My whole calendar revolves around the fixture list, and keeping those hours free from work and other distractions.

United in Japan Who's Showing It?

I keep checking the Tv schedules to see who will be showing the FIFA Club World Club 2008. It's bound to be shown by some channel as Manchester United are there in Japan for two matches.
Details :
Thursday 18th December : United v. Adelaide United or Waitakere United / Gamba Osaka...with a kick-off at 1030h GMT that's 1930h Yokohama time

Sunday 21st December losers of the above tie play at 0730h GMT for third place (third place games in this day and age?), winners play at 1030h GMT in the final.

What do mean, you don't care? It means United will have then played two games less in the Premiership, so a bit of mid-week fixture congestion in 2009 then.