World Club Cup – Final – Messi vs Neymar
By David, BettingExpert.com | Edited
It is fifty years since Santos were crowned champions of the World at club level. Barcelona will be their rivals but the exotic nature of the Blaugrana’s opponents does not really make it easy on pundits to consider the Spanish giants foregone favourites.
Santos – Barcelona
The final everyone was sure to expect in Japan in this year’s edition of the only competition which sees Fifa’s intrusion in the realm of club football. Very much wanted by Blatter, the World Club Cup this time pits against each other two of the finest clubs South American and European football have to offer.
Last year African surprise Tipi Mazembe made it to the final against Benitez’s Inter and the match was quite one-sided, crowing champions the Italians. For this year we go back to the two continental power houses and although Europeans usually come out on top there have been a number of surprises along the way with South Americans considering this competition very highly, even more so than their Copa Libertadores. European clubs still consider their own Champions League as the more prestigious trophy but the interest for this honour has been revived in more recent editions.
Barcelona will want to lift the second World Club Cup title in the last three editions. In 2009 they had managed to win six trophies including this one, domestic trophies and the Champions League and European Super Cup with Pedro scoring in each of the finals that lead to every one of them.
That may have been the reason for having started him against Al-Sadd and given the injury reports after that semifinal Guardiola may have more to ask of Pedro in this year’s final against Santos. David Villa’s injury seemed related to a muscle pull but it was later confirmed that he actually broke his tibia and may be out of contention for a maximum of six months. That settled a problem for the club in a way too since Spanish newspapers were talking about a rift between the Spanish international and Messi that resulted in the former being given less playing time. Something on the lines of what had previously happened with Ibrahimovic, Eto’o and Ronaldinho. Guardiola rejected reports that David Villa was going anywhere in January and at this point things have worked out well.
Alexis Sanchez, a summer signing from Udinese, was slowly getting back into the team after the injury setback suffered after a few games with Barcelona, displacing Villa. He is more adapted for the wide role than David Villa is, with the latter tending to move into a central position and stepping on Messi’s toes quite often.
The Chilean striker was brought on in place of Villa but was then substituted again in the second half and suspicions are that he suffered a muscle injury. Pedro will be on call to start alongside Sanchez and Fabregas in attack.
Guardiola rested a number of starters against Al-Sadd knowing that they would have played a day after Santos before they clash on Sunday at 11:00 CET. Xavi, Pique, Dani Alves, Fabregas and Busquets were not given any playing time whilst Abidal was spared the final half an hour. All, apart from Busquets probably, should start in the Santos match.
The Blaugrana could afford taking their opponents lightly but Santos were less lucky in their draw. Kashiwa Reysol are of a higher level than Al-Sadd and they did give the Brazilians a hard time. The 1-3 end result can betray an apparent ease in victory but Santos risked a lot on a number of occasions with the Japanese side’s inability to turn into the net some clear chances costing them the opportunity to take the game to extra time.
Pele has been quick at snatching the chance to shoot down Argentina’s ownership of the World’s best player. For him Neymar is better than Messi, once again missing out on an opportunity to keep silent and control his pathetic nationalistic instincts.
There are no doubts with regards to the young Brazilian’s qualities. All that is Brazilian excels in his game but when speaking tactical intelligence he is some way off the mark in my opinion. Not his fault of course. They do not really teach that in Brazil. In fact, all of the Santos team is quite backwards in this regard. And this may be the key to the final.
Kashiwa exposed Santos’ weakness in covering the middle of the park. They caught the Brazilians on the counter attack with relative ease getting their man in a great position to finish off. The Japanese did find their goal in Santos’ best moment but before Neymar and co. grew to those levels they stuttered more than expected. The wonder goal from Neymar which opened the scoring boosted Santos and gave them the confidence they needed but all in all there were too many sins exposed for the Brazilians.
Barcelona’s way to goal was not as easy either but Al-Sadd set out to defend in numbers, unlike Kashiwa. The Blaugrana needed some luck to ward off the frustration of opening the scoring but they never ran any dangers on the other side. Valdes could have napped for the whole 90 minutes.
The risk of seeing Santos serve the same dish as that of Al-Sadd is very remote. With Pele as their godfather they share much of his arrogance and will be convinced they can attack Barcelona and dominate. On the other hand, they would not really want to focus on defence either given their inability to be consistent on that front. Going forward they can be dangerous so it is expected that they make use of what they think s their better weapon and therefore best chance to prevail. Neymar and Ganso had a very good game against Kashiwa and it will be up to them to create dangers and finish off Barcelona.
Seeing the Blaugrana struggle to go through the Arab wall might have reduced the confidence in their abilities. On the contrary I would think those kind of problems will not be an issue against Santos and this can actually be more their kind of game than the semifinal match was.
Verdict: Barcelona -1
Santos will think they can match Barcelona’s game. They have very good feet and pass the ball around well enough. However, beneath the Barca game lie well planned tactics which are very much lacking at Santos. Kashiwa Reysol exposed a number of those frailties and with acres of space and very little opposition to their passing game Barcelona can win this much more easily than one may think.
17.12.2011, 13:06 CET
I would prefer a bigger handicap on Barcelona rather than Barca to win to nil masterOhell.
However, it is definitely a possibility. I just fear the individual abilities of the attacking men of the Brazilians.
With that said I still think Barcelona should really have much easier than anyone might think in controlling the match and taking the title over 90 minutes.
17.12.2011, 23:56 CET
:) it make sense David I think you are right.. especially if for example the game goes 3 or 4 0 for barca,they will for sure make fun of it and a goal from santos is so possible that way..
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17.12.2011, 09:04 CET
I happened to watch some of santos games in last season,they(and in my opinion all Brazil clubs)are not even close to European clubs!!I really cant understand how they score!!they played like Italy serieB clubs,No tactics at all..I am going for Barcelona wining to nill-I know its risky,but great odds