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Commentary

The 2010 FIFA Club World Cup

December 16, 2010 — by Suman2

FIFA Club World Cup 2010Seven teams have been competing in Abu Dhabi over the past week in the 2010 FIFA Club World Cup: Inter Milan (Italy), Pachuca (Mexico), Internacionale (Brazil), TP Mazembe (Congo DR), Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma (South Korea), Al-Wahda Sports Club (UAE), and Hekari United FC (Papua Ne Guinea). The final is set for Saturday: Inter Milan vs, surprisingly, TP Mazembe.

Hekkari are the first club outside of Australia or New Zealand to qualify; but they immediately fell to host side Al-Wahda in the qualifying round.  Al-Wahda went down to Asian champions Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma in the quarterfinals, and they in turn lost to Inter Milan in the semis.

The UEFA and CONMEBOL champions go straight into the semifinals–which no doubt has contributed to every previous final match being a UEFA vs CONMEBOL affair (see below).  But this year TP Mazembe made it to the finals by beating Pachuca and then Internacional.  See our lengthy post here on TP Mazembe and more on how they reached the final; see FIFA’s site for the full bracket of results leading up to the final.

Via Wikipedia, here are the details of how the seven clubs qualified–the six winners of the various Confederations’champions leagues plus Al-Wahda as winner of the host UAE’s league:

Team Confederation Qualification
Brazil Internacional CONMEBOL Winner of the 2010 Copa Libertadores
Italy Internazionale UEFA Winner of the 2009–10 UEFA Champions League
South Korea Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma AFC Winner of the 2010 AFC Champions League
Democratic Republic of the Congo TP Mazembe CAF Winner of the 2010 CAF Champions League
Mexico Pachuca CONCACAF Winner of the 2009–10 CONCACAF Champions League
Papua New Guinea Hekari United OFC Winner of the 2009–10 OFC Champions League
United Arab Emirates Al-Wahda Host Winner of the 2009–10 UAE Premier League

Also via Wikipedia, here are the results of the previous finals–showing that up until this year, it’s always been CONMEBOL v UEFA (other than the 2000 tournament, which included two Brazilian sides–the Vasco da Gama as Copa Libertadores winners and Corinthians as winners of the host domestic league; see this for why there were no competitions between 2000 and 2005):

Year Final Final venue
Winner Score Runner-up
2000
Details
Corinthians Brazil 0 – 0 (a.e.t.)
(4 – 3 pens.)
Brazil Vasco da Gama Maracanã Stadium,
Rio de Janeiro
2005
Details
São Paulo Brazil 1 – 0 England Liverpool International Stadium,
Yokohama
2006
Details
Internacional Brazil 1 – 0 Spain Barcelona International Stadium,
Yokohama
2007
Details
Milan Italy 4 – 2 Argentina Boca Juniors International Stadium,
Yokohama
2008
Details
Manchester United England 1 – 0 Ecuador LDU Quito International Stadium,
Yokohama
2009
Details
Barcelona Spain 2 – 1 (a.e.t.) Argentina Estudiantes Sheikh Zayed Stadium,
Abu Dhabi