Club World Cup Showed Chasm Between European and South American Elites Becoming Greater
Since the inception of the Club World Cup format back in 2005, only three South American teams were capable of winning it. With every passing year, this tournament that showcases the regional champions from all over the world has not only underwhelmed, it puts on display how much of a disparity there is with Europe and the rest of the world- especially South America. During the days of the Intercontinental Cup, this encounter between the best of both worlds in several formats made for some enthralling match ups. Today, the event has simply become a formality or a traveling inconvenience for European clubs as they look to add another piece of silverware to their trophy cases.
If one did not see Real Madrid’s 1–0 win over Grêmio, the scoreline would have told you of a heroic stand by the Brazilian side and only an otherworldly effort by the reigning Ballon D’Or put the Merengues up in the final of the Club World Cup.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Zidane’s Real Madrid had nothing to prove and everything to lose should the result have not gone their way. Going to Abu Dhabi and losing to a team whose payroll is less than what Cristiano Ronaldo’s costs would have been worthy of fodder by everyone that hates Madrid and everything they stand for.
For those of you that watched the match, you saw as mismatched an encounter as you could have seen between a South American side that was more committed towards looking like a rough and tumble hockey team than a football side that was disputing an international title.
Madrid looked like the big brother that was simply toying with the big brother. From a football standpoint, they laughed and giggled while the little brother swung and punched and kicked more out of a faux tantrum than trying to win the match. That was an undeniable fact.
Grêmio was the Copa Libertadores champ and their performance against Lanús in the tournament final showed their superiority in that matchup. Were they the best team in that tournament? That question could lead to a great deal of questions being generated as to the time of year that Grêmio was playing and a host of other factors like form.
The only tangible aspect that we have is that throughout the tournament, they were the most solid. We could also look at the situation that the Brazilians had where Arthur was injured and Luan ha arguably his worst match of 2017 in the Club World Cup final. In the end, those can be chalked up to excuses.
Renato Gaúcho (Portaluppi) was able to talk up a good game, very similar to a dictator filled with medals from imaginary confrontations that he conjured up when facing a big club. His big talk about how he was going to play Real Madrid was more reminiscent of a professional wrestler promo. Obviously, his word had some weight after winning Copa Libertadores as a coach and being part of the 1983 Grêmio side that defeated that memorable Hamburg side 2–1 that had players like Felix Magath, Wolfgang Rolff, Ditmar Jakobs and even William Hartwig. Portaluppi scored a brace in that match to put the Tricolor Gaúcho top the European giants of that moment.
That Grêmio side also had players like former Uruguayan international and the team’s gritty captain, Hugo De León. They also had the former Brazilian international Mário Sergio who had a brilliant career with the Porto Alegre side. He then became an established journalist upon his retirement but saw his life cut short in 2016 after being one of the 71 victims of the Chapecoense plane crash.
As a coach he showed he was extremely confident and understood what his team could do on the pitch to neutralize and also defeat the opposition that faced them on any day. Any opposition from South America, should be the caveat there. The team played scared. There was no two ways about it. They thought more about not losing to Madrid than they did going out to win the match.
In the end, there was an identity that lacked on the part of the Brazilians. There was a disposition that you saw from them that reminded people more of how teams in the Brasileirão play through 38 rounds. It was as if the coach and players were on the hot seat and they played to not get blown out. If that was the case, well they accomplished their mission. Yet what they did was at the cost of leaving a very poor image for Brazilian football and the region. There is a sense of fear and lacking imagination where preventing is a higher priority than creating.
It also shows a reality of the moment where we see that South American teams have to invent or find ways that are legal, creative… or not. This is the reality of what teams have to do to compete in a globalized marketplace where teams like Madrid are able to spend whatever it takes to reach an objective while various teams in South America spend money they never had and probably never will. As a matter of fact, Madrid officially threw their hat in the ring for the services of Grêmio star Arthur.
This is another reality as to why it is so accessible for European and North American markets to come into the region to acquire whatever players they want. While teams like Madrid and even teams like Manchester City and PSG are expanding worldwide, the presidents of various clubs work within very limited mindsets and working conditions. The marketing and promotions of South American clubs are reeling and they are still lights years behind what their European counterparts have achieved. The level of marketing has gotten to such a point that teams like Bayern Munich are now looking at Latin America as a nesting ground to create new fans. Yeah, globalization is a real thing in football. In the marketing sense we have seen it for a while, but now on the football end the differences are even wider than the ocean that divides Europe from America.
