It'll be Real Madrid and Kashima Antlers playing for the title of best club team in the world on Sunday in Fifa's Club World Cup. Real Madrid beat Mexico's Club America 2-0 but the video review system was almost the main talking point again. The referee thought about using it to have a look at Cristiano Ronaldo's goal, Madrid's second, but then decided he could use the good old fashioned, "what did I see with my own eyes?" technique. Which, admittedly, hasn't always worked very well.
It's a funny concept, isn't it, this "best in the world". Whoever wins this can say they are that, because Fifa created this tournament to decide who is the best. If Real Madrid win they are the best in the world but not the best in Spain, because they qualified for the Champions League (which they won to be in Japan) only because UEFA allows almost-Champions to play in that tournament. And Kashima? Well, if they win they may deserve the title for beating the second best in Spain, best in Europe team. And after all they did beat all the other teams in, er, Japan to be at the Club World Cup. They are not even the best team in Asia. But a tournament is a tournament, and the winner can claim to be the best.
I went along with this train of thought, having no idea where it was going when I started. There may have been a point which is probably something along the lines of, "but who can call themselves the best club team in the world?" Somewhere I went off the rails and could see my point rolling gently away down the tracks and I didn't have the energy to recover and chase it down. I thought about hitting delete but I'll leave it up there to see what response, if any, it gets.
Were Brazil the best team in the world in 1982, or Italy?
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