Date: 21.12.2013 (16:30 Marrakech) TV Coverage / Convert Time Zone Atlético Mineiro will do their best to avoid being the first South American side to lose both matches at the Club World Cup. They face a motivated Guangzhou who themselves come off a humbling experience in the semis.
Galo might lose this one as well with the way they played today. Guangzhou has some interesting players....
This one could be quite interesting. I too think Guangzhou can win this match if Galo don't step it up significantly. Those of you who weren't impressed with Guangzhou in the semis need to remember who they played on Tuesday. I for one wouldn't rate Raja higher than the Asian champions. Some of the Evergrande players up front may be a touch more clinical even in their finish.
Well, I know who CONCACAF fans are rooting for... "Emerging Confederations" Top Three Placements AFC (Total 4) 3rd: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011 CONCACAF (Total 3) 3rd: 2000, 2005, 2012 CAF (Total 2) 2nd: 2010 3rd: 2006 With Raja's appearance in the final CONCACAF will once again fall to the bottom of the three "emerging" confederations. The last thing they want is the AFC pulling away at the top.
I see Mineiro scoring 1 or 2. But could see Evergrande getting a squekey 1-0 win. Will be uber close. A blowout will be a shocker. Great to see your dedication to the Club World Cup Swiss. I remember we were all super stoked, when this was announced years ago.
That was a disgraceful game from the ref. Missed at least one more penalty for Evergrande on Zhang Linpeng's run through the right. Starstruck from a diving and dirty CAM team who played his incompetency to the fullest. Ronaldinho's red was justified, but should have also been a red on Zhao Xuri who appeared to stamp Ronaldinho (even if the ball was there). If anything, he should have already been on a yellow for clawing Feng Xiaoting's face (wasn't even a foul and lead to a scoring opportunity for CAM). The whole second half was just Evergrande backing from pressure because they couldn't get near CAM players without fear of getting called for a non-foul (watch the prelude to the Ronnie red if you want to see what I mean). All around terrible ref who ruined what was a pretty good game.
Agree, very bad gamesmanship on display and the ref out of his depth. Not sure on zhao xuri, possibly a red, was a bit hard to see. Ronaldinho was a disgrace, even after the red he behaved terribly and sat down on the bench (which I believe is not allowed after a red card). The winning goal was a bit unclear on my stream, was it possibly offside?
Sorry to hear the referee, who was Iranian (Faghani) do so poorly. I didn't see the match, but if you are correct, it is doubly sad since he seems to have hurt Guangzhou more than the Brazilian club.
I think it was close. Could have gone either way. Won't take that goal away from Atletico Mineiro though, the Evergrande defense there was poor. Happens. No hard feelings on his nationality, doubt that was a factor. Think he lost control of the second half and didn't give Evergrande players any protection whereas delayed calls were being made for Atletico Mineiro when they flop and just raise their hands.
Ronaldinho was really in disgrace. the whole game he acted like a superstar who look down the opponent Guangzhou Evergrande VS atletico mineiro 2:3 Highlights. Ronaldinho Red Card http://www.focusxport.com/highlight...co mineiro&highlightstime=2013-12-22 00:00:00 Guangzhou Evergrande VS atletico mineiro 2:3 Highlights. Ronaldinho Red Card
From the highlights, I can't see him really getting any of the calls wrong. The penalty for Guangzhou was the right call and all the goals looked legit to me, including CAM's 3rd goal which looked onside to me. And certainly Ronaldinho deserved his red card and I didn't see any other penalty in the highlights that should have been awarded to Guangzhou. As for whistling some dives as fouls, which wouldn't show in highlights, that is hardly going to make a difference and, besides, these kind of things will not always be seen accurately by fans who are emotionally tied to the calls.
The penalty he's referring to is the foul on Zhang Linpeng when he was doing stepovers and was fouled in the box right when he got past two players.
These foul calls were being made after the AM player falls and waves his hand. And this happens the entirety of the 2nd half. This forces the Evergrande defenders to fall back because they can't risk touching their opponents without getting called. That is a concern since Ronaldinho happened to score a nice free kick in the first half. Of course these won't show up in replays, but they drastically affect the game. Watch the lead up to Ronaldinho's red card, the players were just backing up from him, a huge contrast from the first half and the beginning of 2nd half when Evergrande were full on pressure and completely owning the game and forcing AM to counterattack. You can almost figure why Zhao Xuri was so angry because Ronnie dived on minimal contact from him, and then caught the ball between his legs while embellishing. You will be able to find Ronnie's double claw on Feng Xiaoting though. He didn't get a foul, or card for that. In fact it lead to a shot for AM and Ronnie shrugging saying he did nothing wrong. Go figure. As for the penalty, Zhang Linpeng was fouled blatantly (even the American commentators who were worshipping Ronnie were dismayed at the non-call) in the box after beating his man. There was another instance where Muriqui was pulled down as well, though this was harder to call. The 3rd goal was close, like I said I won't say it was offside, though it could have gone either way. What's done is done. I just thought the ref was out of his element and respected AM way too much.