Expanded FIFA Club World Cup: Tournament News & General Discussion [R]

Inter Miami being in this tournament instead of the MLS champion destroys its credibility.

 

Yes, River Plate-Inter looks a very attractive game.

 

Group B interests me the most thus far, even though my favorite clubs in this are Man City, Boca Jrs and Inter Miami.

 

For sure. No matter what excuse they come up with as far as the timing, the truth is they gave the spot to the 2024 Supporters Shield winner (a minor trophy) instead of the 2024 MLS Cup (the championship for the season). The Miami coach got fired for losing MLS Cup, despite winning the Supporters Shield. That says it all.

And we’ll know literally in two days which team will win MLS Cup. Nothing would’ve been lost by having that be unknown for two days after the draw. I actually think they specifically placed the draw before MLS Cup once they knew Miami would be taking the Supporters Shield so the timing could be the excuse.

 

Wow, Fluminense is on a brink of relegation. I thought they got away from danger. They might end up playing Dortmund on a global stage few days after they play Amazonas or Volta Redonda.

I clearly remember someone of the BS community said this competition will have a team playing in second division (he meant qualification process has a flaw).

I am most interested in Auckland City. They got three superclubs.

 

Around my parts, we call Inter Miami, the Miami Fusion 2.0 (or if you prefer, the poor man's version of Barcelona). They have achieved nothing representing a city that doesn't care about soccer having had some of the lowest attendance records before Messi arrived. Yet Infantino has declared to the world that this team is the face of US soccer. Furthermore he showed a total lack of respect for CONCACAF by staging this tournament alongside the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

The fact that the Miami Fusion 2.0 were awarded the opening match instead of Manchester City (reigning Champs) or even Seattle who are true US Champions, says everything about Infantino and the pretentious attitudes of the Miami Fusion 2.0 owners who have hijacked the narrative about MLS and the US soccer. The minute Messi is no longer wearing that hideous pink jersey and showing it off during Miami Fusion's 2.0 "look-at-me-I'm-the shiny-new-toy" global tours, the Miami Fusion 2.0 will revert back to an anonymous state. Even ESPN can't stop talking about Messi and the Miami Fusion 2.0 while barely covering the two teams that will face each other in the MLS Cup final this weekend. Pathetic and sad.

 

I believe that even if Miami wouldn't have won the Supporters Shield, Infantino still would have given Miami the spot. Maybe he would have used the League Cup from last year as the excuse. He needs to try and give this tournament a chance to succeed, so he doesn't cares about the Championship process that MLS employs. All he knows is that no one in Europe cares about the tournament so he is going to try and sell it to the US, and who else to use but Messi as the marketing tool. Expect to see a lot billboards, tv/radio/internet ads, and Tik-Tok/You-Tube influencers in the coming year all showing Messi and Miami showcasing their Supporters Shield plate and their participation in this tournament.

 

It's not like the global super clubs (i.e. England clubs) will take this tournament seriously and field their best players. So, there are 2 ways to look at this draw. Can easily be argued that Palmeiras, Al Ahly and Porto are exactly the toughest ones to face.

Let me be the first to predict a 3-and-out for Miami.

 

The only groups where a non CONMEBOL team or non UEFA team advancing wouldn't be that much of a shock are E and F.

 

Umm...group H says "Hi". I really don't understand your take.

 

Maybe I don't have much faith in Al-Hilal nor in the mexican team, but yes, that could also be an option.

My point is that all the other groups seem very loop-sided to the pot 1 and 2 teams like group G or three-way battles like group B, and I doubt we will have many "upsets" like in the countries world cup.

 

I could also see the best team in Africa beat Porto. Doesn't seem so unlikely.

But group H.... I don't even think the UEFA team is a favorite, much less a sure bet.

 

Well, yeah... that's a built-in flaw for this whole tournament. Another one is that Liverpool's best player has his contract ending mid-way through this tournament.
Not just Salah but hundreds of other players.

Yeah, that was me. The bigger issue is that the Brazilian serie A normally runs through June and July. So, they are just gonna pause their whole season for this? Or what?

 

Group A: Palmeiras (BRA), Porto (POR), Al Ahly (EGY), Inter Miami (USA)
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain (FRA), Atlético (ESP), Botafogo (BRA), Seattle Sounders (USA)
Group C: Bayern (GER), Auckland City (NZL), Boca Juniors (ARG), Benfica (POR)
Group D: Flamengo (BRA), Espérance (TUN), Chelsea (ENG), Club León (MEX)
Group E: River Plate (ARG), Urawa Red Diamonds (JPN), Monterrey (MEX), Inter (ITA)
Group F: Fluminense (BRA), Borussia Dortmund (GER), Ulsan (KOR), Mamelodi Sundowns (RSA)
Group G: Manchester City (ENG), Wydad (MAR), Al Ain (UAE), Juventus (ITA)
Group H: Real Madrid (ESP), Al Hilal (KSA), Pachuca (MEX), Salzburg (AUT)

I still think this is a useless competition that will only further burden the international football calendar. But with the ties now on the table, I have to say that I'd love to watch games like Bayern vs Boca Juniors or Atlético vs Botafogo.

 

A lot of ignorance in this thread. The host team has always been the winner of national league (in MLS that's Supporters Shield) and they've always had the opening match in the tournament.

 

So with the UEFA U21 tournament apparently going on at the same time, are players still obligated to play for country over club?

https://www.uefa.com/under21/news/0...-match-schedule-all-the-final-tournament-fix/

 

The winner of the US national league is the champion of the MLS Cup playoffs. This is understood by all players, staff, fans, and the league. The Supporters Shield is a minor trophy that ranks below MLS Cup.

MLS is divided into two unequal conferences with unbalanced schedules, which necessitates a playoff at the end of the season to crown a league champion.