A Video Sampling From Preseason Friendlies: Emirates Cup, Barclay’s Asia Trophy, Peace Cup, and World Football Challenge

By: Laurie | August 1st, 2009

Your 90th minute How the HELL did he do that? goal of the weekend, courtesy of Andrei Arshavin of Arsenal in the Emirates Cup. Emirates Cup this year consists of Atletico Madrid, Rangers, Paris Saint Germain and, of course, Arsenal, the hosts. Day 1 of the tournament was Saturday. Day 2 is Sunday.

Summer is ending at last, and real football is starting to appear. Granted, most of it is taking place in preseason friendlies, but that doesn’t mean the matches aren’t worth watching.

The best part of the preseason is that you get to see unusual matchups — the kind that don’t happen during the regular season. Teams from multiple leagus in one spot? Got that. Mexico meets Europe? Got that too. European matches played in unusual venues like the US and Asia? Check.

A few of my favorite highlights:

The interestingly-named Peace Cup (sponsored by the Korean Sunmoon Peace Foundation, which is itself sponsored by the Unification Church) is an invitational held every two years with teams from around the world. 2009 is its fourth iteration, and it also marks the first time Olympique Lyonnais (Lyon) hasn’t made it to the final. (Or, in this case even out of the group stage. Ouch.)

Highlight of the semis for me? Fabio Cannavaro scoring for Juventus against his former club, Real Madrid. Money can buy a lot of things, but apparently not the Peace Cup.

Update: Alas, the video police have removed the original. All I can find now are full game highlights that barely show the goal. (It’s the first one.) But at least there’s a cool sound track to keep you entertained, right?

And then we have the Barclay’s Asia Trophy, three Premier League clubs playing in Asia against a local club. This year it was played in China by Tottenham, West Ham, Hull City and Beijing Guoan. Won by Tottenham, 3-0 in the final over Hull City. West Ham beat Beijing Guoan for third.

Video: The post-match celebrations, where I found myself watching Robbie Keane and wondering if anybody’s ever been blinded by post-game champagne. And also what it is they’re trying to do with only one thunder stick apiece. And what they’re all looking at inside the Cup at the beginning of the clip.

(I probably don’t really want to know the answers to any of these questions.)

And this is a week late, but when six games in the US average 56,100 attendees apiece it’s worth a mention, particularly when the domestic league averages about 15,000.

We talked about the World Football Challenge over the past couple of weeks. It was a tournament in the US attended by England’s Chelsea FC, Italy’s Inter Milan and AC Milan, and Mexico’s Club America. Final results:

Standings

Team	Pld	W	WPk	LPk	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Chelsea	3	3	0	0	0	6	1	+5	15
América	3	1	1	0	1	3	4	−1	8
Internazionale	3	1	0	1	1	3	3	0	7
Milan	3	0	0	0	3	2	6	−4	2

A word about points: 3 for a win, 1 for a draw, and a bonus point for whoever then wins the match on penalties. And apparently also one point for every goal scored and no penalty for goals against? Am I adding this up right?

I caught several of these matches and it was some entertaining footy, with Club America probably the biggest positve surprise and AC Milan the biggest negative. (But Ronaldinho had flashes where he playing like the old Ronaldinho, which almost made up for it.)

Best moment of the tournament?

Wait, which pocket did I keep that yellow in again?