Ducks, Cranes and the Club World Cup

By: Bob | December 12th, 2006

The FIFA Club World Cup tournament is kind of an odd bird. This year’s version features one of the world’s richest teams, Barcelona, as well as an amateur club, Auckland City FC that draws about 1,500 fans per match. The tournament is played during the heart of the European club season. It features a 5th place game. It is played in Japan even though there are no Japanese teams in the tournament. It is an odd competition, indeed, but there are a few things to take away from it.

For one thing, it does provide an opportunity to take a sneak peek at some of the young talent from the various regions of the world. One player that everyone is quacking about is Alexandre ‘The Duck’ Pato, a 17-year-old who plays for the Brazilian side Internacional. The Duck, who doesn’t play like a seal, will be in action on Wednesday when his team squares off against the Egyptian side Al Ahly. There’s your excuse for bagging work for 90 minutes and watching football.

The other fun reason to care about the Club World Cup is that it serves as a reminder to us all just how over-the-top crazy fans in Japan can be. It is no surprise that Barcelona is receiving the rock star treatment, they usually do wherever they go. But it is not enough for the players to be swarmed everywhere they go and for a gazillion photos to be taken. Japan’s Barcelona FC fan club, Penya Japan, has been hard at work, among other things trying to help Samuel Eto’o recover from his knee injury.

Other Penyes may boast a much larger membership, but few Cules can match their Japanese counterparts for passion and dedication. Take the case of Samuel Eto’o, Barca’s talismanic front man currently sidelined with a long-term knee injury. To help their idol on the road back to full fitness, Penya Japan decided to send Eto’o a special Japanese get-well gift: 1000 paper cranes threaded on a single string. That is only the beginning of the story. First of all the club’s members had to track down origami paper to match the team’s famous Blaugrana jerseys. Then, working through the night, they made not just one but three strings with a total of 3,000 hand-folded paper cranes. Finally, to add a touch of divine energy to their own heartfelt prayers for the Cameroon international striker’s quick recovery, they had the paper cranes blessed at the Kanda Myojin shrine in Tokyo before sending them off to Spain.

Barcelona takes on the Mexican team Club America on Thursday and if Samuel Eto’o makes a miraculous recovery and plays you should get busy folding some paper cranes for your own favorite player.

As for the famous fifth place game, you probably don’t need me to tell you but it is set for Friday and it features Auckland City FC against the South Korean team Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors FC. It is worth watching if for no other reason than to see if they award a Fifth Place trophy after the match.