Despite its billing by FIFA as the “biggest club title of all,” it’s hard to imagine any team other than Real Madrid lifting the Club World Cup trophy in Morocco on Dec 20,Reuters’ Brian Homewood writes. Though FIFA’s only club tournament brings together the club champions from each continent (plus the domestic title holder of thetournament’s host), the likes of South American champ San Lorenzo, Concacaf champ Cruz Azul, and African champ ES Setif struggle to muster half a dozen regular internationals between them.
Such is the dominance of Europe that the top South Americans and Africans play against, rather than for, teams from their continent. San Lorenzo’s squad, for example, has just one player whoplayed in the 2014 World Cup: 38-year-old Colombian defender Mario Yepes.
Nevertheless, the Copa Libertadores champ thinks it can spring an upset, and win the whole thing:“We’re not going there to see the sights,” midfielder Nestor Ortigoza tells FIFA.com. “We won the Libertadores but now we have to turn the page and keep on makinghistory. We’re a good side and we’re going to be up to the task.”
San Lorenzo, like Real Madrid, has the added advantage of being seeded, which means it only needs to win twogames — the second of which is likely to be against Real — to lift the trophy, which the South American champ has done three times since the tournament’s new format was introduced in 2005.