"Saprisa, where is this team, how is the strength?" When John Smith told George about Tottenham's opponent in the semi-finals over the phone, George, who had just stepped off the plane, asked Adele beside him in confusion. Because he has been busy leading Tottenham in the Champions League and league battles, and at the same time has to be distracted from various affairs within the club, George does not know much about the situation of the Club World Cup, only that this time it is the Brazilian powerhouse Sao Paulo who represents South America, and the rest is not clear.

"It's a club from Costa Rica. Clearly, Adele did her homework much more than George, "having previously qualified for the semi-finals of the Club World Cup by a narrow one-goal win over Oceania champions Sydney FC in the first round. Strength...... It's just a small character, and I don't think we need to waste too much energy on it. ”

By the time the Spurs arrived at Tokyo International Airport on a special plane, the Club World Cup had actually begun, with the first round of matches already over a day earlier. Among them, Sabrissa and Etihad defeated their respective opponents in the first round and successfully reached the semi-finals of the Club World Cup!

As the champion of last season's Champions League and the most famous and powerful team in this Club World Cup, Tottenham naturally does not need to play any Rausch first-round matches, or qualifying, just need to wait for the qualifying round to end and start from the semi-finals.

Although FIFA and Blatter have always claimed that the Club World Cup was created to "allow clubs from all continents to have a world-class club competition", in fact, due to the huge difference in the level of football and attention from each continent, the strength and popularity of the participating teams are also uneven, forcing FIFA, as the organizer, to make adjustments to the schedule, so that the participating clubs from South America and Europe can play directly from the semi-finals!

The reason why the Toyota Cup (including its predecessor Intercontinental Cup) can still have such a strong influence in the World Cup with only the Champions League and Copa Libertadores champions participating is precisely because in the minds of the vast majority of fans, the level of football in South America and Europe is the top among all continents, and Oceania, Asia, North America and Africa are not ranked at all!

In order to ensure that there is no mass of one-sided abuse in the Club World Cup, and to accommodate the emotions of the European and South American teams, Blatter and FIFA have no choice but to modify the fixtures in this way. However, despite Blatter's racking of brains to finally replace the 25-year-old Toyota Cup with the Club World Cup, and doing a lot of publicity and promotion work, there are still many fans who do not buy it, and at most will only focus on the final final. In this way, the Club World Cup is undoubtedly no different from the Toyota Cup that it replaced, except that the schedule has become lengthy, and there are a few more boring and unsuspenseful chicken ribs!

In George's previous life, even more than a decade later, there was nothing FIFA could do to change that. Even if an occasional team from a non-continental continent makes it to the final, the trophy has never escaped the grasp of Europe and South America. As far as the results are concerned, there is no difference at all from the previous Toyota Cup!

So it's no surprise that George would be in a situation where he despises the Club World Cup and can't even remember all the teams participating in it – in his eyes, the only one who can cause problems for Tottenham is Sao Paulo, who are in the other half. As for the other teams, they are simply used to make up the numbers!

At the same time, after learning that the opponent in the semi-finals of the Club World Cup turned out to be Tottenham Hotspur, Saprisa's morale suddenly fell to the bottom!

Although it is very unambitious to say this, but their own family knows their own affairs, and the players under the manager, they all know very well in their hearts that if they want to beat Tottenham Hotspur and reach the final of the Club World Cup, it is simply a fantasy!

Perhaps in Costa Rica and North American football, Saprissa is still a strong team. But to say that it has the ability to wrestle with Tottenham is clearly playing an international joke. Both FIFA and Saprisa themselves know this.

This is the main reason why FIFA has divided Sao Paulo and Tottenham Hotspur in different halves. If the two protagonists were allowed to meet in advance at the semi-finals, how many fans would have gone live or sat in front of the TV to watch the final?

Although Tottenham had a full three days of pre-match preparation, George only arranged one day for the players to practice on the field, and also took one day for the team to cooperate with the club's work to participate in commercial promotion activities, expanding and increasing Tottenham's influence and market share in Japan!

In this way, in this relaxed atmosphere of preparation, the time came on December 15th. Tottenham Hotspur welcomed the Club World Cup semi-final against Saprisa at the Yokohama International Stadium!

Worried about the sale of tickets for the Club World Cup and the recognition of fans, FIFA has set the venue for this year's Club World Cup in Japan, the hometown of the Toyota Cup.

The dismal end of the inaugural Club World Cup five years ago not only tarnished the prestige of the tournament, but also squandered what little money FIFA had saved during the Havelange era. So this time, Blatter, who has always been reckless, also had to be cautious.

None of the players in Saprisa's starting line-up, George, were recognizable, but it was the substitute goalkeeper who piqued his interest – Keyrol Navas, the future Costa Rica's number one star and one of the key figures in Real Madrid's decision to send Casillas away. He has just entered the first team this season as a substitute goalkeeper for Saprisa!

To be honest, before getting Saprisa's eighteen-man squad, George had no idea that Navas had actually played for Saprisa. However, now that he has met him, then he naturally has no reason to miss the future top goalkeeper - even if Tottenham has Petr Cech in charge, it is not a loss to dig him into a satellite club to hone it first, and then sell it for money later!

There is nothing to say about the competition. Against Saprisa, who were far behind their own in terms of overall strength and technical and tactical level, Tottenham easily won - Drogba as the starting center forward and Klose who came on as a substitute both scored twice in the game, Arshavin and Cristiano Ronaldo each passed and shot respectively, and Dutch veteran Edgar Davies also scored a goal in injury time to lock the score at 7-0!

In the first meeting of the Club World Cup semi-finals, the North American champion Saprisa was beaten by the European champion Tottenham Hotspur with seven goals!

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