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Club World Cup: Wayne Rooney sparks furious finale as Manchester United beat Gamba Osaka 5–3
All continents are now equal in Fifa’s re-structured Club World Cup but some remain more equal than others.
Manchester United cruised into the competition’s final against Gamba Osaka in Yokohama to set up the traditional Europe versus South America contest, against Liga de Quito of Ecuador. Fifa’s vision of a truly global event will have to wait.
United’s victory had more of the air of lively and spirited testimonial than a do-or-die semi-final with six goals in the final 16 minutes producing the spectacle Fifa and a crowd of 67,618 craved. The spectators got the individual cameos they demanded too, with Nemanja Vidic and Cristiano Ronaldo heading United into a comfortable interval lead before Wayne Rooney emerged from the bench to score twice and collect the European champions’ only booking of the game.
The furious finale, sparked by the moment Rooney took the field, in the 74th minute, masked what had been a fairly pedestrian performance from United until that point. Gamba’s two late goals attached some reward to their industrious but limited offering, although given that they arrived with United 5-1 ahead, Sir Alex Ferguson’s team were guilty of complacency rather than defensive weakness.
The early promise came exclusively from Gamba as they adopted a shoot-on-sight policy towards Edwin van der Sar. Yasuhito Endo, no doubt encouraged by his winner against Adelaide United in the quarter-finals, Michihiro Yasuda and Tomokazu Myojin all drove over the Dutchman’s goal from distance and the United goalkeeper saved with his legs when Ryuji Bando got behind a casual defence.
United’s greatest reprieve came from the Mexican match officials when a right-wing cross from Akira Kaji struck Gary Neville below his captain’s armband. Despite the luminous yellow indicator, the assistant’s flag stayed down.
With the exception of Ronaldo, Paul Scholes and Carlos Tevez, allowed a starting role by a training ground knock that kept Rooney on the bench and a virus that sidelined Dimitar Berbatov, United looked like a team for whom jet-lag would offer a convenient post-match excuse. Eventually, however, Ferguson’s side began to enforce their superiority even though they had to rely on their obvious physical advantage at set pieces to do so.
Vidic and Ronaldo headed Ryan Giggs corners beyond Yosuke Fujigaya in the first half but it was not until Rooney’s arrival that the match caught the imagination. Masato Yamazaki gave Gamba brief hope with a fine low finish only for Rooney to restore United’s two-goal lead from Darren Fletcher’s pass within 20 seconds. Fletcher headed in a fourth, Rooney converted Giggs’ pass for a fifth and then, with United switched off, Endo scored from the penalty spot before Hideo Hashimoto completed the goal rush in stoppage time.
Gamba Osaka (4-4-2): Fujigaya; Kaji, Nakazawa, Yamaguchi, Yasuda; Hashimoto, Myojin, Endo, Lucas; Bando (Terada, 85), Yamazaki. Subs not used: Matsuyo, Futagawa, Roni, Shimohira, Kurata, Takei.
Manchester United (4-4-1-1): Van der Sar; Neville, Ferdinand, Vidic (Evans, 69), Evra; Ronaldo, Anderson, Scholes (Fletcher, 67), Nani; Giggs; Tevez (Rooney, 73). Subs not used: Park, Carrick, Welbeck, Rafael, O’Shea, Gibson, Kuszczak, Amos.
Referee: Benito Archundia (Mexico)
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