Guardiola’s record and City’s Club World Cup summit | Soccer | Sports

Pep Guardiola won his fourth Club World Cup as a manager – more than anyone else – and led Manchester City to their first universal title. It was this Friday in Jeddah, the Saudi tourist capital, and on the banks of the Fluminense. The elegant Libertadores champion, with great experience, lacked the energy to resist the pace imposed on him by his rival. City, who press better without Haaland or De Bruyne, caused a demolition under the dictation of the all-powerful Rodri.

Ambulatory cameras in and around the locker rooms follow the teams in search of multimedia content that could be exploited commercially. Every day with more dedication and resources, since the pre-match and post-match have become a very lucrative spectacle thanks to the multiplier effect of the networks. Also during the Club World Cup final, where a TV camera went into Fluminense’s sleeve. There, the figure of Fábio Devison Lopes stood out. Perhaps convinced he was playing in a one-off show, the 43-year-old goalkeeper enthused. His excited harangue ends with a cry so affected that he runs out of breath: “We didn’t come here to take a walk! “We came to show that we are the best in the world…!” Marcelo, in a gesture of compassion, intervened amid applause to close a ritual whose ecstasy was close to voodoo.

The South American players entered the field with such enthusiasm that they were down 1-0 after two minutes of play. Bernardo, Foden, Julián Álvarez and Grealish extended the pressure to the backline when Marcelo caught the ball and changed direction with his right foot, his weaker leg. The ball looked for Arias, but he found Aké. The central defender advanced into a clearing and finished from outside the box. The ball hit the post and bounced to the very timely Julián Álvarez, who intercepted the trajectory with his chest with the sudden malice of a fly ball.

The Agony of Marcellus

Fábio Devison saw him from the goal line, lying down after a futile sequence, and Marcelo, the other main player in the pre-match film, was shaking his curly hair with the preclear awareness that comes with 35 years and experience which led him to conquer four Club World Cups with Madrid before emigrating to Brazil to win the Copa Libertadores. Few careers have been more successful than Marcelo’s in the history of football and only one Brazilian left-back can claim to have improved it: Roberto Carlos. In his position, he must have understood that this goal would transform the final into a hopeless agony, barring an accident.

There was no such accident. The game played out through natural channels. City’s pressure could resist Fluminense’s circulation, and Fluminense’s pressure could not resist City’s circulation. Good team to compete in its field, this American champion of glorious floats, this team supported by Felipe Melo who has traveled around the world several times between excellence and dispersion, this Marcelo great but overloaded, and this Goose who never moved the field with ease and now plays like he was walking in the parks, they used up his energy in half an hour.

There was little news of young midfielder André Trindade, the supposed jewel in the window, and instead a tribute was paid to Rodri. The Spanish midfielder is going through a moment of little-known splendor. He gives the impression that he could do whatever he wants. His talent, his presence, his capacity for influence and determination were reflected in every minute of the match. Also when he cut two lines with a tight and precise pass in the space that Foden would occupy, author of the shot which precipitated the 2-0. Nino, slow to react, deflected the ball into an own goal in the 27th minute. The rest of the match – including Foden’s 3-0 and Álvarez’s 4-0 – completed the two-minute long match epilogue preceded by the prologue – voodoo.

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