Champions of the Universe
"Champions of England..."
- Thread starter Pogue Mahone
- Start date
-
In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
Means nothing if we dont at least win one of, the league or champions league. Up to the players to make it happen.
Even if it costs us the League and/or Champions League Jason?
It isn't the same as the 50 years of history, though. This thing is only four years old.
The Intercontinental Cup was nothing like this is - for a start it was wildly insular - and secondly the South American match was notorious for violence and the 'fix' being in. Then it became a pre-season one-off.
The 2000-4 thing wasn't taken seriously (with us basically being forced into it and starting the precedent with European teams) especially because at first it overlapped with the Intercontinental.
This is a much better and more serious tournament and is the closest you can get to deciding Champions Of Earth.
It combines both the Intercontinental and the World Club Championships to do something pretty special and unique.
It is especially nice considering we have to win You Know What in order to get in.
It isn't a top priority, but it sure as hell isn't a glorified midseason friendly or a nothing tournament.
Do you think it actually will?
The CL doesn't restart for two months.
The league break might actually help us - we're in a bit of a rut and this will hopefully be a confidence booster and a bit of a restart.
You could say the League Cup is more likely to cost us anything as it is causing a lot more fixture congestion especially around the Inter tie.
The general consensus with it is that a final is a final so it would be nice to go and play to win.
Yet this is treated with total disdain.
Miserable so and so's they won't be complaining about winning it if in the next few years it becomes as big as Fifa hopes!
Aside from Vidic's red card nothing bad came from this victory and we should be happy - alot of teams would give everything and anything to even partake in this tournament, its extra icing to the champions league victory.
I don't know whether it will or not Jason, but it has the potential to. We already have fixture congestion and it's not yet January. If the Scousers or Chelsea win today we'll be 9 points off the top when we come back. And in the Champions League we may have to face Inter over both legs without a key defender.
Personally I'd prefered to have not taken the chance because - in England at least - this tournament is not viewed with any kind of kudos. MUST didn't even run a Chubb Club for it FFS.
That was called the World Club Championship originally, only over the last decade did it change to The Intercontinental Cup/Toyota Cup. As I said in a another thread, all they've done is replace the one off format with this new one. We're not playing two different comps in Japan. I have no idea what the Brazilian tourno was about. They should played it the season after, and stuck to one WCC tourno - As they do currrently, and have done over the last 50 years.
Or maybe we'll get a new Fifa President and this version will be scrapped, replaced in time by something better and the idea implemented more properly.
Well there is that extra game to squeeze in somewhere.
So, you reckon isolation that all of our main rivals both in England and on the continent would have traded places with us? I do doubt it.
Well I'd still consider victory in this version of the tournament as a victory in the next incarnation.
There is an extra game granted, and finally looking out of the big four/international team we should still be thankful to win a trophy - any trophy - but thats just me, theres alot of premiership sides who would love to have held that trophy today as I'm sure United would have back in the 80's.
We haven't exactly been on fire in either the league or CL so far this season, even before we've got to Japan. So what can we blame that on? If we don't win either then our early season form will be a factor towards that, not just our form after we've returned from Japan. If we don't go on to win them, then this tournament will most likely be used as the excuse.
The NFL Superbowl winners call themselves the world champions.
The NBA winners call themselves the world champions
The MLB "World Series" does the same and it winds me the feck up.
Even if you would win you have to prove it.
We just did and are champions of the world!!
The NBA winners call themselves the world champions
The MLB "World Series" does the same and it winds me the feck up.
Even if you would win you have to prove it.
We just did and are champions of the world!!
Well put jason. Agree with every word, which is quite unusual.
They didn't, in fact only Villa won. Now we are 7 points behind the scousers with 2 games in hand.
Oh and IF we dont win the league, you'd say it would be because of the FIFA Club World Cup, correct? So not winning vs newcastle, spurs, villa, losing at arsenal and at liverpool won't have anything to do I presume? Genius.
"Champions of England, Champions of Europe, Champions of the World. What a team Manchester United is! With it great rich history and their fans supporting their backs!"
I think the after match interview with rooney and Ronaldo is..class. Check it out
http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/1889649/
http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/1889649/
Our rivals have missed out in terms of an opportunity to gain a psychological advantage over us by widening the gap whist we were away...
If we can get through the CL without Vida, this trip will have had no effect I(luckily) on our season. Obviously I'm assuming the sqaud is fit enough to cope with the extra 2 games and travel.
If we can get through the CL without Vida, this trip will have had no effect I(luckily) on our season. Obviously I'm assuming the sqaud is fit enough to cope with the extra 2 games and travel.
In fact, I think, it was called the unofficial world club championship, which was, obviously, not it's official name. And the reason it couldn't officially be called so, was, of course, that most of the teams in the world we're not allowed to qualify for it.
There are two different dimentions to this:
THE SUBJECTIVE VALUE of a tournament: To me, Liverpool never were the best club in Europe in 05, nor were Greece Europe's best national side in 04. The three most important tournaments to me, normally, is the CL, PL and WC, in that order. To me, Cameroun would have been just World Champions in 90 if they'd beaten England, Germany and Argentine, even though I wouldn't have considered them the best national side in the world. To me, the Intercontinental cup has always been a magical set up, the CWC even more so. I rejoice the loudest over winning the CL, the PL, the CWC, the FA Cup, in that order. That's me.
THE OBJECTIVE VALUE of a tournament: Italy is currently The World Champions, the last national side to win a competition were all the world participated. Spain is currently The European Champions, even though Italy is European and are The World Champions. Manchester United are the current World Champions, European Champions and English Champions. Come may, they might not be the latter two, but will still be World Champions, because they won the last competition for clubs were all the world participated. Barcelona may be the best team in the world as of today, but they are not even Spanish Champions, nor World Champions. They can only make themselves worthy of that title through winning CL, and then the CWC.
Good post! Reads like a poem.
Manchester United will probably always have this ambiguity of wether it is an international club or a national club. Matt Busby have much to do with that. I am a Norwegian who was taught to love United by a stepfather who first fell in love with The Busby Babes (before the accident) based on some lines in a paper and the story of a bunch of kids challenging for the untouchable international crown of Real Madrid. Back then, lot's of English didn't rate the European Cup at all, with exactly the same arguments as now befalls the CWC - to many games, focus on the league, mickey mouse tournament, who are FC Royal Antwerp from Belgium anyway?
For me, it's been like for Busby, with league as the bread and butter and the EC as a festive thing. It's also been a case of: FA cup is the soul of English football, possibly meeting the likes of Northwich Victoria in the first game, and the Intercontinental Cup/CWC is going were no man ever trod, fighting with the Champions of the exotic and brilliant Argentininans and Brazilians that no man dare touch, lest he be the acclaimed Champion for all the Europeans including those arrogant Royal yobs from Madrid.
Ultimately, there's honour in winning The Manchester Senior Cup, and there's honour in beating the champions of Oceania. But the Charity Shield and The Super Cup don't count for shit and winning the Intercontinental/World Tournament is something magical.
I was right again.
That's because you're not around 12 years old.
I'm 27 Ralphe how many times do I have to tell you!No, but I do enjoy being around 12 year olds.
Shit, I've said too much!