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Barcelona 4, Santos 0: Match Highlights

FC Barcelona capped a dream year by winning a second Club World Cup title in three years, but their performance in Sunday's 4-0 thrashing of Santos took the game of soccer to another level.

South American champions Santos didn't stand a chance as Barcelona dominated play from start to finish, showing off their trademark passing attack and providing more evidence to the argument that this Barcelona side might be the best club team ever.

Here are the highlights from Sunday's Club World Cup Final:

Comments

  1. Nice post if you ever want to write on football for our website youthfrenzy.com we will be really happy to put you on team. please do give it a thought thanks.

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  2. “And why exactly is it wrong for them to praise teams that actually try to play attractive soccer?”

    I didn’t say that. I agreed with Brent McD’s comment.

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  3. One, Barca are the best team on the planet, 1-2 levels above the other elite teams. A bigger problem is those who are NOT in love with Barca.

    Two, Christopher Sullivan is just a mediocre commentator who says uninteresting things. I could listen to Ray Hudson’s Barca hyperbole for months without tiring of it.

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  4. Once ever is your justification for this comment, “Of course, it usually possible for the third or fourth place English team to win the Champs League. ”

    Usually possible =/ once ever.

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  5. Liverpool finished 5th in the EPL in 04-05 when they beat AC Milan in the Champions League and they finished 4th the year before to qualify for that tournament. So, yes, a chance in hell.

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  6. While I agree with you that Neymar’s supporting cast is not nearly as good as Messi’s supporting cast, that does not mean that Neymar is better or equal to Messi. Just compare their contributions to the game. Neymar was not even the best Santos player in this game (Ganso was), while Messi played a critical role in 3 out of 4 Barcelona goals. And, if you want to argue that Santos’ defense is no good, Messi repeatedly dominates the best teams in Europe. And while playing with other Barcelona players helps, Messi also had success with other teams. With Argentina, he won the U20 World Cup (something that Neymar was unable to do) and the Olympics. Neymar is a tremendous young talent that may or may not pan out when he starts competing against worlds top players, but Messi is already one of the best players to ever to play the game (and people rightfully compare him to Pele and Maradona). He is a special talent that we are lucky to watch in our lifetime.

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  7. What are you talking about?

    Only 4 EPL teams have won the tournament… in history. Liverpool and United are the only two teams to have won it in the past 20 years.

    3rd or 4th place EPL squads? Not a chance in hell.

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  8. No. The reason Santos ended up where it did was because it was concentrating on the Copa Lib for most of the season. The Brazilan league is competitive enough that a different focus will have an effect, and winning the Lib has become more important than the Brazilian championship. Of course, it usually possible for the third or fourth place English team to win the Champs League. It’s just timing-when you qualify for the regional championship based on the previous years domestic results, this can happen.

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  9. Actually the way the tournament is set up Santos could be in relegation and Barcelona in tenth and they still could play for the title?

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  10. The fact that a tenth placed Brazil side was in the competition is the problem. The tournament will be secondary and non-competitive until they fix that. I have no answers.

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  11. Anyone who watches Neymar regularly knows that at 19 he could start for virtually any team in the world right now. He is an exceptional talent, period. If Santos has Messi and Barca had Neymar, the result today would have been no different (enough cannot be said about Xavi and Iniesta in particular). Barca is simply playing a different game than the rest of the world. As for the value of this tournament, South American teams have won and will win it again when Barca comes down to earth. And yes, the US should absolutely host this thing.

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  12. yea the eurosnobs will probably boast…but only because they dont understand how the world of football works. the south america vs europe argument is non existant if ppl understood. there is a direct corrolation. all those european teams have south americans in it. so how is it europe vs s.america? as if south americans dont want to play in europe.

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  13. Pele is a punk…he’s said he’s better than Messi, Ronaldo, and Maradona, what a joke lol. History will remember Messi as the greatest player to ever play the game.

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  14. Yes they did…i agree…Neymar going up against possibly the best team of all time in football, its hard to do anything…i have to say tho…1 on 1…. Neymar still rips messi…Neymar doesent have 2 of the top 4 players in the world playing along side him.

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  15. hey Marco ….educate yourself on the WORLD of football and how every confederation works before you criticize weather a team should be in it or not. Fifa doesent choose names out of a hat for the club world cup..there is a reason why they are there. So find out that reason and then think about what you said.

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  16. Many Eurosnobs are going to point to this and say “Why even have this tournament? UEFA’s champions shouldn’t be bothered by meaningless teams to prove themselves in a meaningless competition.”
    Just got to say that I don’t think Barca’s superiority over Santos means that UEFA’s leagues and teams and champions are entirely dominate over teams of the Americas. Just look at Spain and Europe and you can see that Barcelona is on an entirely different level than the teams and champions they constantly play. That being said, my hat’s off for the official world champions.

    BUT WHEN WILL MLS/USSF TRY TO HOST THIS THING? Fifa Club World Cup USA 2015 anyone?

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  17. On to a more valid complaint: Ives, can you contact someone at Fox Soccer about these videos? When you get the link from an embedded video to post to Facebook or Twitter or elsewhere, it gives you a link that pretty much doesn’t work and takes you to the main Fox Soccer page.

    This is the link you get:
    http://foxsports.com?vid=e6799afe-d6d2-4bec-94c6-810208f3a153&mkt=en-us&from=sp^foxsports_en-us_videocentral&src=FLPl:shareBar:permalink:uuids

    This is what the link to the actual video should be:
    http://msn.foxsports.com/foxsoccer/video?vid=e6799afe-d6d2-4bec-94c6-810208f3a153

    Another problem is that even if you post the correct link to your Facebook news feed, it doesn’t give any description of the content of the video, it just posts it under a generic headline:
    “Fox Soccer Video Highlights – Soccer Video, Barclays Premier League Video, UEFA Champions League Vid…”

    That makes it pretty much totally useless even with the correct link.

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  18. Santos wasn’t the only one doing poorly. Just look at CONCACAF’s Monterrey: did not make playoffs in Mexico, and in my opinion, had a weak showing in CCL despite winning their group.

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  19. Santos barely had the ball, so the Santos players didn’t have much of a chance to show what they can do. Neymar created some danger a couple times and missed a couple chances, not too much really. If you were to single out one Santos field player I’d say Ganso was best and most useful on the night with the consistency of his passing.

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  20. Neymar was as dangerous against Barcelona as Cristiano Ronaldo was last week.

    Hard to judge a guy whose team never had the ball. He’s for real though, every top team on the planet can’t be wrong. And it’s not hard to see him making a forward spot at Barcelona his own if he goes there, maybe sooner rather than later. Not hard to see him beating out Sanchez, Afellay, Pedro, even Villa, with his combination of mobility, dribbling, and passing.

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  21. Neymar barely had the ball, and when he did the chances were handled well. Cesc predicted as much before the game, and a lot of that control was from the mythic 3-7-0 formation Barca appeared to use (partly due to Villa and Alexis being unavailable). The way the first half ended, Barca was so dominant that one could have expected a 6-0 win.

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  22. didn’t see the game but for those of you who did…how did Neymar look up against Barcelona? Was he dangerous at all? He seems young and slight to me still somehow. Dude gots some growing to do. In five years who knows how he will look?

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  23. I have no idea what any of you people are upset about… isn’t it possible for teams to be in the Champions League final even if they’re doing awful in their league that year? Who cares? And he can say they’re the second best team because they came in second place in the Club World Cup, the rules are the rules.

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  24. I guess you are not familiar with the US playoff system where similar things happen every year in US sport.

    Santos just plays the game they did not make up the rules.

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  25. Santos won the libertadores they deserved to be in the tournament. Maybe they can schedule this at a different time of the year but the end of the year makes sense for a couple of reasons.

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  26. When you call Neymar a “punk”, what are you basing it on? That quote or his past behavior? Personally, I don’t see anything wrong with that quote. I know, its the hair isn’t it?

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  27. Neymar is nowhere nearly as good as Messi and he has a huge ego, but perhaps he was trying to say that his team finished second in the FIFA Club World Cup and it’s not a bad consolation prize.

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  28. There is something wrong with this tournament when a 10th place side Santos plays for the club championship, that should never ever happen. I don’t know how to fix it but it needs mending. Barcelona could easily have scored 8 goals or more. Neymar’s claim,
    “But we are the second-best team in the world…” insults the mind. His best decision ever was to stay in Brasil.

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  29. Just thought everyone should get the chance to read this post-game quote from the punk, Neymar.

    “They are the best team in the world with fantastic players. But we are the second-best team in the world and for us that is a great reward.”

    Hope Pele enjoys eating the mountain of crow from saying Neymar was much better than Messi and that Messi wasn’t a complete player and not fit to tie Neymar’s shoe laces.

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