This week’s roundup also features a boxer’s challenge failing before the first bell, free-kick routines and a dog in the race
1) It’s the Club
World Cup this week, a competition that a
Premier League side has won only once since its inauguration in its current form in 2000. That came in 2008, when
Manchester United beat LDU Quito 1-0 thanks to a Wayne Rooney goal. The competition’s uncertain standing in
England might have something to do with that first campaign in 2000, when Manchester United sat out the FA Cup in order to take part, and a certain amount of schadenfraude ensued when they were well beaten by Vasco da Gama and didn’t even make it out of their group. The only other English teams to reach the final were
Liverpool in 2005, when they were beaten by São Paulo, and
Chelsea in 2012, losing to Corinthians. Going further back, Flamengo fans have been keen to remind Liverpool of this, in the tournament’s predecessor, in 1981.
2) Over before it began: the South African boxer Ruann Visser hits the deck before a punch had been thrown, ruling himself out of his bout with Tian Fick.