Football
Club León - Urawa Reds live online: lineups, score, stats & updates | FIFA Club World Cup 2023
Club León - Urawa Reds: live updates
Urawa Reds pre-match press highlights:
It's a team with a completely different soccer culture. I think it's completely different from the teams that usually compete in the J.League.
I think the Mexican team is characterised by their technique and physicality, as well as the way they play by switching positions on the pitch. However, he sometimes plays in a fairly free manner, so I think it's difficult to predict.
I think we have to quickly adapt to the style of the Mexican team.
Their individual skills are also very high. However, they also have their weaknesses, so we want to exploit them. They are completely different.
It's a match between teams with different styles, so I think it's going to be an interesting match in that sense.
What [the fans] all did was phenomenal. I felt the pressure from it, but I also received very positive energy. I'm going to remind the players of that in tomorrow's meeting.
Here are the answers!
The 7 Mexican teams to play at the Club World Cup are:
América
Pachuca
Tigres
Chivas
Cruz Azul
Atlante
Monterrey
... did you get them all?
CONCACAF Champions League
LAFC vs Club León, summary: Di Yorio, score, goals & highlights | CONCACAF Champions League final second leg
How did Club León get here?
LAFC were outclassed by a ruthless Club León side who claimed their first ever Champions League title. Asa result, they have been granted the opportunity to participate in their first ever Club World Cup, becoming the 8th Mexica team in history to do so.
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Can you name the rest of the Mexican teams to have participated in the Club World Cup?
You have 2 minutes...
CLUB WORLD CUP
Kevin De Bruyne included as Club World Cup squads announced
The winner of the game today between Club León and Urawa Reds will face UEFA Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup holders, Manchester City.
The English side have seen their powers wobble this season, and currently sit 4th in the Premier League, behind Aston Villa.
Erling Haaland has not cut his hair, so we cannot blame that, but the reason behind City’s (sort of) drastic drop-off remains a mystery.
Who's the referee?
Jean-Jacques Ndala Ngambo is the man with the whistle today.
He comes as a representative of the CAF confederation and is from from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The 36-year-old has taken charge of games in the U-20 World Cup, the CAF Champions League and CAF World Cup qualifying.
And here's the Club León XI:
With another delightful look at that green shirt. It really is a beauty.
Here's the confirmation of the XI from Urawa Reds:
We've also got confirmation, thanks to the graphic, that they'll be playing in their also delightful red kit for the Game.
It will be green vs red: a Christmas treat for your eyes.
AFP
About the Urawa Reds:
In case you’re a bit rusty in terms of Japanese football, here’s a little bio of Club León’s intriguing opponents. Urawa Red Diamonds are from the greater Tokyo area of Japan and when they were formed 73 years ago, their original name was Mitsubishi Motors FC.
The three red diamonds on their badge are indeed the same diamonds as featured on the Mitsubishi car logo, as it was the car company who established the football club.
They were the first team in Japan to win the domestic treble, which they achieved in 1978, claiming the league title, the Emperor’s Cup and the Japan Soccer League Cup.
They have won the Japanese first division 5 times and have claimed the AFC Champions League on three occasions: 2007, 2017 and, of course, 2022.
Lineups confirmed!
CLUB LEÓN [3-5-2]:
GK: Cota
DEF: Tesillo - Barreiro - Frías
MID: Ambriz - Moreno - Mena - Rodríguez - Romero
ATT: Viñas - Alvarado
URAWA REDS [4-5-1]:
GK: Nishikawa
DEF: Hoibraten - Sekine - Akimoto - Scholz
MID: Ito - Koizumi - Iwao - Okubo - Yasui
ATT: José Kanté
Club León have arrived at the stadium!
The Mexican side have arrived at the Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Sport City!
We've got justover an hour before kick-off and we'll no doubt see the two sides step out onto the pitch for the pre-Game warmups any time soon!
CLUB WORLD CUP
Al-Ahly - Al-Ittihad: times, how to watch on TV, stream online | Club World Cup
What about the firstround? you may be asking yourself. Well, you probably didn’t hear about it as it was only one game: Al-Ittihad vs Auckland City.
The Saudi Arabian team, would you believe, beat the Australians 3-0 thanks to goals from Romarinho, Kanté and Karim Benzema.
Into the second round...
As well as ClubLeón (2023 CONCACAF Champions League winners) vs Urawa Red Diamonds (2022 AFC Champions League winners), we also have Al Ahly, who won the African Champions League. They will take on Al-Ittihad, and it’s a game you can follow later in the afternoon.
Possible starting XIs:
Given the team news and the fact we haven't had any official confirmation as of yet (it's still a bit early), here is our best guess of a starting XI for each side today:
CLUB LEÓN:
GK: Cota
DEF: Tesillo - Moreno - Frías - Rodríguez
MID: J Rodríguez - Mena - Sánchez
ATT: Romero - López - Viñas
URAWA RED DIAMONDS:
GK: Nishikawa
DEF: Ogiwara - Scholz - Hoibraten - Akimoto
MID: Okubo - Punya - Iwao - Ito - Koizumi
ATT: José Kanté
Team news: Urawa Reds
The bad news for Urawa Reds is that they will be without club captainHiroki Sakai, with the right-back unavailable after suffering from a knee injury.
Here is the list of past Club World Cup winners:
We've seen teams from all across the world claim the famous trophy and title of world champions, with the UEFA sides on a run of wins that stretches back to 2012.
During that time, Real Madrid have won it 5 times, and Bayern have done so twice.
Team news: Club León
It's good news for the CONCACAF kings as both Lucas Romero and Ángel Mena have returned to the Club León squad for the game, and are expected to feature at some point for Nicolás Larcamón's side.
Shaun Botterill / Getty Images
Which teams are in the Club World Cup?
In total, seven teams entered into the Club World Cup, with one from each confederation granted a spot, plus the host: Auckland City (OFC) and Al-Ittihad (AFC, host) entered in at the first round (more on that shortly), while Al Ahly (ACAFFC) and today’s two enter in at the second round.
The winners of the second round ties will go into the semi-finals, which will be played against the UEFA Champions League winners, Manchester City, and the Copa Libertadores winners, Fluminense (CONCACAF).
Urawa Reds: recent form
As for Urawa Reds, their recent form is not perfect either - it's quite topsy-turvy, in fact.
Out of the last five they’ve also only won 2, losing the other 3 games.
They come into today’s tie off the back of a 2-1 loss to Vietnamese side Ha Noi in the AFC Champions League, although that result could be considered a bit of a one-off, given it was a late penalty that sealed their fate and they beat them 6-0 in the reverse fixture.
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LOSS: 6 December 2023: Ha Noi 2-1 Urawa Reds
WIN: 3 December 2023: Consadole Sapporo 0-2 Urawa Reds
WIN: 29 November 2023: Urawa Reds 2-1 Wuhan Three Towns
LOSS: 25 November 2023: Urawa Reds 2-3 Avispa Fukuoka
LOSS: 12 November 2023: Urawa Reds 1-2 Vissel Kobe
Here's how the stadium looks ahead of kick-off!
The sun is shining on the lovely surface as we count down to kick-off in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia's western port city.
ALI HAIDER / EFE
Club León: recent results
The Mexican side are not in great form, having won just 2 of their last 5 games.
They’ve also lost 2 of them, perhaps their minds have been on the Club World Cup, but surely manager NIcolás Larcamón would’ve liked some more recent momentum going into the Game today.
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LOSS: 2 December 2023: América 2-0 León
DRAW: 29 November 2023: León 2-2 América
WIN: 26 November 2023: León 3-2 Santos Laguna
LOSS: 23 November 2023: San Luis 3-2 León
WIN: 12 November 2023: León 2-1 Juárez
The dressing room is ready!
Club León will be in their delightful special edition dark green strip for today's tie, which makes me extremely happy and warm inside.
Can I watch the Game?
Yes! Here’s how you can feast your eyes on today’s action and watch it all… for free!
What is the Club World Cup?
A great question. The Club World Cup brings together all the continental champions from around the world in order to find the definitive best team in the world.
It’s been going in one form or another since 2000 and has been held in plenty of different countries as fans across the globe have had their chance to watch the best teams from all the continents (sorry, Antarctica) face off in a mini-tournament.
The current champions are Real Madrid who also hold the record for the most wins, with 5.
Welcome!
Hello and a warm welcome to the AS USA live coverage of the Club World Cup second round Game between Club León and Urawa Red Diamonds!
It’s Joe here today to guide you through all the action as it happens, which should kick-off in around 90 minutes from now.
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