2005 FIFA Club World Cup revisited long-read

Background

One piece I really enjoyed writing for the Liverpool ECHO was a long-read looking back at the Reds’ 2005 FIFA Club World Cup campaign.

Having won the Champions League last June, it had been confirmed Liverpool would again be entering the competition and looking to win it for the first time in their history having lost in the final on three previous occasions.

Looking back at the Reds’ trip to Japan in 2005, the tournament proved to be a rather chaotic one for Rafa Benitez’s side both on and off the pitch and I had great fun breaking it all down to provide an entertaining and enlightening piece.

It was received well by our audience too, gaining over 60k views at the first time of publication.

Meanwhile, knowing one segment was on a drunken night Jamie Carragher enjoyed with Didi Hamann which involved running away from Japanese police, when scheduling tweets for the story off our Liverpool FC ECHO brand account, I made sure to tag the Reds legend in a couple in the hope he’d interact, and sure enough, he ended up quote-retweeting the story.

When Liverpool reached the final in Qatar back in December, the story was republished 12k views, with an engagement time of roughly 1min 30.

With the story being a nostalgic piece I really enjoyed sinking my teeth into to write, it was great to see my efforts appreciated by the audience with it performing well on Facebook in particular with a reach of nearly 170k.

Story

Headline: The strange story behind Liverpool’s last FIFA Club World Cup as Jurgen Klopp’s side look to make history

Extract: Future Chelsea midfielder Mineiro scored what would prove to be the only goal of the game just short of the half-hour mark as Liverpool conceded their first goal for two months.

Yet the Reds dominated from start to finish. Luis Garcia and Pongolle both saw goals controversially ruled out for offside, while Sami Hyypia was also denied by the linesman after converting from a corner with the ball adjudged to have gone out of play before falling to the Finn.

**Harry Kewell of Liverpool is tackled by Mineiro of Sao Paulo during the FIFA Club World Championship Toyota Cup 2005 Final between Liverpool and Sao Paulo at The Yokohama International Stadium**

They also hit the woodwork twice through Garcia and Harry Kewell, while the latter also saw a strong penalty appeal waved away in injury-time.

Throw in further missed opportunities from the likes of the diminutive Spaniard and Fernando Morientes and it soon became clear it really wasn’t going to be Liverpool’s night.

Running from Japanese police

And the Reds’ misery didn’t end there. Drowning their sorrows after the game, midfielder Didi Hamann actually ended up spending the night in a Japanese police cell after failing to escape the clutch of the authorities following a night out gone wrong with Jamie Carragher .

The German later recalled: “We lost the Club World Cup final 1-0 in a game we should have won. We absolutely battered them.

“After the game, we found a boozer because it was Chelsea v Arsenal and we had a few shandies to drown our sorrows, and we had a few more. And then, when the bar shut, there was a bit of aggro.

**Dietmar Hamann and Jamie Carragher, former Liverpool players share a joke prior to the UEFA Champions League Final between Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool at Estadio Wanda Metropolitano**

“There was some Liverpool fans, and some of Carra’s mates, so within a minute there was police all over the place, so everyone ran away.”

“I was injured at the time so I couldn’t run,” he continued. “Even if I was fit, I still would have been caught because most others were probably quicker!

“Anyway I got caught by a copper and he took me away. So there I was 3am and the bus was leaving from the hotel about 8 o’clock so I was a bit nervous when I got back.

“Carra throughout the night, he kept asking Sami [Hyypia] if I had come back. Every 15 minutes [he was ringing Hyypia] because he was worried he might be in trouble too.

“Yeah, Sami wasn’t too happy that he was getting called throughout the night because he loves his sleep.

“I’d blame [Carragher] and his entourage, yes!”

Same again…

A chaotic end to a chaotic trip as everything that could go wrong, did go wrong for the Reds.

Liverpool head to Qatar looking to go one better than Benitez’s side and bring the FIFA Club World Cup home.

And while their trip to the Middle East has so far avoided similar debacles, Klopp will be desperate for a move straight-forward final than the one that faced his predecessor in 2005.

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