Costa Rica 3-0 but contrived to lose 1-0 to Sao Paulo in the
Yokohama inal.
The Reds dominated the match against the Brazilians but
had three goals disallowed, two strong penalty appeals waved
away and also hit the woodwork twice.
Former Liverpool boss Kenny Dalglish was positively fuming:
“I watched the Sao Paulo game and still don’t know how we
didn’t win – I still can’t understand how all three of those goals
were disallowed.
“The lads should be lying home with their heads held high
because they’ve given a great account of themselves and the
Premier League. They played some great football, scored some
great goals and were unfortunate not to add the trophy to the
cabinet.”
In his 2016 autobiography, keeper Jerzy Dudek recalled:
“It was an amazing experience to travel to Japan and play in
the World Club Championship. This competition is still not
treated seriously enough and I don’t understand why.
“We, however, treated it very seriously. Rafa planned
everything to the most minute detail and was so determined to
win it that he even stayed with us in Tokyo after news reached
him that his father had passed away.
“Our light took 12 hours, but to counter the jet-lag and
time-diference we weren’t allowed to sleep – the doctor was
running up and down the aisle waking up anyone who nodded
of! We also had to keep getting out of our seats and walking
up and down the plane.
“When we landed in Japan we were all handed sunglasses
and the coach that was taking us from the airport to the hotel
had its curtains closed.
“Apparently the strength of the light at that time of day is far
stronger in Japan than we were used to in Europe so we had
to try and protect our eyes. This was the level of detail Rafa
and his staf went into!
“As well as he prepared things, though, I think Rafa got it
wrong on the pitch. We beat Costa Rica’s Deportivo Saprissa
3-0 in our semi-inal with Peter Crouch, our tall striker who
had been signed that summer, scoring twice.
“But despite this he put Crouch on the bench for the inal
against Sao Paulo and played Fernando Morientes instead.
“There was no rational explanation for it. You can’t say it was
‘rotation’ for a cup inal to decide the world club champions!
Crouch had a tough start at Liverpool, he didn’t score in his
irst 18 games, but his goals against Saprissa meant he now
had four in ive appearances.
“He was absolutely lying – full of conidence – and we
could see the surprise on his face in the dressing-room when
he heard he wasn’t playing.
“We conceded a irst-half goal but Benitez waited until the
79th minute of the match to make any substitutions. He only
put Peter on with ive minutes to go and although Florent
Sinama-Pongolle had a late goal wrongly ruled out for ofside,
we lost 1-0.
“It was a big disappointment as it is the one big trophy that
Liverpool have never won and we were all desperate to be the
irst players to bring it back to Anield.”Will there be a re-match with Flamengo?Steven Gerrard arrives in YokohamaJapanese Reds in 2005 and (below)
Peter Crouch scores against Saprissa