In the Club World Cup final this Sunday, Kaka led his club AC Milan to a 4-2 victory against Boca Juniors. He set up 2 goals for fellow teammate Filippo Inzaghi and also scored a goal himself. The win gave the European club AC Milan its fourth club world title, thereby creating a record. Earlier, AC Milan had won this title in the years 1969, 1989 and 1990.
The Argentine club, Boca Juniors was the most promising team in the Club World Cup. They had earlier defeated AC Milan at the penalty shootout stage in the 2003 Toyota Cup. AC Milan took its vengeance on Boca Juniors with this victory. In this match, AC Milan was compelled to play with 10 men in the last 13 minutes of the game, after its defender, Kakha Kaladze was ousted from the field. Kaka had helped Inzaghi to score the first goal in the 21st minute since the starting of the match. This goal was equalized within 1 minute by a header from Rodrigo Palacio. Subsequently, Andreo Pirlo of Boca failed to score on a free kick. Following this, Alessandro Nesta, the defender of AC Milan scored another goal in the 50th minute, which put Milan ahead of Boca by 2-1. Following this in the 61st minute, Kaka attacked from the left and kicked the ball for a goal which passed underneath the opposing goalkeeper, Mauricio Caranta. His goal helped Milan attain a 3-1 lead in the game. Finally in the 71st minute, Inzaghi scored the final goal for Milan after a pass from Kaka. In the 85th minute, Massimo Ambrosini score a self-sided goal and shortly afterward Pablo Ledesma, a substitute for Boca, was sent off the field for an unforgiving tackle with Kaka.
The AC Milan captain, Paolo Maldini was all praise for Kaka’s contribution to his team. He said,
Kaka is the best player in the world... Every time the match is important he is there.
AC Milan coach, Carlo Ancelotti said,
Winning this trophy was our goal... It is a big success and we were confident we would win.
By winning the Club World Cup title this year, AC Milan pocketed $5 million and became the first European club to win this tournament after it was revamped. The third place in the 2007 Club World Cup and the bronze medal was claimed by the Japanese club Urawa Reds. Following a 2-2 draw with Etoile Sportive du Sahel of Tunisia, Urawa Reds beat them 4-2 on penalties. Reds striker, Washington Stecanelo Cerqueira, playing his last game, scored 2 goals during the normal time of the match and one more during penalty shootout. In the 2006 final, Brazilian team Internacional had defeated FC Barcelona by 1-0 and Sao Paulo had triumphed over Liverpool by 1-0 in the final of 2005.
Source: IHT
