Brian Homewood MARRAKECH — Bayern Munich could hardly has expected that its opponents in the final of the Club World Cup would be a team of average league players languishing in ninth place in the Moroccan championship. The quirks of the competition, however, mean that is exactly who the European and Bundesliga champion will face when it takes on Raja Casablanca in Marrakech Saturday. It is by far the biggest mismatch in the tournament's history and although Raja's presence in the final will ensure huge local interest, the chasm which separates the sides may ultimately damage the competition's credibility. Raja's entire squad is worth a modest 9.5 million euros ($12.99 million) on the transfer market, according to the website transfermarkt.de, less than one quarter of the sum Bayern paid for Mario Goetze alone. The total value of the Bayern squad is 487.2 million euros, more than 50 times as much as their opponents. While Bayern has been sweeping everything before it at home, and is unbeaten in the Bundesliga since October last year, Raja's results in the Moroccan league have been so bad that it fired coach Mohamed Fakhir earlier this month. As its somewhat clunky name suggests, the competition brings together the club champions of Europa, South America, CONCACAF, Asia, Africa and Oceania. However, FIFA also allows the champion of the host nation to take part and Raja Casablanca took Morocco's place by finishing top of the league last season. The script was that, after beating Oceania champion Auckland City in a preliminary match, Raja would have either lost to CONCACAF champion Monterrey in the quarterfinal or, if not, South America's Atletico Mineiro in the semifinals. But, having beaten Auckland 2-1 with a stoppage time goal, they picked up momentum, gained confidence, caught its Latin American rival on an off-day and progressed to the final. Meanwhile, Africa's own champion Al-Ahli of Egypt was knocked out by Asia's Guangzhou Evergrande in the quarterfinals. The players say that former Tunisia and Libya coach Faouzi Benzarti, who replaced Fakhir, has made the difference. “He's definitely got the best out of us and given us fresh confidence after an unfortunate run of results,” forward Mouhssine Iajour said.“His approach is more attack-minded than our previous coach. He always wants us to attack, no matter what the state of the game is.” Midfielder Kouko Guehi, who scored the winner against Monterrey in the quarter-finals, promised a team of warriors. “This is not just about Raja, or any city in particular, this is about Morocco as a whole,” said the Ivorian after the 3-1 semifinal win over Atletico Mineiro. “All the club presidents came here to support us, all of Morocco supports us and that is truly heart warming. “We will fight in this final, show them that we are men, warriors. We are going to fight on all fronts to win this final.” Bayern Munich chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge warned the Bavarians to be on their guard. “There can be no complacency and arrogance just because they're not well-known in the footballing world,” he said, though he added there was little danger of his team underestimating their opponents. “The team is too stable, has too much good character, and the coach is too ambitious this year. All of them want this trophy. It would mean we've won everything there is to win. “We've been on a high even though we haven't been considered favorites, and we've never stopped believing in our chances,” said Raja midfielder Chemseddine Chtibi. A significant factor Bayern will have to deal with in Saturday's final is the large number of noisy Raja fans. “It's like having the whole of Morocco behind us. You can achieve the most amazing things with support like that,” said Chtibi. — Reuters
