YOKOHAMA, Japan (AFP) – Manchester United began the long trip back to England on Monday in a triumphant but sober mood, with a Boxing Day fixture against Stoke City looming and jetlag to deal with.
Winning the Club World Cup on Sunday gave the team one of the few pieces of silverware to elude them and the players were clearly delighted at being crowned world champions to go with their European and English titles.
Wayne Rooney scored the only goal as they beat Ecuador’s Liga de Quito 1-0.
But they suffered a blow when Nemanja Vidic was sent off, meaning he will miss their Champions League first leg against Inter Milan in February.
Now they face the reality — a gruelling flight back to London with a connection to Manchester and then Stoke, knowing that a defeat on Friday would be disastrous.
Aston Villa’s 1-0 win away to West Ham on Saturday lifted then into third place on 34 points, above champions United who have 32 points with two games in hand.
Manager Sir Alex Ferguson said Sunday’s win was a boost going into the rest of the season.
“It will be a good springboard for us,” he said.
“To go to Stoke on Friday having been beaten here would have been difficult but we won and I think there will be a bounce in the club.
“It gives us a platform to chase the leaders of the Premier League.”
Jetlag looms as a potential problem in a busy winter schedule that sees United also face Middlesbrough three days after Stoke.
United faded badly in the last 20 minutes of their semi-final game here against Gamba Osaka on Thursday after arriving on the Monday, conceding three late goals which they blamed on tiredness.
Ferguson admitted fatigue had impacted his players in Japan, and is aware that he could face similar problems when they get back home.
“A lot of us have found it difficult and struggled to sleep,” he admitted.
“It is difficult to say what the impact will be when we get back home. “Hopefully we will have enough recovery time to produce at Stoke.”
On the bright side, he pointed out that when they played the Intercontinental Cup in Japan nine years ago, they returned to England and performed well.
“After the Inter-Continental Cup in 1999 we went back home and beat Everton 5-1 three days later, so who is to say what might happen?” he said.
“But we know we do have a task on our hands when we get back.”
Ryan Giggs agreed. “It has been quite difficult over here. I have not slept much, four or five hours sleep a night really,” he said.
“I hope it won’t have a knock-on effect on our title defence. We don’t know how it will affect us next Friday when we play Stoke.”
Rooney acknowledged it would be tough against Stoke, admitting it was a game they must win.
“Stoke is a difficult place to go. We have to make sure we defend well and try and win because it is a big game for us,” he said.
“We’ve just got to try and deal with the jetlag as best we can and get as much rest as we can before the Stoke game.”
The mid-season tournament, while huge in South America, has been criticised as a waste of time by the British media, but Ferguson has repeatedly defended the trek to Japan, citing the prestige of being world champions.
The tournament heads to Abu Dhabi next year for two years before returning to Japan, a welcome move by European teams who know the jetlag won’t be such a problem.
