December 22nd, 2008 
Lovely Wayne Rooney clinched victory for Manchester United in the Club World Cup final with a late goal against Liga de Quito after Nemanja Vidic was sent off. Quito goalkeeper Jose Cevallos made a series of superb stops to deny Rooney, Carlos Tevez and Park Ji Sung in the first half as United dominated. United’s hopes were hit when Vidic saw red after 49 minutes for lashing out with an elbow at Claudio Bieler.
Rooney, who was named player of the tournament, took a pass from Cristiano Ronaldo in the 73rd minute and fired an angled right-footed blast into the bottom corner past diving Liga goalkeeper Jose Cevallos. “It was a very difficult game especially after going down to 10 men,” said Rooney. “I’m very happy to have scored and for us to become the best club in the world is something we can be very proud of.” United was reduced to 10 men when defender Nemanja Vidic was given a red card in the 49th minute for elbowing Claudio Bieler in the face. United becomes the first English club to win the cup in its current format. The Red Devils participated in the first Club World Cup in 2000 without making the final, while Liverpool lost the 2005 decider.
Manchester United celebrate Rooney
Quito’s best chance came early on when Jairo Campos found space to meet Alejandro Manso’s whipped free-kick in front of goal but somehow put his shot wide. But the South American champions were on the back-foot from that point onwards and were grateful to Cevallos for three good saves in the first 20 minutes. Cevallos did well to push away a Rooney snap-shot from the edge of the area and repeated the trick to keep out another ferocious effort from the England striker soon after – although this time he will have been relieved that the ball bounced wide after it had span from his grasp. And the 37-year-old was soon in action again, flinging himself to his right to keep out a diving header from Tevez after some good work from Cristiano Ronaldo. Ronaldo looked keen to impress the crowd at the Yokohama International Stadium, showing off some fancy footwork at every opportunity, with only an end-product missing from his play.
Alex Ferguson’s squad qualified for the Club World Cup in May after beating fellow English side Chelsea in a penalty shootout in the Champions League final at Moscow. Liga qualified for the competition by becoming the first Ecuadorean club to win South America’s Copa Libertadores. Liga defeated Mexico’s Pachuca 2-0 on Wednesday to reach Sunday’s final, while United advanced after a 5-3 win over Japan’s Gamba Osaka.
The third-place match was play earlier on sunday and the Japan’s Gamba Osaka secured a 1-0 win over Mexican side Pachuca.
Liga Deportiva : Cevallos, Norberto Araujo, Calle (Ambrossi 77), Campos, Calderon, Reasco (Larrea 82), Urrutia, William Araujo, Manso, Luis Bolanos (Navia 87), Bieler.
Subs Not Used: Dominguez, Obregon, Delgado, Eder Vaca, Danny Vaca, Chango, Viteri.
Booked: Bieler, Campos, Cevallos, Calle, William Araujo.
Man Utd: Van der Sar, Rafael Da Silva (Neville 85), Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Ronaldo, Carrick, Anderson (Fletcher 87), Park, Tevez (Evans 51), Rooney.
Subs Not Used: Kuszczak, Berbatov, Giggs, Nani, Scholes, Welbeck, O’Shea, Gibson, Amos.
Sent Off: Vidic (49).
Booked: Anderson.
Goals: Rooney 73.
Att: 62,619
Ref: Ravshan Irmatov (Uzbekistan).
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