The new World Cup: It's worth a try

To avoid feeling too tired after traveling to a different time zone, the internet recommends, among other things: never give in to your body clock. Never go to bed just because your body clock says it's bedtime. It's better to adjust your sleep schedule to the new local time on the first night.

And that's why I'm sitting at a desk in a hotel room writing this column. My body clock still shows German time, almost 4:00 a.m. For a few hours now, however, I've been on US Eastern Time. And according to that, it's not even 10:00 p.m. yet.

So, my Club World Cup adventure began on Thursday with a trip to Miami, Florida. Saturday will see the opening match between Inter Miami and Al-Ahly from Cairo. Is this new competition a good idea? Time will tell. My fear is that the European clubs will be so clearly superior to their competitors from the rest of the world that the quarterfinals of the Club World Cup will read like those of the Champions League.

Nevertheless, I'm excited about the coming weeks. The appeal of the tournament lies in the fact that Europe's biggest clubs will be competing against clubs whose names evoke great myths: Borussia Dortmund, for example, kicks off the tournament on Tuesday against Fluminense, while FC Bayern Munich will face Boca Juniors in the second group match.

I've heard this comparison several times recently, and it's true: The Club World Cup is like putting together your dream tournament on your console. Now that tournament is taking place in real life. It's worth a try.