With shades of Man United Urawa Reds vow to bring the noise at Club World Cup

SAITAMA – Their raucous fans are the self-styled bad boys of Japanese football and the team’s red shirts, white shorts and black socks bear more than a passing resemblance to Manchester United.

But while the fallen English giants won’t be at the Club World Cup, Urawa Reds will and are set to be roared on in the United States by more than 5,000 followers.

Japan’s best-supported club face Inter Milan, River Plate and Monterrey in the opening round when the revamped competition starts on June 14.

Urawa is a nondescript suburb about an hour north of Tokyo and the team have been known to draw crowds of over 50,000 to their Saitama Stadium home.

Crowd trouble is extremely rare in Japan but Urawa were banned from last season’s domestic cup after “ultra” supporters ripped down barriers and threatened opposition fans.

In 2014 they were forced to play a game behind closed doors after fans displayed a racist banner.

Supporters say they are misunderstood and are looking forward to hoisting their flags and belting out their songs in front of a global audience.

“People who aren’t really interested in football think that we’re scary people, but I always tell them that’s not true,” Urawa fan Kakeru Inoue said.

“I often bring workmates to games to show them what it’s really like.”

Urawa began life as Mitsubishi’s company team and their official name of Urawa Red Diamonds is a nod to the industrial behemoth’s corporate logo.

They were originally called Mitsubishi Urawa Football Club, or MUFC, another link to the Premier League side.

Despite having been crowned Asian champions three times, Urawa have only won the domestic J. League once, in 2006. But they have appeared at the Club World Cup three times, most recently losing 3-0 to Manchester City in the