Today's Edition
KUUMAR SHYAM (AL AIN)
If one was in Al Ain, Saturday night fever had a sporting outlook. Soon after 10pm, fans at the Hazza bin Zayed Stadium in the Garden City of the UAE metaphorically brought the roof down as the football club were crowned Kings of Asia.
Stars in their own right, the players beat Japan’s Yokohama F-Marinos 6-3 on aggregate after a two-leg Asian Champions League (ACL) final.
Leaders of the UAE sent in congratulatory messages thick and fast. Car drivers blew horns in rhythmic fashion, kids and adults alike made optimum use of the moonroofs, and everyone waved flags and scarfs, sang the anthem songs of the club and rejoicing in every manner possible.
Al Ain retained their track record this season of being unbeatable at home in this tournament. Al Ain trailed 2-1 after the first leg in Yokohama where the second-largest attendance was registered for the season on May 11.
Al Ain can play host to maximum 25,000 of which a section had to be reserved for fans of the away side. The numbers were less; the first-leg result was not encouraging; the expectations could infest in negative pressure.
Yet the belief among the “Ainawi” – fans of the club – was intact as the official attendance was clocked at 23,842. And the turnaround was just the result the home fans wanted.
By Saturday morning, Aletihad spotted cars decked up with vinyls and stickers with messages such as “May 25 or never”, “Wanted” – with AFC Champions League logo, “Once Again” and many other creative ways. While some may be melodramatic, the love after the result showed how much was at stake.
Soufiane Rahimi, adjudged the player of the final and the tournament with 13 goals, also may have been guilty of some theatrics on the field but he played the perfect ambassador for the club later.
“I want to congratulate the players, club officials and everyone who supported us all the way,” Rahimi said.
Talk quickly focused on his ambitions to leverage this performance for playing in Europe, but Rahimi stalled those saying “he is in contract” with Al Ain and the time is to focus on this win while profusely admiring his mentor, coach Hernan Crespo.
“When I was growing up, he was the player I looked up to,” Rahimi said. “I never expected to meet him and that one day he would be my coach. He gave me the freedom and trusted me, and it is all because of him.”
A modest-sounding Crespo became emotional during the prize distribution ceremony and credited the players in reciprocal. He took over the club in November, having lost the ACL final last year with Al Duhail.
They were outclassed completely by Al Hilal, the Saudi Arabia club Al Ain beat in the semi-finals. “Honestly, I didn’t do anything,” Crespo said.
“These guys, these players, did something big. Every time when we faced the quarter-finals, semi-finals, and even the finals, as underdogs. At the beginning nobody believed in us, and we did it.”
He also shrugged off other talks around the win such as his counterpart Harry Kewell grudging the refereeing standards and the fact that the ACL title was salvation for the demanding fans after the club’s disappointment in the ADNOC Pro League.
“We learn and will aim to do better,” Crespo said. For Al Ain to do better than Crespo’s previous job in Qatar, the Argentine had to innovate.
He reorganised his team with Rahimi as the lone spearhead, dropping the equally dangerous Kodjo Laba to the reserves.
He restored confidence in the goalkeeper Khalid Eisa and he dismantled Yokohama without the Brazilian Erik.
No wonder, the winning team even broke protocol and gatecrashed the press conference as they could not get enough of him in the celebrations before. It was the same spirit with every Ainawi.
