So this is it. Ninety minutes, maybe even 120 or however long is takes to complete a penalty shootout, to end 13 years without Asian club football’s most cherished prize, 11 years on from the last time they got this close.
“Close, but still too far,” as Zlatko Dalic said last week before the first leg of the Asian Champions League final with Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, Al Ain’s forceful and formidable opponents.
Dalic did not quite repeat the line on Friday, 24 hours out from the return leg at the Hazza bin Zayed Stadium, but he again referenced the weight of the occasion, again reiterated what is at stake. Al Ain are playing “for history, for glory”, said the Croat, a sentiment quickly echoed by captain Omar Abdulrahman, who labelled Saturday’s encounter “the game of my life”.
More Asian Champions League final:
• Zlatko Dalic: Al Ain will approach Asian Champions League final second leg ‘without any nerves’
• Choi Kang-hee: Jeonbuk aim to win 2016 Asian Champions League final ‘to erase the bad memories of 2011’
• Can Al Ain win? John McAuley looks at how the UAE side can become champions for a second time
• Omar Abdulrahman: Asian Champions League final ‘the game of my life’ for Al Ain captain
For, ultimately, that is what this all entails. Al Ain have not felt this near to history, this near to that peak glory, since 2005, when they lost the final to Saudi Arabia’s Al Ittihad. Defeated 5-3 on aggregate, denied a second continental crown in three years, Al Ain would not have envisioned waiting this long for a shot at redemption.
The intervening period was characterised for the most part by underachievement, by frustration and regret. Granted, in that time Al Ain have enjoyed significant domestic success: three league championships, three President’s Cups and one League Cup. Yet ever since Mohammed Omar’s goal decided the 2003 Champions League final, a 2-1 aggregate victory against Thailand’s BEC Tero Sasana, the club have measured themselves by their record on the continent.
It has not made for pleasant reading. Eliminated from the groups in each of their four appearances between 2007 and 2013, it was not until their run to the semi-finals the following year that Al Ain seemed comfortable again on Asian club football’s grand stage. Now here they are, one match from being crowned its champions. Put simply, as distinctly un-simple a concept this is, they need to embrace it.
Once again, they will look to Omar Abdulrahman to thrive, to give one more man-of-the-match performance in this year’s competition. To this point, the star playmaker has eight individual awards from 13 appearances: deliver another, and Al Ain’s chances of another Champions League title increase substantially.
Abdulrahman will understand the burden he bears — how can he not? — although if he did on Friday, he did well to mask it, sitting alongside Dalic, answering questions calmly and coolly, a visible contradiction on the eve of what he terms the most important match of an already notable career.
At 25, he is presented the opportunity that most players did not experience in a lifetime. He can lead his club to the apex of Asian football, not long before he collects the Asian Football Confederation’s player of the year title, as is expected, next week in Abu Dhabi. It would be fitting if both honours attached themselves to Abdulrahman, but he must initially put the collective first, which he no doubt grasps fully. He has readily acknowledged as much. Ninety minutes, or 120, or however long it takes for Abdulrahman and Al Ain to win on penalties and claim the cup. Whatever is needed. Because this is it.
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