JEDDAH, 7 November 2005 — Jeddah-based Al-Ittihad’s emphatic 4-2 win over the UAE’s Al Ain in the second leg final of the AFC Champions League on Saturday night was the talk among football fans here and across the Kingdom yesterday.
Ittihad supporters are a happy lot as they feel that the match result has confirmed their beloved team’s status as Asia’s top club by winning the AFC Champions League for a second consecutive time.
Top scorer Mohamed Kallon, a rearguard containing two 2005 AFC Player of the Year candidates, and a host of Saudi internationals are all elements to Al-Ittihad’s second leg win over Al Ain but the secret of their success, according to head coach Anghel Iordanescu, is hard work.
“I believe our secret was hard work, hard work, hard work,” emphasized Iordanescu, after Al-Ittihad won the AFC Champions League title with 5-3 aggregate win over Al Ain and their second championship under the Romanian following their success in the 2004-05 Arab Champions League.
“We work a lot in the practice. We worked hard because I believe that discipline and hard work lead to the big performances.”
Former Inter Milan striker Kallon began the game neck-and-neck in the race to be the tournament’s top scorer with Al Ain’s Subait Khater but needed less than three minutes to put himself on top when he hit his sixth goal in as many matches on a free-kick.
“It was a nice game, and both teams tried to give their best on the pitch but, and really I’m sorry if I’m not appearing very modest, our team played very cleverly, intelligently, and tactically but with a lot of discipline. We scored at the beginning of the game, which for us was important psychologically and generally I can say we controlled the game and dominated the game with possession of the ball. We can say we had the game in our hand all the time although when they scored their first goal from the penalty spot, maybe they put us a little bit under pressure but we scored again soon after and we controlled the game again,” Iordanescu said.
“I want to congratulate my players and thank them for their effort, for respecting the instructions of the coach and for this performance that we made.
Ahli Congratulate Ittihad
Al-Ahli Chairman Dr. Abdul Razzaq Abu Dawood congratulated Al-Ittihad Club on their victory over Al Ain in the final second leg of the AFC Champions League. “This unique achievement has brought laurels not only for the Al Ittihad Club but also for us and all other football clubs and fans here.
“This outstanding result could be achieved due to the consistent support extended by the Kingdom and Prince Sultan ibn Fahd, chairman of the General Presidency of Youth Welfare.
“Our local tournaments involving various clubs have contributed toward bringing to the fore some of the best football talents of the Kingdom,” he said.
Dr. Abdul Razzaq spoke to the Al-Ittihad Chairman Mansour Al-Balawi congratulating him soon after the match result. Al-Balawi in turn thanked Dr. Abdul Razzaq for his gesture.
Meantime, the huge turnout of football fans at Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Stadium to watch the big match created a black market for tickets as the price of a SR300 ticket went up to SR1,500.
The prices of first class and second class tickets also went up several times, observers said.
