Sour finale
Ahli's slip at the end threatens to overshadow a record-breaking year
The year ended badly for the Ahli football club. The Egyptian team captured the African Champions League, en route to setting a world record unbeaten streak, but then fell back to earth with a thud after finishing dead last in the World Club Championships.
It was a disappointing end to a heady year. In April Ahli had overcome a four-year hiatus and recaptured the domestic league. The team steamrolled over hapless opponents, finishing with an Egyptian record of 74 points, ahead of bridesmaid Enppi by a whopping 31 points.
Ahli also swiped the African Champions League for the fourth time, one less than the African record of five held by cross-town rivals Zamalek.
On the 14-game journey to the final Ahli had swept past four former African champions, including two-time defending champion Enyimba of Nigeria. In the end they came up against Tunisia's Etoile de Sahel who were making their second consecutive appearance in a final. Etoile gave themselves a glimmer of hope after drawing 0-0 with Ahli in the first leg in a mostly drab affair in Sousse. But the Tunisian outfit proved to be nothing more than a hiccup along the way, their famed locked defence picked time and again by the marauding Ahli strikers. The Egyptians ultimately breezed by for a 3-0 win in the final in Cairo to take the most prestigious title in African club football.
A week later, in November, Ahli beat the Arab Contractors 3-1. It was a seemingly tame domestic encounter but portended international acclaim. Ahli had now done what no team had ever done before: play 55 games without losing.
The winning streak broke the world record set by Santos of Brazil during the heydays of Pele and Penarol of Uruguay, both records established in the 1960s. While other clubs have played more league games without a defeat, notably Asec Mimosas of the Ivory Coast who
The last time Ahli had lost was in July 2004, in the final of the Egyptian Cup -- to the very same Arab Contractors. Of the many poetic ironies characterising the game, this was just one more.
The newly crowned world record and African champions then took their act to Japan in December in search of the next spoils of war, the World Club Championships trophy. It was never going to be easy. The six best teams on the globe were in the hunt for the same prize, including Liverpool, the conquerors of Europe, and Sao Paulo of Brazil, a two-time winner of the tournament. But Ahli was on a roll, could apparently do no wrong, and publicly announced they had a good chance as any to be crowned king of the world. They would at least not settle for anything less than an appearance in the final.
They never even got close. The red shirts were upended 1-0 by Asian representatives Ittihad Jeddah of Saudi Arabia. Reality had apparently caught up with the club and, most embarrassingly, their Portuguese coach Manuel Jose whose starting line-up and substitutions were questionable at best.
Ahli were further humbled when they went down 2-1 against FC Sydney, a squad that has been playing for all of two years, to finish a humiliating last.
The bubble of the dream year had burst, unfortunately on the world stage. And while the fickle -- and they are many -- will throw all of Ahli's accomplishments in 2005 out the window, those more honest (and faithful) know better. Deep down they are convinced that their dream team will learn its lessons, and might even come back stronger in 2006.
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