Al Ain remember dream spell in 2003

If qualification for the London Olympics is perhaps the second-best achievement for UAE football after making the Italia 1990 finals, the country did enjoy a dream spell on the Asian continent at the club level. Thirteen years after the national team had qualified for the World Cup, the Bruno Metsu-coached Al Ain stepped in to give the UAE another memorable triumph. In December 2003, Al Ain completed a 2-1 aggregate win over BEC Tero Sasana of Thailand to emerge as Kings of Club football in Asia. It was a dream spell for the club between 2001 and 2005 as Al Ain won three consecutive UAE League championships, but more importantly, they clinched the new version of the AFC Champions League in 2003 and went on to finish runners-up in 2005 to Saudi Arabia's Al Ittihad, the defending champions. It was also a strange period for UAE football for despite dominating club football at the Asian level, the players could not translate that success to the national team. However, it was a great win by Al Ain and some of the stars of that 2003 championship win are still plying their trade. In the home and away double-legged final Al Ain played their home game first. And the club which had one of the biggest fan following then, obliged a near packed Al Qattara Stadium with a convincing 2-0 win. Salem Jowhar, the Al Ain skipper put Al Ain ahead with an exquisite finish from outside the box and later Mohammad Omer, the Al Wasl star who had signed up for the club made it 2-0.Comfortable lead Al Ain carried the comfortable 2-0 lead to the Rajamangalam National Stadium in the Thai capital of Bangkok and in attendance was General Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces and President of Al Ain Club. Al Ain conceded a goal through a penalty on the hour and then defended dourly to keep the loss to 1-0 and then lift the glittering Trophy which came with an additional prize money of $500,000 (Dh1.83 million). A heartwarming fact when one looks back at that triumph is both the goals came from UAE players and not any of the professionals.