The death knell has been tolling every day since Al Ahly lost the African Champions League title to Tunisia’s Etoile last week. Much of the public, press and perhaps even some of the players are wondering whether this is indeed the end of an era.
No one ever knows how a team will react after losing a major championship. Its players could get so incensed that they come out for the next challenge raring to go to make things right again. Or they can become so disheartened that they lose the necessary will crucial to climbing back to the top.
Al Ahly’s past says they can make a comeback, but don’t hold your breath. In 1982, when Al Ahly won the first of their five Champions League titles, they could not hold on to the crown for more than a year, promptly losing the title in 1983. It took them four years before winning crown number two; then the third did not appear until 2001 followed by four and five in 2005 and 2006. These are losing spans of five years, 14 years and four years. The analysis shows three things: Al Ahly ultimately does bounce back from defeat, but most times it takes a long time, and at times it takes a very long time.
An example of a short-term setback readily stands out: AC Milan losing the 2005 European Champions League to Liverpool after being ahead 3-0, then beating the same British team, albeit in not a very dramatic fashion, in the same tournament just two years later.
Certainly, a team’s immediate future is directly affected by how bad the previous championship loss was. Losing 3-1 in your backyard is embarrassing but it should be added that luck forever plays a part in winning and losing and Al Ahly have had it both ways. Al Ahly were unlucky in the final, given that Etoile’s first goal was deflected off the leg of defender Shadi Mohamed. But Al Ahly were also a tad lucky last year, given that the goal that won them the African championship came in the 92nd minute.
Against Etoile, Al Ahly did play with 10 men for half an hour but that was their fault, defender Emad El-Nahhas thrown out after losing a step to the much younger Etoile speed demon Armine Chermiti. It is rare for Al Ahly to play with a man short and even rarer to be in a situation in which they must score with such a disadvantage, and the two apparently caught Coach Manuel Jose off guard. He was for the rest of the match unable to understand how to get a goal with fewer players than your opponent.
You could blame the refereeing if you want. Cameroonian Evehe Divine and Moroccan Abder-Rahim Al-Arjoun, who adjudged the first and second legs, failed to award the Egyptian team three penalties, as is claimed by Al Ahly. Had any one of those three alleged penalties been called, Al Ahly, not Etoile, would have been prancing and dancing last week.
Don’t take anything away from Etoile. You cannot reach the final of the African Champions League three times in four years and not be good. Before the game, they had won every major African football club trophy save the Champions League, and had been in the final of the past six continental championships, achievements that spell out how good Etoile really are. Even before the final, the fact that in six previous encounters with Al Ahly, the Cairo club had won just one game and the rest draws, put the Tunisian outfit on an equal footing with the Egyptians.
It was always looking to be third-time lucky for Etoile and Tunisia in general. The club had reached the final of the Champions League twice before with no success. And Tunisian teams had reached the final the last two years, both times coming up short. It seemed only a matter of time before their time would come and the same goes for Al Ahly.
