Glorious failure

Al Ahly crash out of the Club World Cup after thrilling 4-4 draw with Porto

"It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.”

The quote attributed to American novelist Ernest Hemingway is an apt representation of group A at the Club World Cup. This Al Ahly team may as well have been Hemingway’s Santiago from The Old Man and the Sea, trying to catch that elusive marlin. After ten days of Club World Cup action, José Riveiro and his charges have little more than a skeleton to show for their labour.

Their destination ultimately was failure at this Club World Cup, but they gave us one hell of a journey.

Having somehow failed to beat Inter Miami in their opening game and then been swatted aside by Palmeiras, the Red Devils needed a miracle to get out of this group.

They needed to beat Porto, hope that Palmeiras beat Inter Miami and overturn a three-goal deficit. Essentially, between them and Palmeiras, one of them had to win by two.

They were given a 4% chance of progressing at the start of play and on the DAZN/TNT broadcast, when they were going through the permutations, they didn’t even mention Al Ahly as having a chance of getting out of the group (despite being in an identical position to Porto).

As expected, MetLife stadium was absolutely rocking, of the near 40,000 fans in attendance, close to three quarters of the stadium were donning the famous red kit and were loudly urging their team to do the impossible.

The big question was whether Al Ahly had it in them to score goals. They had created chances galore but were one of four teams who had not scored in their opening games. But it took just 15 minutes for Al Ahly to put that stat right as Wessam Abou Ali rifled a low drive past goalkeeper Cláudio Ramos.

Just eight minutes later, Porto were level, thanks to a terrific bit of skill from their crown jewel Rodrigo Mora. The 18-year-old dribbled through the heart of the Al Ahly defence, round Mohamed El Shenawy and slotted home.

Meanwhile, in Miami, the home side had taken the lead against Palmeiras, a huge blow for Al Ahly’s hopes.

Al Ahly kept pushing though and they were rewarded on the stroke of half time when Ahmed Zizo was brought down in the box. This time Abou Ali was not in a sharing mood, and by taking the penalty himself and sending Ramos the wrong way, he put the Egyptians in the lead going into half time.

Al Ahly had been the better side, but they had also been the better side against Inter Miami and Palmeiras going into half time. But in both games, they flagged physically in the second half and were then dominated, would it be a similar story?

It looked like it would be when just five minutes into the second half, William curled in a beautiful strike for Porto. But even as we were recovering from that goal, Al Ahly had retaken the lead, a beautiful Mohamed Hany cross finding Abou Ali who completed his hattrick.

If it could get even crazier, Porto struck back straight off the kick off. Samu Aghehowa’s powerful header from a corner capping off a remarkable three minutes.

With nothing to lose and both teams needing a win, the game dissolved into a school playground, chance after chance being created. And in the 64^th minute Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane scored a near identical finish to William’s earlier curled effort.

Al Ahly were now 4-3 up but news was filtering in from Miami that Luis Suarez had doubled Inter Miami’s lead. Despite the setback, Al Ahly pressed on, attacking the Portuguese backline ruthlessly.

Ahmed Koka had a volley go inches wide, Bencharki missed a glorious one-on-one and Omar Kamal had a shot blocked by a defender when goalkeeper Ramos came off his line but didn’t clear the ball properly.

As this was happening, Palmeiras themselves underwent a majestic comeback, scoring two goals in the 80^th and 87^th minute to level against Miami.

Having gone through a rollercoaster of emotions that Disney World would be proud of, Al Ahly were now just two goals away from the most improbable of knockout appearances.

But as with their entire tournament, when victory was within their grasp, it melted away into the desert sand. Palmeiras’ fightback ended at 2-2 and just as that game was finishing, Pepê (not that one) scored a delightful goal from the edge of the area to equalise for Porto.

The dream was dead.

It was arguably the game of the tournament. Eight goals scored in a game of pure desperation, and yet all the teams ended the group as they started, with Al Ahly rock bottom.

Somehow, despite absolutely dominating Inter Miami and smashing Porto, Al Ahly found themselves at the bottom of a group they were confident they could get out of.

This game is not what stopped Al Ahly from going through, they were effectively knocked out already after the first two matches. What will really haunt this team is that first match against Inter Miami and that flash point, when Mahmoud Trezeguet took the ball from Abou Ali and missed the penalty.

Trezeguet has a long, long road to redeem himself in the eyes of Al Ahly fans. They will not forget this one in a hurry because they knew this group was winnable. José Riveiro will almost certainly not make it back to the Club World Cup, such is the brutal nature of the Al Ahly job and it will leave a bitter taste in his mouth, knowing that he was so close to achieving a truly remarkable feat.

They came searching for a marlin but will return to Cairo with little more than a skeleton of what could have been.