An infuriated manager Harry Kewell claimed his team was “robbed by bad refereeing” after his dream of surpassing his Australian predecessors by leading Yokohama F. Marinos to the Asian Champions League title came to a disastrous end.
Kewell’s Japan side suffered a 5-1 defeat by Al Ain in Abu Dhabi on Saturday, suffering a 6-3 aggregate defeat, ending his ambitions of leading the team to a first ACL title after just four months in charge.
But despite being soundly defeated in the second leg of the final, the former Australia great launched into a scathing criticism of umpire Ilgis Tantashev, which could add to his troubles.
Uzbekistan coach Kewell, who had to play the second half with 10 men after their goalkeeper was sent off, was furious as he felt his team had been tricked by the UAE’s tactics.
“My players were fantastic and it’s unfortunate that bad refereeing robbed us of the victory tonight,” said the 45-year-old. “The refereeing decision was shocking, it was terrible. My players were in the game and he got fooled by it. But congratulations.”
Kewell’s side found themselves at a major disadvantage after the break after goalkeeper William Popp was sent off.
The Australian made a spectacular start to his managerial career at Yokohama, taking over a team that had never won Asia’s top club football honours, although his Australian predecessors Ange Postecoglou and Kevin Muscat had led them to Japanese titles.
And after a tough 2-1 home win in Japan that left hopes high heading into the second leg, he let out a battle cry this week, declaring he was “ready to make history”.
But when it came down to it, his team, struggling in 14th place in the domestic J1 League, were being overwhelmed by the team led by old rival Hernan Crespo.
Kewell and Crespo will meet as managers for the first time almost two decades since they faced off as players in the UEFA Champions League final in Istanbul when the Argentine was with AC Milan and led 3-0 at half-time before the Australian lost to Liverpool, who trailed at 3-3, before winning on penalties.
After newsletter promotion
This time, a spectacular second-half comeback was thwarted as Pop was sent off in first-half added time for bringing down excellent Moroccan striker Sofiane Rahimi as he sprinted towards goal.
At that point, Al Ain were already level at 2-1 and Rahimi, the best player on the pitch, was putting in a ferocious performance.
Rahimi scored in the eighth minute, and then in the 30th minute, he drew a foul from Shinnosuke Hatanaka and Kaku scored a penalty to make it 2-0.
Jan Matthäus pulled one back but the visitors were within 10 at the break before Rahimi made it two with his 13th goal of the season and substitute Togo international Kodjo Laba sealed Kewell’s misery with two more in added time.
Kewell had nothing but praise for the large number of Japanese fans who travelled to support Yokohama, concluding: “They’re fantastic, it’s just a shame the game wasn’t fair enough to give us a good show.”
