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While finishing runners-up to Al Ittihad in the 2005 AFC Champions League final was bad enough for Al Ain coach Milan Macala, missing out on the FIFA Club World Championship rubbed salt into the 62-year-old coach’s wounds.

An AFC Champions League winner’s medal for tournament top scorer Mohamed Kallon made it a happy return to Asia for the striker who is playing in the continent for the first time since leaving Lebanon’s Al Tadamon in 1996.

Al Ain captain Fahad Ali felt that his side failed to play to their potential in the AFC Champions League final after his side fell 4-2 to Al Ittihad on Saturday to miss out on a second continental title in three years.

The party in Jeddah went on long into the night on Saturday as Al Ittihad became the first team to clinch the AFC Champions League title on their home ground with victory against Al Ain at the Prince Abdullah Al Faisal Stadium.

Top scorer Mohamed Kallon, two AFC Player of the Year candidates, and a host of Saudi internationals are all elements to Al Ittihad’s win over Al Ain but the secret of their success, according to Anghel Iordanescu, was simply hard work.