Time to go the distance

John Duerden

• Last Updated: October 20. 2009 7:33PM UAE / October 20. 2009 3:33PM GMT

Denilson. left, dreams of winning the Champions League with his Pohang Steelers teammates. Toru Yamanaka / AFP

East meets west at the semi-final stage of the Asian Champions League with teams from the opposite ends of the continent fighting it out to make the final which will be held in Tokyo on November 7.

The first leg of the penultimate round takes place tonight as Nagoya Grampus of Japan take on Saudi Arabia’s Al-Ittihad, the first ever meeting between clubs from those two countries in this competition, while Umm Salal make another long trek from Qatar to South Korea to face Pohang Steelers.

Pohang are going for a third title, although it was 1998 when the industrial city last triumphed.

The Steelers are looking sharper by the week. If a 6-0 thrashing of Australian hopes Newcastle Jets in the second round of this year’s tournament was not enough to make the rest of the continent take notice, coming back from a 3-1 first-leg deficit against Luiz Felipe Scolari’s Bunyodkor in the quarter-final to win the second leg 4-1, was.

Umm Salal may be struggling in the Qatar league with one point from three games but showed in knocking out FC Seoul in the previous round that they have what it takes as they ended dreams of an all-Korean semi-final.

For Pohang and their talismanic Brazilian star Denilson, those dreams have changed.

“My goal and the team’s goal is to win the Champions League,” said the striker. “We gained a lot of experience from last year, which was a big disappointment, so we’re eager to do better this year. We learned how to reduce mistakes and prepared well for the tournament. Every player knows his role in the team and this has made the difference.”

Al-Ittihad, going well at home, lifted the trophy in 2004 and 2005 and are favourites to progress past Nagoya.“Our next match in the semi-finals will not be easy,” said Ittihad’s Argentine boss Gabriel Calderon. “We need to travel to Japan and we will face a strong team but since we accept no excuses I think we will secure the win and qualify for the final.”

Calderon’s prediction will look a little likelier if Keiji Tamada fails to recover from an injury picked up playing for Japan, but Australian frontman Josh Kennedy is fit and in good form. At the back, Takahiro Masukawa is in hospital with swine flu.

The more common problem of suspension prevents veteran defender Redha Tukar from playing. He will be back for the second leg on November 28 and will be hoping for a long stay in Japan as the final takes place in Tokyo just 10 days later.

In football terms, it is just 180 minutes away.

ports@thenational.ae

Pohang Steelers v Umm Salal, 1.30pm, Abu Dhabi Sports 1 Al-Ittihad v Nagoya Grampus, 9pm, Abu Dhabi Sports 1