It's my humble opinion that Kawasaki Frontale will fold against Sepahan, both at home and away.
Any analysis that Rah Ahan FC may have passed on to Kawasaki is of no consequence as I'm certain that they will conduct their own and would not rely on another IPL teams analysis. Either way, at the end of the day the 14 footballers on the field and their respective coaches are the ones who will decide the outcome of the match. And the heart that Sepahan has shown within the past year, and the consistency that they have shown, not to mention the manner in which they've won most of their matches within this period of time speaks for itself. After all, defeating the Saudi Arabian league champions, Al Shabab, a team that early on many had favored to win this competition, both at home and away, is no easy task.
Next on the Sepahan agenda would be the eventual winner of the Al Wehda (UAE) vs. Al Hilal (KSA) matches.
As the UAE league has yet to begin, Al Wehda have not played any competitive matches since May of this year. They do have a friendly match tomorrow vs. Al Salmiyah of Kuwait, but this will not be enough to get them passed Al Hilal.
Their best goal scorer is Ismael Matar with 6 Division 1 League goals and 2 UAE Cup goals. In the 06-07 season, of their 22 matches, they won 13, drew 4, and lost 5. They scored 40 goals, but also received 34 goals. They did manage to be the runners up in the UAE Division 1 league with 43 points, 4 adrift league leaders Al Wasl.
As for Al Hilal, they will most likely be whom Sepahan would face up against next in this competition, and our most challenging test.
Since the Saudi league has just begun, they have only played one league match thus far, which they have won emphatically by the score of 5 - 0 vs. Al Watani. They will have one more League match on the 13th vs. Al-Tai, before they face off against Al Wehda of UAE on the 19th. Unlike Al Wehda however, Al Hilal has kept quite busy within the past few months. They have played 3 of 5 Gulf Clubs Championship matches in August, and have won all three of these matches vs. Muscat of Oman, Umm Salal of Qatar, and Al Kuwait SC. Immediately prior to the Gulf Clubs Championship games, they participated in the Saudi Arabia Clubs Tour during July and August, having won all 5 matches vs. Najm Al Jam, AS Gabès, A.S Ariana, and Club Sportif Sfaxien of Tunisia, and finally Al-Riyadh of Saudi Arabia. In the midst of it all they have also managed to squeeze in the ART Friendly Tournament, in the month of August, with two ties and a loss vs. Al-Hazm, Al-Shabab, and Al-Wehda of Saudi Arabia, respectively.
They ranked #1 in the 06-07 season in the Saudi Arabian League with 53 points. Of their 22 matches, they won 17, drew 2, and lost only 3. They scored 38 goals and conceded 15. They did however manage to loose the league title in their final match vs. eventual league winners Al Ittihad by the score of 1 to 2.
Their best goal scorer is Yasser Al-Qahtani who had 10 league goals last year. Al Hilal have won the Saudi League title an impressive 10 times since 1977, 3 better then their nearest rivals Al Ittihad, the latest of which was in 2005. This is the only club that Sepahan should be cautious about as far as I'm concerned.
The remaining 4 teams who will battle it out on the other side of the coin are as follows:
Urawa Reds of JPN vs. Jeonbuk Motors of South Korea
Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma of South Korea vs. Al-Karamah of Syria
Urawa are leading the 2007 J league table with 52 points thus far from 24 matches. With 15 wins, 7 draws and 2 loses, they have scored 42 goals and conceded 20. Their leading goal scorer with 10 goals thus far this season is Tatsuya Tanaka, and not far behind him is Washington with 8 goals so far.
Last years Champions League winners Jeonbuk Motors of South Korea are in the 5th spot in the current Korean league season. With 29 points from 20 matches, they have won 8, drew 5, and have lost 7. They have scored 28 goals but have also received 24 goals, and with only 4 matches left in the Korean league, they trail the league leaders Suwon Samsung Bluewings by 14 points.
Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma of South Korea, are in the 2nd spot with 41 points from 20 matches, with 12 wins, 5 draws, and 3 loses. They have scored 33 goals and have conceded 14 goals. With 4 matches left in the Korean league and only two points behind the league leaders Suwon Samsung Bluewings, they are a 2007 Korean league title contender.
Al-Karamah of Syria has just won the Homs Football Tournament, a local tournament, earlier this month. They Syrian league has yet to start this year, however they did manage to win the 06-07 Syrian league title with 62 points from 26 matches. With 18 wins, 8 draws and no loses, they scored an emphatic 54 goals and conceded only 14. With several scorers on their roster, Jehad Al-Houssain, Ziad Sha’abo, and Fahd Awde each having scored 6 goals, Eyad Mando with 5, and Aatef Jenniyat with 4, they would be a hard team to defend against, but I would hardly consider Al-Karamah a true Champions League contender. Regardless of the fact that they were eventual runners up in last years Champions League competition.
That said of course none of the above teams should be taken lightly, and all must be respected. But in the end, if Sepahan can pass the Al Hilal test, the aforementioned teams would not be as difficult.
