LOC23:14
20:14 GMT
KUWAIT, Nov 3 (KUNA) -- Kuwait Sporting Club (SC) made a historic win on
Tuesday after defeating Syria's Al-Karamah Club 2-1, clinching the sixth Asian
Football Confederation (AFC) Cup 2009.
Kuwait's SC professional player from Oman Ismail Al-Ajmi scored the
decisive goal from a header at stoppage time of the second half.
The match held in Kuwait's Stadium witnessed a huge attendance from the
crowd, along with high ranking officials including AFC's President Mohammed
Bin Hammam.
Kuwait's SC was leading the first half 1-0 by Hussain Hakim Al-Shammari who
shot a long distance ball from foul-kick, hard-to-catch by Syrian Goalkeeper
Mus'ab Balhous.
Half way through the second half, the Syrian team reorganized, made several
counterattack plays and was able to equalize by Ahmed Adeeb at the 81st minute.
Overall the two teams showed a great performance and played a tough final
match where equal opportunities wasted on both ends.
Prior to this achievement, the AFC said that in 12 games of the knockout
stage, excluding the final, nearly 200,000 fans turned out to see games,
averaging about 16,000 fans at each match.
The semi-final second-leg between Hong Kong's South China and Kuwait SC
drew a record 38,000 fans to the Hong Kong Stadium, the most for any match in
this tournament.
To reach the final, Kuwait beat Hong Kong's South China 3-1 on aggregate in
the semi-finals while Al-Karamah defeated Vietnam's Becamex Binh Duong 4-2
over two legs.
The two sides met in the group stages with each winning their home game
2-1. (end)
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