A furious Harry Kewell claims his side "got robbed by a bad referee" as his dream of outdoing his Australian predecessors by guiding Yokohama F.Marinos to an Asian Champions League triumph came to a bittter end.
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Kewell's Japanese side were humbled 5-1 by Al-Ain in the showdown in Abu Dhabi on Saturday, condemning them to a 6-3 defeat on aggregate and ending his ambition of guiding them to their first ACL trophy after just four months at the helm.
But the convincing defeat in the second leg of the final didn't stop the former Socceroos great launching the most scathing attack on the referee Ilgiz Tantashev, which could yet lead him into hot water.
Kewell, whose side had had to play the second half with just 10 men after their goalkeeper was sent off, felt the Uzbek official had fallen for gamesmanship from the side from the UAE and made his angry feelings clear.
"My players were fantastic. It's just a shame that we got robbed tonight by a bad referee," said the 45-year-old.
"I thought the refereeing decisions were shocking, they were terrible. They were playing the game and he fell for it. But congratulations."
After the sending off of goalie William Popp, Kewell's depleted side were largely outclassed after the break.
The Aussie had made a spectacular start to life as manager with Yokohama, taking over a side who had previously been guided to the Japanese title by his Australian predecessors Ange Postecoglou and Kevin Muscat but who had never won Asian club football's biggest prize.
And after going into the second leg with high hopes after scraping out a 2-1 in the home match in Japan, he had sounded the battle cry in the build-up by declaring this week: "We are ready to write our name in history."
When push came to shove, though, his side, struggling in 14th place in their domestic J1 League, were under the cosh against the outfit coached by his old rival Hernan Crespo.
Kewell and Crespo were meeting as coaches almost 20 years since facing each other as players in Europe's Champions League final in Istanbul, when the Argentine was in the AC Milan side that led 3-0 at halftime before losing to the Australian's Liverpool outfit, who fought back to 3-3 before winning on penalties.
This time, there was to be no glorious second-half comeback after Popp got his marching orders in first-half injury time for bringing down the brilliant Moroccan striker Soufiane Rahimi as he raced towards goal.
By that time, Al-Ain had already levelled the tie, leading 2-1, with Rahimi, the best player on the pitch, quite rampant.
Rahimi had scored after eight minutes and then drew the foul from Shinnosuke Hatanaka on the half-hour mark that allowed Kaku to make it 2-0 from the spot.
Yan Matheus pulled one back but after the break, down to 10, Rahimi made it a double with his 13th goal of the campaign before Togo international Kodjo Laba, on as a sub, scored two more goals in stoppage time to complete Kewell's misery.
Kewell could only salute the army of Japanese fans who had travelled to support Yokohama, and concluded: "They're fantastic ... it's just a shame it wasn't a fair enough game to be able to put on a good show."
Australian Associated Press
