Ahli will be looking to leave a good Club World Cup memory when they take on Adelaide United in the competition's fifth/sixth place game on Thursday. The Red Devils missed out on a place in the semis after losing to CONCACAF champions Pachuca 4-2 on Saturday, while Adelaide were defeated by Gamba Osaka with a one goal margin. Over the last few days, coach Manuel Jose has been trying to overcome the post-Pachuca effects, as the Portuguese was working on regaining his players' confidence in themselves. In his attempts to conceal Ahli's starting line-up against Adelaide, Jose used all the squad players on Tuesday's training session, with players mixing positions as defenders Wael Gomaa and keeper Ahmed Adel featured as strikers. In a sign that the trio might take part against the Australian outfit, substitutes Hani Al-Egeizi, Hussein Yasser and Moataz-Bellah Mohamed 'Eno' trained separately for some parts of the session. Pachuca bounce Ahli players stressed that a win against Adelaide will help the team bounce back following the shocking defeat to Pachuca. "We want to make up for our fans after the Pachuca loss and show people that we're as good as any other team in the competition," Midfielder Mohamed Barakat said. "We are all determined to come good out of it by beating Adelaide United on Thursday," added Hossam Ashour.
Breaking records A number of Ahli players have the chance to break Club World Cup records when they meet Adelaide. Hossam Ashour, Mohamed Abou-Treika, Gomaa and Shadi Mohamed will all break the record for highest participation in the competition with seven games each. Abou-Treika also has the chance to be Club World Cup all time scorer if he finds the back of the net on Thursday. Ahli threat From his side, Adelaide coach Aurelio Vidmar said that Ahli are a very good side regardless of the Cairo giants' loss to Pachuca. "Ahli are a big team with massive history, and we are honored to be facing them," Vidmar said. "Ahli are very quick and dangerous on the counter attacks. We will have to be alert at the back because any mistake can cost us the game." Adelaide will enter the clash without skipper Travis Dodd and defender Sasa Ognenovski and Fabian Barbiero, who are all out with injuries.
