KUWAIT CITY, April 26: Kuwait have their pride and prestige at stake to prove their superiority in football over Indians when defending champions Kuwait Sports Club trained by Brazilian coach Arthur Berinandes take on India’s Churchill Brothers in their return leg home game of the AFC Cup 2010 on April 28, 7.30 pm.
The first leg between Kuwait SC and Churchill Bros played in Goa, a former Portuguese colony in India, was a 2-2 draw. Both teams have already qualified for the next round of 16.
Team     GP     W     D     L     Pts
C. Brothers (Ind)     3      2     1     0     7
Kuwait SC (KUW)     3      1     2     0     5
Al Hilal (YEM)     4      0     1     3     1
The match to be played at Kuwait SC stadium, Kaifan, Kuwait City, will be very interesting for the Indian spectators, particularly the large number of football crazy Goans working here.
Churchill Brothers are one of India’s top teams and the only family sports club in India  having a large number of supporters. The patron of the club Shri Churchill Alemao, a politician with Congress government, is expected to attend the game. A number of top Indian clubs such as East Bengal, Mohun Bagan, Dempo, etc, have played in Kuwait but haven’t won a single match against the physically strong Kuwaiti clubs.
Throughout the season, Churchill have almost always played the same players when they have been available. Coach Carlos Pereira seems to be bent on having his best men finish the job for him. Churchill have arguably the best defensive lineup in India currently with Arindam at goal, Naoba, Gouramangi, Rowilson and Robert playing in defence.
India’s highest paid player Odafa Okolie will most likely pair up with Felix upfront, the two have a great chemistry. The Nigerian Odafa has given sleepless nights to opponents over the last couple of seasons and is currently the highest scorer in the ongoing I-League in India. When he strikes, Churchill Brothers have a higher chance to win. Currently though, Churchill trail behind in the Indian League in fourth place. Ironically, the Goan side has only one Goan player featuring in the playing elevens – Nascimento Silveira.
Kuwait SC’s major game on their home ground has been their 0-4 loss in a friendly to Brazil in 2006. They won the last  AFC Cup 2009 final played on this ground last November  by beating Syria’s Al Karamah 2-1 playing in front of a capacity crowd.
The  AFC Cup is played between clubs from nations who are members of the Asian Football Confederation. A total of 32 clubs qualified to participate in the 2010 AFC Cup. Different teams from elite Asian countries have been given a chance to take part in the competition.
In recent years, the UEFA Champions League and European ‘soccer’ is more famous than Asian ‘football’. Apart from the AFC Cup, there is also the AFC Champions League in Asian football.
The AFC Champions League is the premier Asian club football competition hosted by Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The tournament is contested among the top 30 clubs from top 10 Asian leagues joined with 2 more clubs who qualify through the playoffs. The champions receive about US$2.25 million in prize money and most importantly a spot in the FIFA Club World Cup at the end of the year.
This competition started as the Asian Champion Club Tournament back in 1967.
Each country receives up to 4 slots, though no more than one third of the number of teams in that country’s top division, rounded downwards, depending on the strength of their league, league structure (professionalism), marketability, financial status, and other criteria set out by the AFC Pro-League committee.
The assessment criteria and ranking for participating associations is revised by AFC every two years. This year, Kuwait SC failed to fulfill the criteria to qualify and were left to play in the AFC Cup. West Asian countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, Iran and Uzbekistan and East Asian Countries such as Japan, Korea, China, Australia whose leagues are the most lucrative among Asian countries automatically have their top teams playing in the Asian Champions League.
Dempo SC lost the qualifying play-off final to Sharjah FC in 2009 and thus missed out to become the first Indian team to participate in the Asian Champions League. Japan’s Pohang Steelers were the eventual winners beating Al-Itihad of Saudi Arabia 2-1 in the final played at Tokyo last November.
The winners of the Asian Champions League qualify for the FIFA Club World Cup. Barcelona won the last World Cup championship beating Argentina’s Estudiantes 2-1 in the final played at Qatar in December 2009.