BEIRUT (Lebanon) - A new reign will soon usher as Shabab Al Ahli and Ittihad Club commence their highly anticipated battle in the 2024/2025 FIBA WASL-Gulf League Final this coming Tuesday.
Game 1 is set at 19:00 local time at the Sheikh Saeed Bin Maktoum Sports Hall in Dubai, with the reigning UAE champions looking to maximize homecourt advantage in a bid to complete their own story.
Shabab Al Ahli have never reached the Sub-Zone League Final until this season, which was indeed full of breakthroughs for a team that finished runner-up in the BCL Asia inaugurals.
They finished as the no. 1 seed in Group A with a 5-1 record to book a direct qualification to the Semi-Finals, in which they swept WASL's first-ever champions Manama in their best-of-3 series.
The crew is coming into the title bout as the Gulf League's hottest team with a five-game winning streak that dates back to their 96-56 victory over Al Bashaer back in December 17 of last year.
Definitely, Coach Miodrag Perisic and his wards would want to continue their winning ways to realize their dream of taking home the title, but it's not lost on them that it won't be as easy as it looks.
Because Shabab Al Ahli will be taking on an Ittihad side that's personified grit and grind this season, which saw the squad overcome a slow start into their campaign on their way to the Big Dance.
The Saudi Arabian side went through the wringer for sure, first by ending Kuwait Club's two-year reign in the Qualification to Semi-Finals before a reverse sweep of Al Qadsia SC in the Semi-Finals.
Coach Slobodan Subotic himself said that nobody believed they'd go this far yet they did, and this improbable run of theirs has given each and everyone of them the belief that they can go to on succeed.
That's why the upcoming best-of-3 Final has become all the more interesting to watch, with the protagonists motivated by different factors but will duke it out for one goal: Gulf League supremacy, that is.
But not be forgotten amid all this is the Third-Place Game on Monday featuring Qadsia and Manama in Kuwait City, where the winner of the knockout match will join the two finalists to the FIBA WASL Final 8 in May.
Game time is scheduled at 19:00 local time at the Shaikh Saad Alabdullah Sport Hall Complex, with the Bahraini side hoping to book their third appearance in as many editions of the league's culminating event.
They will try to do it against a Kuwaiti side that's expected to parade a new head coach in Javier Munoz, who was brought in by the club after ending its partnership with Joey Stiebing that lasted for nearly two seasons.
FIBA