Al-Hilal and Urawa battle for supremacy on and off the pitch

If familiarity breeds contempt, then the feeling between Saudi Arabia’s Al-Hilal and Japan’s Urawa Red Diamonds has gone well beyond that emotion.

For the third time in five editions of Asia’s showpiece club competition, the two powerhouse clubs will again meet in the decider as they look to secure, for players and fans, the bragging rights of being Asia’s best team.

The spectacle, firstly at the King Fahd Stadium in Riyadh this weekend, followed by the return bout at the iconic Saitama Stadium the following weekend, will rival anything taking place in world football, with crowds of 60,000 expected at both legs that will create an atmosphere worthy of the occasion.

As hot as the battle will be on the pitch, the fight off it will be just as fiercely contested. While the almost 9,000-kilometer distance between the two makes away travel difficult, there will be small pockets of both red and blue at either stadium, demonstrating the passion of both sets of fans.

It is the noise and spectacle created by the respective home crowds that will be most eagerly anticipated, with both Urawa and Al-Hilal fans known around the world for their raucous support and epic, stadium-wide tifos — giant colorful displays generated before the game.

Both the King Fahd and Saitama stadiums have borne witness to some of the best displays of fan culture in Asia in recent years. And while the players are busy preparing for the battle on the pitch, those supporters clad in red or blue will be desperate to outdo each other to show that they too are Asia’s best.

“There is no doubt that there is great competition between the fans of the two clubs,” Al-Hilal diehard Bandar Alsaeedan told Arab News recently.

“In 2014, Al-Hilal’s board created a