Probably just about anyone not a fan of the Saudi Arabian club Al Hilal, had to be pleased with this result:

Western Sydney Wanderers 1, Al Hilal 0, aggregate, in the Asian Champions League final.

A great victory for Western Sydney, a club formed only two years ago, and the first ACL title for an Australian team.

An embarrassing defeat for Hilal — and on two very different but equally important levels.

1. Hilal should never, ever lose to a team like Western Sydney. Australia probably cares even less about soccer than does the U.S.  It is no better than the fifth-favorite sport in Oz, after Aussie Rules football, cricket and both kinds of rugby (union and league).

Hilal probably spent more on its four foreign players than Western Sydney spent on its entire team. Hilal is perhaps the most important soccer team in a country (like the UAE) where other sports hardly exist. It got 60,000-plus fans for its home matches in the latter stages of the ACL, including the semifinal against the UAE’s Al Ain.

Then, to fail to score over the course of three hours of play — including the 90 minutes in Sydney a week ago — is inexplicable. One of the great choke jobs in the history of soccer.

2. Hilal deserved to lose because of the club’s bad behavior before, during and after the match.

Before the match, the club certainly did not go out of its way to extend any hospitality to Western Sydney’s fans or officials, nor to media. A total of 14 Western Sydney fans were able to make the trip. More would have gone if not for restrictive government visa rules, which for a soccer final of this magnitude (the biggest in Asian club football) should have been relaxed.

Also, one of the Saudi royals promised more than $26,000 to every player and official on the Hilal team if (when) they won. And their coach, perhaps channeling Hilal arrogance, yesterday said Hilal would send home Western Sydney “still a small team”. Compared to Hilal, which likes to consider itself the “biggest” club in Asia.

During the match, fans shone laser pointers into the eyes of the Western Sydney goalkeeper. The players did so much diving that when, on two occasions, a penalty might have been awarded, the Japanese referee did not give one.

After the match, Hilal’s best player, Nasser Al Shamrani, spit on one of Western Sydney’s players (see the embedded video here), setting off pushing and shoving that could have led to something more dangerous. During the match, Al Shamrani had appeared to butt the same player in a move that should carry a suspension.

Hilal were bad losers, just as they would have been insufferable winners, and it is great that they will in the future be remembered as the foil to Western Sydney’s astonishing victory (The movie should be out in a year or so; the book even sooner), which included defeating defending champion Guangzhou Evergrande of China.

Western Sydney got a big reception when they returned home, as well they should have. It was a great day for the club, as well as for all right-thinking soccer fans around the world. The right team won.