Adelaide dispatched African champions Al Ahly 1-0 in the fifth place play-off which featured an early goal from Cristiano and some impressive United interplay in the first half.

“I certainly think the first 30 minutes was some of the best football that we’ve played in the tournament,” Vidmar said in his assessment of the game.

The result was a pleasing finale to the tournament for United, who finished with two wins and a loss in their three games.

Vidmar said the Reds’ effort to finish fifth would do wonders for the game back in Adelaide and Australia.

“The tournament has been a terrific vehicle for the promotion of our game back home and it has been a tremendous experience for our club and it is very pleasing that the boys were able to fight it out tonight and get the right result,” Vidmar said.

“By finishing fifth and with our experience in the Asian Champions League, it has really lifted the profile of the game in Australia and it hopefully gives a lot of confidence to the other A-League clubs that they can do well in the Asian Champions League to get to this point.

“It has been a tremendous ride which hasn’t been easy but we’ve learnt a lot from playing these games and it certainly puts the cub and the game on the map back home. When you win games at this level it lifts people’s eyebrows and awareness of what the football can and will be like in the future.”

While Al AHly had the better of the play in the second half, Vidmar praised his players’ resilience in being able to hang on to the result.

“We scored a fantastic goal," he said. "Cristiano could have had a second not long after that.

But as soon as Diego came off, it really hurt our rhythm and the dynamics of the way we want to play and it became evident that we started to struggle to keep the ball and that was the case again in the second half.”

He added: “It doesn’t help when you have to substitute two players who are injured.

"But I was really proud of the way the players rolled up their sleeves and fought for as long as they could because Al Ahly played some very good football in the second half.”

The squad will depart Japan tomorrow night before arriving in Adelaide on Saturday as the focus turns back to the Hyundai A-League and an away game against Perth Glory on Boxing Day.