In its first edition since following a 20-year hiatus, the ASEAN Club Championship will have a dream final.
Perhaps not one that would have been a straightforward pick back in August before a ball was even kicked -- and understandably so, given the returning tournament and its competing clubs represented an unknown quantity.
But certainly a fitting way to finish off a campaign given the decider will feature the two teams who have arguably been the cream off the crop over the past nine months.
In the red corner will be Vietnam's Công An Hà Nội, who had secured their place in the final a week ago by beating PSM Makassar 2-0 -- which completed a come-from-behind 2-1 aggregate win in the semifinals.
On Wednesday, they were joined in the decider by the men in blue -- Buriram United sealing their progress with a 0-0 draw against Thai compatriots BG Pathum United having done most of the work in last month's 3-1 first-leg victory.
There will be no shortage of storylines in the build-up to the decider, a two-legged affair that will be held on May 14 and 21, and the contrasting nature of some of these will only add to the intrigue.
For one, while CAHN are the archetype of the rapidly-rising club that has seemingly come from nowhere to be a force following significant investment, Buriram have been a familiar face for over a decade now with a longstanding reputation as one of Southeast Asia's best sides.
It was only in 2022 that CAHN were still playing in the second tier of Vietnamese football.
*Catch all the ASEAN Club Championship action live on the ASEAN United FC YouTube channel here!
Following a concerted effort to transform the club's operations as a legitimately-professional outfit, CAHN would gain promotion and then remarkably become champions in their first season back in the top flight after a two-decade absence.
Due to the change in the V.League's calendar, the 2023 champions did not qualify for any continental competition. Instead, the 2023-24 campaign, which hastily followed the previous season, produced the representatives in this season's AFC Champions League Two.
As such, despite CAHN's rapid rise, they were yet to taste any action outside the domestic front -- until the ASEAN Club Championship kicked off last August.
CAHN would finish the group stage as the only team with a perfect record of five wins, quickly establishing themselves as the competition's frontrunners.
A first slip-up occurred in their opening meeting with PSM, but they would ultimately get back on track to keep alive their hopes of regional glory.
As of last week, Buriram are now record 11-time champions of Thai League 1. Their sheer dominance has now seen them won four consecutive titles.
They have twice reached the quarterfinals of the AFC Champions League Elite, including this season.
Given Thai League 1 is widely regarded as the strongest competition in all of Southeast Asia, Buriram were expectedly tipped as one of the favourites for the ASEAN Club Championship.
And yet, they looked shaky early on. An opening-day defeat was a far from ideal start although they did follow up with three wins and a draw to finish second in Group B behind CAHN.
Come the first leg of the semifinals, however, just as CAHN suffered a shock loss to PSM, Buriram issued a real statement of intent as they comfortably saw off compatriots BGPU with a 3-1 win -- a result which proved pivotal following Wednesday's stalemate in the return encounter.
The ASEAN Club Championship final will be contested by two sides with fairly-contrasting histories but who are undeniably forces to be reckoned with on the regional stage when they are firing on all cylinders.
Fittingly, given it has been the most-competitive rivalry on the ASEAN stage in recent times, a Thailand-Vietnam battle will be the decider for silverware.
Adding more spice is the fact that CAHN are currently coached by a certain Alexandré Pölking, who famously presided over Thailand's most-recent era of success with back-to-back ASEAN Championship triumphs in 2020 and 2022.
Interestingly, when CAHN's fine campaign began last year, it was an upset 2-1 victory over Buriram that sent them on their way.
A repeat of that will guarantee them regional bragging rights for the next 12 months at least, adding to Vietnam's triumph at the most-recent ASEAN Championship at the start of the year.
Vengeance, however, will certainly be on Buriram's minds.