Looking back at the LG Cup

Saudi Arabia ended their LG Cup campaign with two 1-1 draws against Finland and Sweden, hardly impressive results considering that both teams fielded their B squads. But the results didn’t really reflect on our performance.

Before we get into the games let me give you a little background leading up to the tournament, our new coach Paqueta made some controversial moves. First of all he didn’t call up influential captain Sami Al Jaber and midfield dynamo Mohammed Noor not to mention other regulars (Redha Takar,Mabrouk Zaid). Second of all he announced that he wants to experiment with the team.

With all do respect Mr. Paqueta we don’t have the time to experiment with the team, the World Cup is less than six months away!

Okay now that I’ve got that over with let’s begin with the games shall we? First up is the Finland game. This match was a close affair with Finland playing defensive football, there were few chances for both teams, Saudi opened the scoring from Mohammed Al Shalhoub’s beautiful free kick, after that the Saudi team pretty much dominated the game but again created few chances.

Then thanks to a combination of poor defending and some nice skills, Roiha equalized for Finland in the dying minutes of the game. The match ended 1-1 and left a sour taste in everyone’s mouth as Saudi clearly were the better side.

Next up was Greece who are in my opinion a much better team than Finland, the fist half was an even affair but in the second half the Saudi started to push up and attack which lead to the Greek team to create some dangerous counter attacks.

Greece took the lead thanks to a penalty kick, after they took the lead the Saudi really began to step up and create some dangerous chances, then finally in the 92ed minutes Khalid Aziz’s shot found it’s way to the net. Well I am not gonna say that the Saudis were the better team in this match but they clearly deserved something out of it.

Now after watching both game I can tell you that the Saudi team is clearly not ready for the World Cup, our defense is very shaky and we waste too many passes. Paqueta needs to stop these “experiments” and start fielding the real deal, our upcoming friendlies against Portugal and France should give us the experience and hopefully get the team ready for the big event.

Mr Paqueta…you are gonna have to work your butt off.