Turkey gave a strong taste of the World Cup to the Saudis

Saudi Arabia lost yesterday against Turkey 1-0 in preparation for the World Cup game. The only goal of the game came through Nikati Atis, who clearly went through three defenders and tipped the ball to the side of the goalkeeper, who wasn’t expecting it.

If it wasn’t for Mabrouk Zaid, Saudi Arabia would have succumbed to more than one goal. The Turkish players started early the attacks on the Saudi goal, with Mabrouk Zaid stopping the ball in time after failure in Saudi defense.

The game still highlighted the weakness in the Saudi defense, where individual mistakes and group mistakes still prevailed. Hamad Al Montashiri failed to stop a cross from a Turkish player, which ended up in the leg of the opponent player. Luckily Mabrouk Zaid stopped the ball. Another instinct, Hussain Abdul Ghani, who played instead of the injured Abdul Aziz Al Khatran, send a bad pass to the defenders, which instead ended up in the leg of the Turkish player. Mabrouk Zaid again came to the rescue to stop the ball, giving enough time for Khalid Aziz to clear the ball.

I don’t know if its only me, but I noticed a slower response time from the Saudi players. In the early part of the first half, I noticed that a cross into the penalty of the Saudi team had a faster response from the Turkish player. If you see the video in slow motion, some the Saudi defenders can be seen standing, falling or watching, while the Turkish player with fast pace moves forward and kicks the ball towards the goal without any of the defenders reacting at all. Thank God, the ball went over the bar. In another ball, Reda Tukar tripped and failed to keep up with another Turkish player. Even the only goal of the game, is a result of physical weakness of our players. Four players failed to stop one player after he played around with them for a while before scoring. It seems the Turkish players can do more things in one second than a Saudi player.
I start to wonder if the Saudi league needs to have stronger competition with clubs such Real Madrid and Barcelona. I believe that the local league is great, but doesn’t have that fast paced games. That’s why our players can’t keep up to the European players.

There is problem with the formation. Against Togo, Saudi Arabia played 4-4-2 and did pretty well. Against Czech and Turkey, a 4-5-1 formation lacked the offense and didn’t benefit the defense. We need to return to earlier formation and start having a good transition between the midfielders and offense. On TV, there was mention of Muhammad Noor and Nawaf Al Temyat contributing less to a team play. It’s true that these two players are the best in the mid-field, but need to play as a team and not as an individual.