Saudi Arabia

Saudi Momentum

With 0-0 draw in Seoul against South Korea, Saudis managed to keep their dream alive determined to qualify for their fifth consecutive World Cup appearance.

In this match, Saudis played a horrible game despite having dangerous goal scoring openings but obviously not a foot or header were good enough to revive their spirit seeing that some easy balls gone inflexible.

On the first half Yasser Al Qahtani followed a rebound ball from the Korean goalie when Nasser Al Shamrani managed to fire it from close range but the ball were a little high on the edge of the goal, Yasser tried to score by a header but it was too slow allowing the Korean goalie to save it.

Again, Nasser Al Shamrani’s mad-brained move in the second half upon receiving a terrific thru-ball from Abdulrahman Al Qahtani (substitute of injured midfielder Abdo Autief) that thru-ball put him face-to-face with the lucky Korean goalie who managed to keeps his net intact by dodging Al Shamrani’s shot.

Coach Peseiro of the Saudi team then made his anticipated change by bringing Hazazi (the new Saudi Hit Man) on the pitch pulling out unfortunate Nasser Al Shamrani and in just few minutes, Hazazi began threatening the Koreans with the only two chances he received with remarkable headers just few inches away from the goal post.

South Korea were playing in style as they have already secure their qualification to the World Cup on top of this group, however they felt some tension upon quick attacking pressure by the Saudis in the first half that the Koreans realized it is now their wake up call to start playing more seriously. The Koreans kept pushing always forward in which Saudis consequently retreat to tighten their defence although Peseiro was brave enough to plan for attacking tactics but hey, it is South Korea in their best form and in front of nearly 40 thousand of their very enthusiastic fans.

Peseiro interviewed by an Arab sport TV reporter right after this match in which he expressed his satisfaction on how his players performed. On another note, Peseiro said about Saudi Capt. Hussien Abdulghani (who usually plays as left back) but now we see him in central defence midfield “When I see that he’s capable of doing that role that means he’s, and I will not say why I’ve done so”. Certainly Saudi fans would love to ask Peseiro about why he kept Hazazi on the bench where he should start in this match beside Yasser Al Qahtani and why when you needed Hazazi, you were late to call on him?

The Saudis will play their final game against North Korea; the match is set to take place in Riyadh on Wednesday 17 June where it is a matter of winning only in order to qualify directly and not get into calculations.

In case of a draw, they may have slim chance to play for third position especially that Iran is getting nearer fighting for their only chance when they face relaxed South Korea, meanwhile losing to North Korea means no entry to South Africa for the Saudis.