Saudi Arabia join Iraq in the AFC Asian Cup final. Yassir scored first and then Malek, shown above, scored twice in the second half. I will be out celebrating. More later (or maybe not!)

Saudi Arabia have continued their successful Asian Cup campaign and reached the semi-finals with a tough win over Uzbekistan in Jakarta. Yassir al-Qahtani and Ahmed al-Mousa scored for Saudi Arabia while Pavel Solomin scored Uzbekistan’s only goal.

Our team took the lead very early as the third minute saw Abdul-Rahman al-Qahtani makes a long run in the left flank and sends a low cross into the box. The Uzbek goalkeeper touched the ball to deflect it away from Malek, but Yassir was quick on the rebound and scored the opening goal.

Despite the early goal, Saudis have failed to build on that lead and had to undergo a heavy pressure for the next 30 minutes, but the Saudi defenders and keeper performed excellently to prevent the Uzbek from equalizing. Yassir had an easy chance to double his team’s lead but his shot went just wide.

Not much has changed in the second half as Uzbekistan continued their quest to score but were denied. However, they have become more and more frustrated as they failed to do that. This frustration and the desire to equalize have caused them to leave more spaces behind, and Taiseer, al-Bahri and Ahmed al-Mousa managed to get decent chances.

It was al-Mousa who started a beautiful move passing the ball to Aziz, to Yassir, and back to al-Mousa who cornered the ball elegantly to the right of the Uzbek keeper with fifteen minutes to go. Uzbekistan scored their goal six minutes later by Solomin due to some poor marking in the box, but Saudis finally emerged victorious and advanced to the semi-finals where they will face title holders Japan on Wednesday.

P.S. Don’t miss the gorgeous Saudi team wallpaper designed by my friend Bandar Raffah.

Saudi Arabia beat co-hosts Indonesia 2-1 on their second match in the Asian Cup. Yassir al-Qahtani scored first, before Indonesia equalized few minutes later. It wasn’t until the dying moments of the match that substitute Saad al-Harthi scored his team second goal with a powerful header. The teams played to a packed stadium with more than 90,000 spectators, including the Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

The first few minutes were very tense due to the noise of the big crowd. But both teams quickly managed to get over the pressure and played some real football. Fifteen minutes into the match, Ahmed al-Bahri receives the ball on the right flank and sends an accurate cross to skipper Yassir al-Qahtani, who jumps high and sends the ball to the left right corner with a beautiful header into the net.

Since they were able to score early and silence the Indonesian crowd, I thought Saudis would extend their dominance over the match easily. But four minutes later, defender Osama Hawsawi cleared the ball to the direction of Saud Kariri, but the latter, marked by an opponent, could not control it properly and fell clumsily to give the opponent opportunity to send a pass to Elie Aiboy who beat goalkeeper al-Musaileem to score the equalizer.

Indonesians have realized that the only way to overcome the tactical and physical advantage of Saudis was to impose a high-tempo game on them. Playing their game, the red team managed to make several scoring chances, but they lacked the last touch in front of their oppenent net. The half-time break did not affect Indonesians that much as they continued with the same style, though they have become far less dangerous.

However, twenty minutes into the second half, players of hosts have gotten tired. It was inevitable. Keeping that type of high-tempo style of play required far more abilities than Indonesians possessed. From that point on, and thanks to some changes by the Brazilian coach who introduced Abduh Autef and Taiseer al-Jassim to the match at the right time, Saudis dominated the remaining time. Both Abdul-Rahman al-Qahtani and Malek Muaath had chances but could not score.

When the match was coming to an end, right-back Ahmed al-Bahri gained a free-kcik on the right side of the box. Abdul-Rahman took the free-kick sending a swirling cross on the head of last-minute substitute Saad al-Harthi, who despite the marking of Indonesian defense succeeded to put ball in the net. Al-Harthi, who has come under much criticism after wasting an easy chance against Korea, ran screaming in joy as he helped his team to emerge victorious.

The national team will play their last match in the groups stage against Bahrain on Tuesday. Bahrain, who lost their opening match against Indonesia, will face Korea tomorrow in a match that will define the fate of Group D. All the best to our Bahraini brothers.

Saudi Arabia and Korea has drawn 1-1 in their opening match in the Asian Cup. The result was expected, though I thought the match would be goalless. Unfortunately, the first half did not live up to the reputation of two of Asia’s top teams. The Koreans were missing some of their players in Europe, while the Saudi side was young and inexperienced. They had only a couple of scoring chances for Yassir and Malek, and the Koreans had a few more chances, but no one was able to score.

After the break, Korea were more determined to score in the same time that Saudis looked passive and vulnerable. Saudi defenders did not exert much pressure on on their opponents. It was as if our team were waiting for the Koreans to score first, and that’s what actually happened. On the 66th minute, a long cross from the left side finds Choi Sung-kuk, who gave his team in the lead with an easy header.

Ten minutes after later, Malek won a penalty after he tried to go round a Korean defender, who had no choice but to push Malek to the ground. Yassir, skipper of the national team, sent the keeper the wrong way to score the equalizer.

On the 85th minute, a power failure in the stadium caused the match to stop for half an hour until the error was fixed. In the injury time, Saudi substitute Saad al-Harthi gets a chance to win the match when he had a one-on-one confrontation with the Korean keeper, but he recklessly side-netted it.

It was obvious that Korea enjoyed a tactical edge over Saudi Arabia, but on individual basis, Saudi players have better skills and technique. Back in defense, they have shown some excellent teamwork, and Osama Hawsawi has performed very well that some people started asking: “Montashari who?”

Local sports media celebrated the draw, describing the national team performance as “convincing.” IMHO, it was a good start for this competition, although it could have been worse. Anjos should seriously consider some changes to his line-up because we obviously had many problems in the midfield, especially on the right side. The next match will be against group leaders and hosts Indonesia tomorrow. Theoretically, Indonesia are much weaker, but their win in the first match against Bahrain should be a lesson for our team.

The 14th Asian Cup started on Saturday in Thailand with an opening ceremony that had to be cut short due to bad weather conditions. You can find out the results of the first few days of the tournament here, but what I want to focus on in this post is the chances of the Saudi team. Looking back at history, it is obvious that Saudi Arabia is always a favourtie to win the Cup. Since 1984, the Green Falcons were always present at the final match of the tournament, except for the last Asian Cup in China, where the team produced some forgettable performances leaving in the group stage.

Saudi Arabia will start their Asian campaign today when they face rivals South Korea in a classic continental clash. Saudis have always enjoyed the upper hand when they met Koreans in the past, including winning home and away in the 2006 World Cup qualifiers. Last time the two teams met in the Asian Cup was in 2000 in Lebanon, where Saudis won 2-1 in the smei-final thanks to a double by Talal al-Misha’al.

However, and despite their glorious history in Asia, it is definitely not easy to expect the outcome of the Saudi team. This is mainly due to the fact that Saudi Arabian Football Federation (SAFF) likes to change managers very often. The current manager, a “third-class” Brazilian called Helio dos Anjos, has been with the team for only a few months, and it was very obvious from his squad selection that he could not learn much about Saudi players during the brief time he spent in the country. After a long and exhausting local season, Anjos had to take more than 30 players to Turkey in order to get to know them better, only to leave two of his most important players out of the tournament.

Now I honestly cannot, and will not, tell you what I think of the manager because we are yet to see him in a true competition, and the few friendlies the team have played are not much of indication. But based in previous experiences, I find myself very skeptical that they will repeat what they have done in 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, and 2000. Probably it won’t be disastrous as it was in 2004, but I think we should be happy if they could advance to the knock-out stage.

Expect more posts about the tournament in the coming days…