Did not watch the whole match so cant comment much. But in the earlier first half minutes , Nasser were playing than Ittihad but I had a feel this match could end in a draw. Yeah, Marquinho was scratched by Hussain Abdul Ghani on his belly which made Piturca to sustitute him. All n all we are back to square one from where we started. Gained the confidence from beating small teams and lost it again when facing a big team at home. Still in doubt, is Piturca a big game coach or not??
@Aimar 21 The fans of mid level clubs like Tawoon Raed Faysaly which we usually see in the league match are the real ones or do they actually support them coz they are from there own town or province and also support big clubs like Hilal , Ittihad on other hand..??
I don't know, but I think Ittihad need to be precautious with him next season to maintain his level. No ACL football and an early exit from the cup this season probably helped him and the team from a physical perspective, but it seems next season is a different matter though as they will qualify to ACL and will have a bigger expectations to meet domestically. At then end of the day I think you will have an O.K. season. You have some really good young players, and you have almost secured the ACL spot for next season after a difficult start under Piturca, so if you made the right moves in the summer you will be one of the favorites to win something next season if Piturca didn't make the mistake of going for all the competitions.
I've always thought about this. To be honest I think the majority of these fans support their local club + one of the "big teams", not a hardcore fans who couldn't careless about any other team beside theirs. We can see that when Hilal/Itti/Nassr etc.. come to these areas and have a significantly larger audience cheering for the big team. It just doesn't feel right, a part of the difficulties in away league games vs. smaller teams is their fans making the game a tough experience for the big teams, but I think that is missed to some extent here. You remember when Hilal's management admitted a while ago that they prefer to play their games away from home as they had a bigger fans support than the home games.
Another reason for large support for Away big teams is during weekends we can see a lot of locals travel to there home towns and actually end up watching match of there favourite team at there home town.
Yeah, and another reason in my opinion (besides marketing, in which the Saudi Football still lies way behind where it should be) is that we didn't have a small/non-big club that wasn't relegated in a long time. We used to have Altayee, Alwehda, Alquadesiyah, Ittifaq .. clubs who were always around and most of the time make their grounds a hard place to visit for the big teams, so that may help the locals to feel "attached" to their local clubs as they witness it's continued success over the years, but now most of the clubs are being either relegated every 2 or so seasons, or they are close to that. Maybe Alfateh & Altaawoun are the only ones that have achieved good results in the past few season, and are run by good managements so they have the stability to gain more popularity in the future.
Add Faysaly to that list. Oh god I miss those classic matches of IttifaqvsNasser and WehdavsHilal. The reason for high turnout for these clubs is also a single club representing there town in the league. Wehda and Taiee are the only clubs from Makkah and Hail. Same follows for Orubah too. They have good turnout for there home clubs
Another blow for Nassr. Alfuraidi has torn his ACL, and will be out for at least 6 months. Do you think Nassr are closer to lose the league now?
Its worry some issue now. Some good players who deserve to get chance in NT are getting injured..Ibrahim Ghaleb and now Fraidy. About Nasseer for the league, its tough to call whose to win the league. Last two matches for Nasser is against Hilal and Shabab. They must be looking for all wins before this two derby. Ahli have only one tough match against Ittihad which is the last match. But chances of them slipping further is more IMO then Nasser. If any team drops point before meeting the giants the league is the winners one..
Hilal beats Ittihad 3-0 which effectively ends our ACL run. Piturca is no big game coach. Lost the big matches when it matered the most. BTW- Salem Dawsari has actually shown he is true Hilali after that dive for the third goal...
The Kings Cup remaining which is the only direct chance to enter the ACL. Other indirect chance might be Hilal or Nasser winning it so Ittihad can get play off spot as Hilal finishing 3rd and Nasser finishing 1st or second, then the only spot remaining in the 4 teams will be the fourth place team in the league which might be Ittihad.
A former team of San Martin, who is now playing in EPL for Spurs, Vorm nominated the Romanian in his best 11 http://www.digisport.ro/Sport/FOTBA...riches+l-a+ales+pe+Sanmartean+in+echipa+sa+id
I don't think it's a dive. Look at this clip (starting from 2:15): I don't really care about Mohammed Foda's words, but Rashed Alrheeb clearly tripped Salem Aldawsary, but the ref mistakenly called it on Szukala. It's a PK in my opinion.
Ittihad, Nasser and Ahli won there matches respectively. Hilal drew Raed which gave ittihad breather to fight for top three. Next matches are crucial for Ittihad Hilal and Nasser. The Riyadh derby will be crucial for Nasser and Hilal to put the pin on the league. Both teams cant afford to win or lose or even draw. Nasser wins they remain safe till the last match day and will need a win or draw to win the league depending on Ahli vs Tawoon match result. Ittihad have to win needlessly against Shabab and hope for Hilal lose against Nasser to overtake them to third postion. Relegation is too complicated for me now to discuss in office hrs..
No we dont...Its all our fantasies we think of in the night .. We create teams of our own form a league and play matches in dreams. We are bit more advanced people..
It appears Hilal vs. Nassr is the game that will decide the league title. When I checked Nassr & Ahli's fixtures after their game against each other I thought Nassr aren't in a strong position, but credit to them they didn't lose silly points against the likes of Taawon, nor lost their cool when they were behind in games likes the one Vs. Ittihad. Shabab are having a horrible season so it's all about Riyadh's derby. Hilal players look more comfortable in that 3-6-1 formation. Yasser Alshahrani became useful at last! And Neves showed some of his 2009's performances. If the key players (Digao, Neves, Nasser, Alfaraj) don't injure themselves before Nassr's game I think we will watch a very competitive match.
It will be keen contest. Hilal dont wont want to slip away to third if they loose against Nasser and other hand they might be still wanting a Riyadh team to win the league and might not perform upto the mark. Its same for Ittihad in the last match. Might be in the third position in the last match day but still can loose the last derby against Ahli if at all Ahli needs a win just for the sake of Jeddah team winning the league..
Say what? By default the last thing Hilal (the people in charge of the club & the fans) wants to see is for Nassr to win a league title, or any title, let alone this one might be achieved at Hilal's expense! I'm pretty sure most of Hilal fans and almost all the people in the club would rather see Ahli wins the league than Nassr, so there is no question about how bad they want to defeat Nassr in the derby, especially after last season's campaign.
I want to see Al Hilal beat Al Nassr both in the league match and in the ACL's 2nd Round match. Best that Al Ahli wins the League than Al Nassr, and all that bull shit of Riyadh club retaining the title is a crap as being Al Hilal fan I really hate Al Nassr winning at the expense of Al Hilal!
what's going on in the match b/w Hilal & Nasr ?... why so many red cards ?... I cannot watch the match as I am out of country but only able to see live score on goalzz.com
Nasser wins the league after Ahli chocked up against Tawoon with a draw. Ittihad moves to third with 4-3 victory over Shabab, they need win against ahli to confirm next year place in ACL. I hope Salem gets a long ban and hefty fine for his head but to referee and straight red card. Also, Shoalah and Orubah are relegated