Better group to be in for saudi than Group A. Korea vs australia....KSA historically does better against Aussie Japan vs Iran....KSA historically does better against Iran (since they tend to self destruct themselves unlike Japan) DPRK vs Uzbek...definitely North Korea, no questions UAE vs bahrain...definitely UAE plays more suitable to KSA's style than Bahrain, although it could go either way. Bahraini form seemed good in round 3 though. So its another plus for us.
I think in either group we would do well. When we face competitive teams in important games we always do well, so whether Japan or Australia or Sk or Iran, we can beat them but we need to be in our performance. If we are, then we should top this group. I think if we had Uzbekistan and Qatar better than UAE and NK. We have never lost to Qatar, and Uzbekistan we are used to their play by now, and we can beat them. But NK seems mysterious, and going to Pyongyang according to other teams who went there is like hell. And UAE are very excited to qualify this time, they have a good coach, and beating us last time in the Gulf will give them some hope. Anyways it doesn't matter, most important thing is if we are ready, our players are in a good form, we will qualify inshallah.
It's a good thing that we play the opening match against Iran in Saudia, at least this will erase some pressure on our players as they will be playing at home. The next trip to UAE is also useful as we will face them off in the initial match days.... I say it wouldn't have had been a better group for Saudi Arabia than this... the only thing now is that both the players, the coach and the Saudi FA "FOCUS"... Insha' Allah we will qualify to the world cup.... Ameen
Both groups are pretty even, and we have a good shot this time too. I would be very much surprised if we don't make it through. In this group, KSA, Korea, and Iran are very close and it looks like its going to be a three horse race until the end. The decider in my view would be who looses more points against UAE and N. Korea. While I am pretty sure that the latter two would end up in the last 2 positions, they will however be not far away from the top 3 and will grab some precious points from them. Interestingly, we will play both Iran and Korea home in the first half of the qualifiers. This is dangerous, as we may be forced to not settle for a draw in the final stages when we play them away. Laith, other than the 1-0 win for us against Australia in the continental cup in Riyadh back in the 90's I do not recall us playing them ever. Have we?
IMO, KSA played against Australia in a friendly match in 1995-96 that ended 0-0, KSA played against Australia in Atlanta Olympics that ended 1-2 for Australia, KSA did beat Australia 1-0 in the confederation's cup. KSA also played against Australia in a friendship tournament in 1986 in Australia that ended 1-3 for Australia. (In that tournament, KSA drew 1-1 with Argentina as well but in the later match, KSA lost to Argentina 0-2) Other than that, KSA never played against Australia.
Anyways guys, it looks like im gonna get banned soon, I have too many enemies here, lol. (its not even mani who is harmless, its the mods)
True, going through won't be a suprise. I'll be suprised if we through as second. But I fear even if we qualify, in the WC we will do the regular Asian performance. A tie, and 2 losses. Thats what most Asian teams in the WC achieve, and we seem doomed to stay at this level for a long time. I know some might say this isn't the time, but qualifying shouldn't be a real obstacle for our football. I hope the training camp we can play top teams. I've read it will be in Czech and we will play against Nigeria, Greece, something like that. I hope we play with top world class teams from August and on, so we can improve our performance and our football level on a whole. We must improve in the WC.
I don't know why you guys are so bullish. We played like crap the whole qualifying campaign, dodgy squad and to top it off we have the man with the baseball cap as coach. What are we hoping for? Scrape through qualification and then get thrashed in the finals like in 02?
Hey Laith even though you know i am supporting you on those boards, Saudi64 is right. Just avoid it. How long did they say before they remove your yellow?
I understand what you are saying. But Nasser Al-Johar is very good when it comes to GC, Asian qualifiers etc... he has proven this many times before. So I think he has what it takes to take us to the WC. The Saudi FA clearly said that he will be in charge of the team during the qualifiers only. They will bring another coach if we qualify. Assuming we (inshallah) end up in the top 2, this means that we will qualify 1 year ahead of the WC as the qualifiers are early this WC. Clearly, this means that there is enough time for a new coach to get the team ready for the big show. Besides, if we are not super-optimists, we would have stopped supporting the NT a long time ago
July 25. and I will avoid it, they are obviously biased. If we play the same way we played during the asian cup, we will surely dominate this group and will come out with a very positive goal differential. I think we are in the same position we were during 1996-1998. We had a squad that won the asian cup, and we more or less dominated the qualifying. This team is even more superior than that team from 10 years ago (especially in offense). as for Nasser... IMO he is not as responsible as the Saudi FA for our 2002 disaster.
Its not a good thing, but its definitely better than what I observed in the Iranian camp, where they had a player coach both a club and the national team. (did Daei retire from football or will also play as well? lol) not to mention the long months of limbo you had with tonnes of big names flying for the iran position, like Javier Clemente...in the end, you have ali daei coach you.
Keeping Naser Al-Johar is a bad move. We need an international coach who's been to the World Cup. Only then may we be able to do something in the WC, but of course we need to play many games for the coach to understand our team. But if we get a new coach after the qualifiers, how many official games will the coach play? None till the World Cup, only friendlies. Or maybe some Gulf Cup or something. Not very helpful of course. But let us hope for the best.
sure it was a rlly crazy episode before we finally had a coach..I also had my doubts for Daei as coach but now we have trust in him. He knows the team and Iran the best and he's improving the team match by match. And yes he does not coach Saipa anymore, been a couple of months now. KSA shouldn't change coaches that often, a team get's used to one coach and they start creating that chemistry and bam they change coaches and everything can start all over again (training method, tactics, players choosing...) this way ksa can't improve in a proper way.
As-Salaamu A'laikum wa RahmatUllahi wa Barakathuhu --- I'm a Saudi fan, and was born in Saudi Arabia. I agree with ShaRule on this one. There needs to be a consistency with coaches getting at least 2-3 years to work with the team. And the Saudi FA needs to get someone like Hiddink, and play consistently against teams like Italy, Spain, Holland, Portugal, etc. What will happen is that we are going to get beat 4-0, 5-0 perhaps for 6-7 years, and then the results will improve InshaALLAH(SWT). It's going to take that long, Allahu A'lam. You know what, we lost 4-0 to the Ukraine last WC, but I saw fight in Saudi players that game --- that was a step in the right direction. The WC before that, there was no fight. As far as these qualifiers are concerned, Iran and South Korea as well as UAE are all going to be very tough. You guys are being too optimistic.
Well Nasser has been either a coach or assisstant coach for the last 8-9 years consecutively. If theres anyone that knows the team, its him. although he is good for the short term (he knows asia well, took kSa to the final in 2000 Asian cup aswell as to the world cup in 2002) he is not a suitable coach for the actual world cup (we all know the results in 2002). I think we should stick with Johar, until the end of the qualification, and then we would have atleast a year before the actual world cup starts to find a suitable coach that will give us that edge we need.
Listen, it wasn't Jouhar's fault that KSA lost 0-8 to Germany in WC 2002, the entire team was nervous against the Giant & Big Figures of the entire German Team... Look at even the height of the German players in that match, the Saudis were no match for the Germans in that match. The pysique of the German Team was much greater than the Saudi Team and the Saudi were lucky to lose by only 8 goals otherwise, it would easily had been more than 12 goals for the least. You cannot judge a coach on the basis of that match. I totally support Jouhar and I believe that he should remain with the Saudi Team till the end of the World cup. Changing coach will never let the team to glue together and it will have negative impact. Forget 2002, every player, coach and team has bad patches and WC 2002 was just about it for the entire team..... I believe that as Jouhar had have a bad experience of 2002 so, now he will never let it happen again. Trust me, if he remains till the end of the World Cup then we will be praising him for the achievements in WC 2010. Let the man do his job.... every body deserves a 2nd chance !
I don't think being nervous could cause an 8-0 loss. Last WC 1998 against France, in France, we only lost 4-0. I don't think there could be anything more nervous than playing against a team like France at home, who were going through the beginning of their golden generation, and later on won the WC.