People have stopped believing in Yasser ages ago... And Pesiero's decent. Much better than Al Johar They could've won if Salman Isa scored in the first game? Kinda like how Saudi Arabia could've won if Abdul Ghani was covering the post on that last kick in the final game?
Re: New Zealand - Bahrain Peseiro decent??? You talk about a man that couldn't beat DPR Korea at home, he lost two games against Bahrain, he was 6 points ahead in Greek League and lost two home games and the league in the remaining 4 games, he lost the UEFA Cup at home with 3 goals!!! You call decent this man? He will destroy Saudi for sure, 100%. I was 100% sure that he will fail against Bahrain, he lost the same way in UEFA Cup, 0-0 away, 1-1 at home when he was in Greece. For sure big hopeless man. Not really, Saudi didn't deserve to score 2-1, so justice was fair there... But Bahrain could score 1-0 at home and 1-1 in Bahrain, but they missed big chances, because they are just hopeless when in front of goal. I don't believe that Bahrain and Saudi are much better comparing to New Zealand. Even Iraq who are the champions couldn't beat them. The truth is that Arabic football had made steps back, Ittihad lost from Pohang, Saudi from DPR Korea, Iraq and Bahrain couldn't beat New Zealand, Oman lost from 10-men Australia... All these are signs of worry.
Re: New Zealand - Bahrain When did we ever lose to Bahrain? Saudi Arabia is still undefeated against Bahrain. And under Pesiero Saudi Arabia are still undefeated in competitive matches. Saudi Arabia lost because of Al Johar, not Peseiro If they are hopeless in front of goal then they don't deserve to win. There's no "deserve to win" only win or loss. Iraq has been poor ever since 2007. They couldn't even get to the final round of qualifying. I'd even put Qatar and Bahrain as better than Iraq. Overall, I'm not too worried, football goes around in cycles.
Re: New Zealand - Bahrain I think Grim is 100% correct about Pisseiro. He's an abysmal coach and he's flushing the Saudi team down the drain. I've become convinced that he got lucky with the win in Tehran; his team selection options were limited that day and the Saudi players were in great spirit, while the Iranians choked under the pressure. Since then, Pisseiro has killed us with his team selections, and what's worse is that all his mistakes were predicted beforehand. He threw away a very winnable game in Seoul because of that. He also has actually managed to make the Saudi midfield even worse than it was before. The team really struggles to build anything, and this should not be the case because our players really are not THAT bad. Anyway, I blame it on the FA. They treated the WCQ as a foregone conclusion and thought they can qualify without a real coach, then only appointed a new one after 4 games when no good coaches were available and even a good coach would have struggled to impose his philosophy on the team. It's so ironic though that these clowns habitually fire winning coaches like Calderon and Dos Anjos, and then the one time they decided to hold onto a coach, they held on to this joker Pisseiro. As for Yasser Al-Qahtani, I agree that he's only about 50% of what he was 2 or 3 years ago. This is mainly because he had two groin operations in less than 5 months last year, and was never given a chance to recuperate, so he's lost his pace and his jumping ability, and he's also low on confidence in front of goal. Yet he's still too good to be dropped from the team. In the last friendly he showed he has the best playmaking capabilities in the team, now that he's playing in this new withdrawn role. I also don't understand why people deliberately forget that he created the second goal against Bahrain when most other players would have lost hope.
Re: New Zealand - Bahrain I'm afraid they are that bad. They've always struggled to create chances under Al Johar as well. It's not Peseiro's fault the team selection sucks donkeyballs. I'm not saying he's the absolute best coach there is or anything but I do think we deserve to give him more than 6 games in charge before showing him the door.
Re: New Zealand - Bahrain These are essentially the same players that qualified undefeated in 2006 and outplayed S. Korea in Dammam. So, they can do better. Also, the team was actually playing better under Al-Johar, believe it or not. E.g. the game against Iran, the Gulf Cup.
Re: New Zealand - Bahrain Come on, they can't be bad, we talk about a dream team here, Khariri or Aziz in DM, Shalhoub, Noor, Ahmed or Abdulrahman and you have a super team in the midfield... It's just that Peseiro system, take the ball and make long ball and somebody will take a header and score. This is why Saudi had their best days with Hazazi in the attack, because he is tall and he could score some great headers. Peseiro is the kind of coach that will win in Iran and then he will lose from UAE at home, UAE he got away lucky, against DPR Korea and Bahrain he couldn't get away. When he was in Greece, Panathinaikos, I remember that he had fight with the fans because he never used the best player, 18 year old Sotiris Ninis, who is scouted by Real Madrit and Man U, but was no good for Peseiro, as he had to play with 3 defensive midfielders and no wingers at all!!! He had two great strikers, Portuguese Postiga and Angola Manucho and these players scored 2 and 3 goals under Peseiro!!! This guy just knows how to destroy the teams and their way of football. I read that he went in Romania and the fans tried to hang him and kill him. And he didn't leave the club because he wanted his money till the end of the contract. For me Saudi is a super team that is sleeping, because there is not a good coach to wake up these players and make them play with passion and spirit. They never play with spirit, this is why Bahrain won, because they were spirited. I think that a local man can do much better work with the team, or at least a coach like Calderon that will make the team play with heart.
Re: New Zealand - Bahrain Since we're starting to get a good discussion on the KSA national team, I'm going to split it off to that forum.
The France team that played great in 98 was essentially the same team that bombed in 2002 and bounced back in 2006. Just because someone does good 4 years ago mean he'll do the same now. We've played 6 matches with Peseiro so I'll give him a chance. He's the reason we even got a playoff spot instead of Iran. That's a pretty average midfield. Kariri is way too old and far past his prime, Aziz has disciplinary issues and rarely plays for Hilal, Shalhoub has been out of form for ages (though he's making a comeback), Noor doesn't play well for the national team. And Ahmed is a DM (so you've named 3 DMs now) and I guess A. Al Qahtani is a good LMF if you hadn't already mentioned Shalhoub....WAIT! No RMF? That's what I've been saying all qaulifucation long: We have no right winger so how do we have a dream team in midfield? Against UAE and Bahrain, they got away lucky. UAE scored two flukes and Bahrain capitlized on Abdul Ghani being a dickwad. BTW that's the system we were using with Al Johar actually. Local man? Please don't make me laugh, there are so few good local coaches we get abominations like Al Johar at the head of the team. The only good coach I can think of is Al Hilal's current fitness coach (forget his name, help me out here Sayf) when he led Al Shabab to the league title and filled in when Cosmin was exiled. And if these players come to the NT and not play with spirit but need a coach to provide it for them, then they suck and are not a "super team" I was wondering "when the hell did I make this thread?"
Re: New Zealand - Bahrain Oh my God, It's good to see that this forum (Saudi Forum) has become lively again after so many disappointments. Now regarding Yasser, in order to gain confidence, he should not play as a striker but instead, he should start playing in the mid-field for 3 to 4 matches ... the longer you keep the ball, the better you gain the confidence and offcourse, start making quality moves and score. His pace will not be the same as before but he will regain his jumping ability gradually.
Re: New Zealand - Bahrain I say sack the portugese! I don't think he sucks but he deifnitly is the not the best choice. There is time, so better do it while it is still early.
Re: New Zealand - Bahrain "Mr.Peserio, you haven't lost a single competitive game with Saudi Arabia yet but we're going to sack you anyway "
Re: New Zealand - Bahrain Don't get caught up with technicalities. Yes, in the record books they were draws, but when the other team needs a draw and you a need a win, and the game ends in a draw, then in REALITY you lost.
Re: New Zealand - Bahrain So you're acknowledging that your defense of him for "not losing a competitive game" was spurious? Great. (will be back)
Re: New Zealand - Bahrain Sorry but Noor once was playing in the right flank, Shalboub can play right too, Al Freidi and Tayseer and Shalboub can play left, Ahmed, Abdoh, Kariri, Aziz can play nice role in the centre of the field, even Nasser can play on the right, but because this stupid coach wants to make a special team with his special players and his special coaching attributes, he has to change position to all the players and create chaos to all Saudi team. Even the 4-2-3-1 tactic can be super with Shalboub, Noor and Al Shamrani behind the striker. But this stupid coach has to play it his way. Al Johar on the contrary just put the players on their position and he went to the final. But the players can't respect one local coach and they don't play with their spirit for the team, so the Saudi FA has to search for coaches that failed in European territory in order to bring them and let them do their crazy things! He didn't lose a single game? HE FAILED! The team is out of the World Cup because he couldn't beat pathetick oponents like DPR Korea and Bahrain. If your Ittihad had a super coach that ended the league with 11 wins and 10 draws in the 5th position you would call him a good coach because "he didn't lose a single game" ??? I don't think so
Re: New Zealand - Bahrain When did I say that? He got a draw in the last game because Abdul Ghani was being an idiot. If that LB did his job we wouldn't be having this conversation. Yes, Noor was playing right flank and he sucked at it. So would Al Shalhoob. Al Freidi isn't a left winger and neither is Tayseer Al Jasem. Abdoh Autef is pathetic and Kariri is way way past his prime and Aziz isn't even playing regular football with his club due to disciplinary issues. I don't recall a single player outside of Mohammed Noor that was being played outside his own position so I have no idea what you are talking about. Al Johar couldn't beat North Korea eithier and you're seriously underestimating them. They even gave the south koreans a hard time. And Al Johar failed. Not Peseiro. Yes I would call him a good coach because then Wehda have a chance to go higher up the league then itti. That coach had 21 games to prove his mettle. Peseiro had....6? after being dumped in the middle of a team in complete shambles after Al Johar messed it up? I think he acquitted himself quite well.
Believe it or not, the team under johar was playing alot better than it did under pisserio! At the end of the day, johar couldn't get the results but pisserio got some decent results. I say give him some more time and he will prove his worth, atleast he's doing some work and getting new players into the squad. And btw, i can see that the defence line is better under pissierio than it was under johar where it was all shaky!
I kinda miss the fact Saudi Arabia arent in WC2010. Atleast they represented the Arabs in GCC. Inshallah Qatar wins the 2022 WC bid today. And if they do, inshallah Saudi Arabia builds an eleven year plan to win WC 2022.