Imagine if Saudi Arabia would have had been placed in this group instead of North Korea then imagine what would the final result had been for each game: 1st Game: Brazil v Saudi Arabia 8 - 0 or 10 - 1 or ... 2nd Game: Portugal v Saudi Arabia 3 - 0 or 4 - 0 3rd Game: Ivory Coast v Saudi Ara. 3 - 2 or 4 - 2 All in all, it's better to build the team for 2014 then to get hammered "Again" if KSA would have had qualified in 2010 ... But, Really, I miss Saudi Arabia in the World Cup even if they get hammered 15 - 0 ...
Nah, I think we can hold our own against Portugal and Ivory Coast (but without Pisseiro). Brazil is another matter though.
I certainly rule out that we will be beaten up by Brazil by this much big margin .....Portugal qualified through play offs and they strgulled a lottt...Talking about Ivory Coast we have not beaten by african team in world cup... it would have been.. Brazil 3 - 1 KSA Portugal 1 - 1 Ksa or 1 - 0 for KSA IVory coast 2 - 2 Ksa or a narrow win for us But glad to see we could have been in group of Death
Saudi Arabia have always had trouble with European teams. Ukraine in 2006 and Germany in 2002 were also teams that struggled during playoffs.
Basically, whatever 'goal against' tally DPR Korea gets...I'd say our NT would concede double. As crap as North Korea are, they are better at bunkering then we'll ever be, and they will be 0-3 in the world cup, but they wont be blown out as much as we hypothetically would. We would play the more attractive and open football, no doubt...but we would have been blown out, in particular by Brazil.
I agree that North Korea is fcked in that group.... Group G: Brazil, Ivory Coast and Portugal.....the best rated team in the world let alone South America, Ivory Coast the best rated team in Africa, Portugal one of the strongest European team that didnt make the seed. think most teams would be fcked in that group let alone North Korea and Saudi Arabia! but if we are just having a bit of funs talking about what ifs why swap Saudi Arabia in to North Korea's group of death only? how about New Zealand's group? GROUP F: Italy, Paraguay, New Zealand, Slovakia? Think Saudi Arabia would have a good chance to make it no.2 in that group. what ifs hey.....what ifs....
Paraguay are actually quite good so Saudi Arabia would prolly pull a "2006" in that group. (Ie 1 draw 2 losses)
naaa... i don't think so... Saudi Arabia did beat Paraguay 1-0 in a ill-tempered friendly many years ago ... I think Slovakia would had been a difficult opponent for Saudi. Against, Italy, It would have had been 2-0 or 3-0 for Italy.
Many years ago doesn't describe the Paraguay of today. If you can qaulify 3rd from South America, then you are a GOOD team.
considering the style of play and physicality of Paraguay, it is a team Saudi can beat. Slovakia is one of the weaker European sides, thus Saudi's best chance for points. against Italy, they are likley to win but they do not tend to go for a high scoring game, they score one or two goals then lock the game up, so Saudi will be in less danger of having many goals scored against them. a win against Paraguay, a draw against Slovakia is 4pts, which is normally enough to get throught to the 2nd round. Ask Australia.
GROUP C: England, USA, Algeria, Slovenia this would hypothetically the best group for Saudi Arabia. Not only is it the easiest group (how lucky is the US!), but also Saudi has a good record against North Aftican teams, not to mention Slovenia yet again one of the weakest in Europe.
So, what are the events that Saudi must prepare for till the next world cup qualification ? I would list in them on priority basis as below: 1. Asian Cup 2. London Olympic Qualifyer 3. Asian Youth Championship After Asian Cup, the Saudi Team should start preparing for the world cup qualifyer and aim for the top position of automatic qualification... Saudi Arabia should start preparation from now (IMO)
They are starting preprations. They got all these international experts in a few days ago to retool the FA not to mention keeping Peseiro on board.