Our quarterfinal will be against Uzbekistan, weak in history, but will be a tough opponent in the field. Our defense until now, even though we are using a completely new defensive line, is still not that strong, not solid, the sides are very weak and give way too much space to the opponents. Uzbekistan looks good on headers, and we better be careful, since crosses will be crossed with ease. Our midfield in terms of defense was affected by Khaled Aziz not playing, maybe with Saud Kariri, or AlGhamdi we could see a tougher defense, but a weaker offense. Abdulrahman AlQahtani was injured, but there's a 75% chance of playing against Uzbekistan. Lineup should be the same, so good luck to Saudi Arabia. The Saudi embassy had a party for the squad for qualifying to the 2nd round in Jakarta after the players arrived today from Palembang. I predict a 2-1 result if we play similar to the Bahrain game with improving the defense.
MBC's Sada Al-Mala3eb showed footage of the players dancing mezmar. Some of them were taking it too seriously, I hope they didn't cramp a muscle or something .
* أحد المشاهدين الذي جاء لمتابعة المنتخب عند ذهابنا إلى الملعب قال عندي إحساس أن منتخبنا سيفوز بأربعة أهداف فقال له آخر (أنت حلمك واسع مرة)، قول نتأهل بس لو بنصف هدف. LOL. http://www.alwatan.com.sa/news/newsdetail.asp?issueno=2485&id=14690 And it seems Abdulrahman AlQahtani won't be able to play against Uzbekistan, a big blow for the NT, and Abdoh Otaif is going to be the substitute.
Khalid Aziz will be playing he was banned from the Bahrain game and will return for the QF with the Uzbeks.
Good news, Abdulrahman AlQahtani participated in the trainings today, and he is ready and big chance of starting tommorow. Khaled Aziz will be back to the lineup, while Omar AlGhamdi might start, and maybe Tayseer or Saud, but its closer for Saud and Omar. The players also got ready for penalties by shooting a couple of penalties.
Congrats to Saudi Arabia, hardluck Uzbekistan. Our defense simply sucked today, as usual. It seems when we attack we do well, but when we defend we go through hell. Our defense must improve, but I doubt anything will change against Japan, only 2 days rest and we need to travel to Vietnam. Good going AFC.
Congrats to Saudi Arabia for winning against Uzbekistan. But I believe that I might be saying "Better Luck to Saudi Arabia" after the Semi-Final Match against "Japan" - The Only Asian Team Against Which Saudi Arabia Always Sucks !!! I sure wish Saudi Arabia would have had played Korea or Iraq in the Semis. Believe me, I don't see Saudi Arabia winning against the Mighty Japan. However, I pray and wish Saudi Arabia all the best of lucks and Wishes, and I pray that Saudi Arabia not only beat Japan but Also Wins this Asian Cup. Ameen.
They can do it, have some faith. Saudi football fans in general have a big problem, we are either way too pessimestic, or we are way too optimistic. We have a young squad, 7 of them participated in the last WC, only 4 had participated in 2004 AC. This squad is really young, inexperienced, but they were able to reach the semifinals. If we keep this coach, and group of players we could do well in the WC, look at their style of play, amazing, look at the second goal, when have you seen an Asian team score something like that. Sure our defense was scary today, but Uzbekistan's offense was the strongest during the group stages, in the end we can beat Japan, we have lost three times, but twice it was very close. AC 2000, we should have won, but we wasted a penalty and Kawaguchi was amazing that day. At the same time we shouldn't be way too optimistic, we need to work hard and concentrate, on scoring our chances, and concentrating on covering the spaces behind.
I'm not sure about that. I think they did reasonably well, at least better than previous matches. The main problem was the midfield. They completely surrendered the field to the Uzbeks and letting all the pressure to be faced by the defenders. 1- Osama had an excellent match and did extremely well with crosses. IMHO, a candidate for MOM along with Al-Musaileem. 2- Al-Bahri, Kamel, and Waleed. Well, they are average players to begin with, so what do we expect from them. They made a few mistakes here and there, but they did play as best as they possibly can. 3- Aziz and Kariri, played well (the only midfielders to play well), but went too deep. Maybe they had to due to the enormous Uzbek pressure in the 1st half. 4- Abdul Rahman, Malek, and Tayseer had an overall disppointing match. They did fairly well during the attacking, but extremly poor defending. In modern football, every player including attackers must defend. Both of them did not put any pressure on Uzbek midfielders, nor did they hassle them. Thus making things much more difficult for the rest. 5- Yasser had a good match. He performed more defensive duties than Abdulrahman and Taysseer. I truly believe the Uzbekistan is as strong as Japan. They play more physical, are taller and have more leathal attack. On the other hand, Japan is less vulnerable defensively, and has more organization in the midfield. The latter will be our biggest challenge. Abdu Otaif is even worse defensively as Abdulrahman and Tayseer. I hope Omar Al-Ghamdi starts, but even then he might not be enough to stop the Japanese midfield.
Omar AlGhamdi is a great midfield defender, I hope he plays him with Khaled Aziz, they know each other well from Hilal.
Face it, the Japanese will tear our team apart. If anything, we will score a consolation goal near the end. 3-1 Japan (and yet, I still think we could do it...)
this will have to be short since I'm using a friend's computer... We have played badly all tourney. We've gone this far due to individual skill on the counter. Our keeper & defence are weak so our def midfield sits way too deep to protect them handing control to the other side. If this team goes on to win the cup it will be the greatest smash & grab ever