http://www.kooora.com/default.aspx?showarticle=7597&obj=0 accoring to this a friendly tournament will be held in Saudi Arabia, it is considered as a pre-WC warm-up for the Saudi team participant teams are South Korea, Greece and Finland... matches to take place between the 21st and 25th of Jan... the Saudi team is goign to play a friendly against Sweden on the 18th of Jan. Good luck to Saudi Arabia
On paper it looks like this: countries with their rankings 16 greece 29 Korea Republic 33 Saudi Arabia 46 Finland whats the tournament format?
I am not a 100%, but since it is played between the 21st and the 25th... it can be played as a group. 21st matchday 1 23rd matchday 2 25th matchday 3 that's what I hope anyways.
No it will be played semifinals way. Like the cup in Iran, Saudi Arabia x Finland, Korea x Greece, winner of each fixtures reach the final.
yeah but mind u under calderon. i am not sure about paqueta and we can get a good idea of what paqueta is all about if we play south korea .
Are you sure about this? Because the Korean media and KFA already reported on their official website that we're playing Greece and Finland in Saudi Arabia. It's funny how you say "easily" just after those two WCQ matches. It's not like those two matches were totally dominated by the Saudis either. Good luck with that thought of yours in AC next year.
I don't know maybe it wont be like a semifinal. Im still not sure. And besides Im not saying that because of the last two WCQs wins, we have beated SK in alot of other important games, like 2000 AC, and 1988 AC. For ex, Saudi Arabia has a huge problem with Japan, no matter how we dominate them we fail to win.
Yes... I totally agree with Saudi64.... Saudi Arabia has troubles in playing with Japan and have never defeated them. I suggest that Saudis should play the AC qualifying match against Japan on March 1, 2006. This will alow them to have a competitive match in preparation for the world cup and besides Japan is stronger than most of the european opposition and have played against Ukraine before, so, it will be a worthy opposition for Saudia. Playing against Japan in Saudia on March 1 will give the Saudis a lot of confidence and having the home advantage, the Saudis can change their history against Japan this time around by winning. I think Saudi Arabia should play Japan on March 01, 2006, as scheduled by AFC.
So we automatically become an "easy" team to beat for the Saudis. I hope your boys have the same thought as you do, man. I really do. If they are, they'll be in for a LONG night when they meet us in the AC next year. Not that I care, but I find your underestimation on our team pretty funny. Good luck to your team in the future tho. I really liked what I saw from your boys during the WCQs under Calderon with exception of your first game against Uzbekistan in Tashkent.
i think the saudis are not sure right now if they could beat south korea again because calderon's no more. Right now i dont think any saudi or saudi fan would blab the saudi team could beat korea.
Man, to be honest and this is just my personal observation, but we never have problems with Korean teams in general, whether club or country we usually have their number, but Japanese teams are something else when it comes to us. Its good that we have Japan in our group, I'd like to see our current squad perform against a very strong Japanese NT. If we play Korea, they will be an excellent preparation for the AC qualifiers
Sah, with Caledron or not we can still do well, Saudi Arabia is more a of a players team than a coach, we don't always need a good coach to play well. The players inside have probably sweared to themselves they won't come back to Saudi Arabia until they reach the 2nd round of 2006, the players will be very determined with a good coach or not.
Finnish team for the tournament : http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slug=reu-finlandsquad&prov=reuters&type=lgns Finnish team will be quite inexperienced players and based on domestic players and some playing in Norway , Denmark and Sweden. Notice that Jari Litmanen is in the squad. Finland play against Saudi Arabia on Jan 21 and South Korea on Jan 25
The format of the tournament is that the winner will be the most points and the better goal difference after all the 4 teams play 2 games, if two teams are tied, then a draw will be made to see the winner.
Korea 1 - Greece 1 Saudi Arabia 1 - Finland 1 The last games will pretty much determine the winner. We need to win 2, or 3 difference goals if we can.