7th April 2008
Let the season commence
The Saudi Premier League kicked off yesterday with good starts for both Al-Ittihad and Al-Ahli
Ahmad Yasser reporting
Football fans across the country enjoyed the first day of the new football season yesterday with big games for the top 3 teams ensuring an exciting opener.
Al-Ittihad faced off against Al-Nassr, who boast a competitive and hungry squad, at the Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal stadium, whilst Jeddah’s other big club Al-Ahli had to travel to the captipal Riyadh to play title rivals Al-Hilal in the league’s first derby.
Al-Ittihad faced off against Al-Nassr, who boast a competitive and hungry squad, at the Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal stadium, whilst Jeddah’s other big club Al-Ahli had to travel to the captipal Riyadh to play title rivals Al-Hilal in the league’s first derby.
Although expected to beat Al-Nassr, it wasn’t all plain sailing for Al-Ittihad. After only 3 minutes they found themselves 1-0 down thanks to a superb effort by Nassr’s Beninese striker Razak Omotoyossi. Receiving the ball just in front of the penalty area from midfielder Abdallah Hammad, Omotoyossi let it run past him, took one touch to set himself up and then smashed a scorching shot past Mustafa Malaykah to the delight of the away fans.
The Tigers had to wait until just before the interval to equal the scoreline, and their goal came as a counter-attack from an Al-Nassr corner. Tordoya headed the cross out to Abou Trika who, starting in his own penalty box, set off on a dribble before releasing Enrique Esqueda with a precise pass. Esqueda took the ball to the byline, cut inside left-back Al-Thagafi and crossed to Abou Trika – who’d carried on running and had made his way into the box. His header wasn’t the best, but Al-Khojali decided to parry rather than catch it and the incoming Saud Khariree only had to side foot the ball in order to beat the keeper.
In the second half, Humberto Suazo was again on hand to convert a penalty for Ittihad after Nazifi Inuwa was taken down in the box by Ibrahim Sharaheli. All in all, it was a deserved win for the Tigers. Their 16 shots to Nassr’s 5 demonstrates that Al-Ittihad were the more attacking of the two sides.
Team Line-ups:
Al-Ittihad - 4-2-2-2: Malaykah; Inuwa, Al-Muntashri, Tordoya, Medina; Ándrade, Khariree; Abou Trika, Noor; Suazo, Esqueda.
Al-Nassr - 4-4-2: Al-Khojali; Al-Thagafi, Éder, Al-Bahri, Sharaheli; Abd Rabo, Ghaly, Al-Muina, Hammad; Al-Harthi, Omotoyossi.
The Tigers had to wait until just before the interval to equal the scoreline, and their goal came as a counter-attack from an Al-Nassr corner. Tordoya headed the cross out to Abou Trika who, starting in his own penalty box, set off on a dribble before releasing Enrique Esqueda with a precise pass. Esqueda took the ball to the byline, cut inside left-back Al-Thagafi and crossed to Abou Trika – who’d carried on running and had made his way into the box. His header wasn’t the best, but Al-Khojali decided to parry rather than catch it and the incoming Saud Khariree only had to side foot the ball in order to beat the keeper.
In the second half, Humberto Suazo was again on hand to convert a penalty for Ittihad after Nazifi Inuwa was taken down in the box by Ibrahim Sharaheli. All in all, it was a deserved win for the Tigers. Their 16 shots to Nassr’s 5 demonstrates that Al-Ittihad were the more attacking of the two sides.
Team Line-ups:
Al-Ittihad - 4-2-2-2: Malaykah; Inuwa, Al-Muntashri, Tordoya, Medina; Ándrade, Khariree; Abou Trika, Noor; Suazo, Esqueda.
Al-Nassr - 4-4-2: Al-Khojali; Al-Thagafi, Éder, Al-Bahri, Sharaheli; Abd Rabo, Ghaly, Al-Muina, Hammad; Al-Harthi, Omotoyossi.
Other Results
In the country’s other principal city, it was delight for Al-Ahli at the final whistle as they scraped a 1-0 victory away from home against Al-Hilal. Critics will say that injuries to star striker Yasser Al-Qahtani in the 27th minute and influential Swedish midfielder Christian Wilhelmsson only 9 minutes later seriously hurt Al-Hilal’s chances of getting a win, but things went from bad to worse for Hilal when Al-Ahli were awarded a penalty in the 44th minute, which Harison stepped up to convert.
Al-Hilal couldn’t muster up enough opportunities in the second half to warrant an equaliser, and fans of the Riyadh team left the King Fahd International stadium wondering how much of a dent their title chances had taken due to this loss, and the injuries sustained during it.
Al-Hilal couldn’t muster up enough opportunities in the second half to warrant an equaliser, and fans of the Riyadh team left the King Fahd International stadium wondering how much of a dent their title chances had taken due to this loss, and the injuries sustained during it.
The rest of the matches in round 1 turned out like this:
Abha 0 vs 3 Al-Qadisiyah
Al-Ittifaq 2 vs 1 Al-Hazm
Al-Khaleej 2 vs 0 Al-Ansar
Al-Ta’ee 0 vs 2 Al-Shabab
Al-Wahda 4 vs 2 Al-Watani
Najran 3 vs 3 Al-Ra’eed
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Let's name it United since we have come here as one."
"Let's name it United since we have come here as one."
This post has been edited by mazz: 23 July 2009 - 10:56 PM
MultiQuote
