JEDDAH, 10 August 2003 — The Iraqi Olympic side held on to their top position in the Group II of the Seventh Sadaka Soccer Tournament in Asir yesterday with a 2-2 draw against the Senegal Olympic team.
That left the Iraqis on top with eight points and the Senegalese are second with seven. The two teams are most likely to gain qualification to the knockout phase from the group.
Later, the Saudi Olympic team kept their outside hopes of qualifying to the next stage alive with a 3-1 defeat of Al-Nasr of Riyadh. The defeat knocked Nasr out of contention.
The Olympic squads of Iraq and Senegal showed that they were well-matched as the game was mostly restricted to a struggle for midfield ascendancy. The Iraq side have themselves to blame for dropping a point as the Senegalese side’s second equalizer came in injury time, moments before the final whistle.
Earlier the teams were level 1-1 at the half-time break with the Iraqis scoring first in the 11th minute, only to see the Senegalese equalize in the 34th. The Iraqi team went ahead again in the 70th minute and managed to hold on to their slender lead till the injury time strike.
Today Al-Ahli will play the Syrian Olympic side in the first match, while Al-Hilal will take on the Moroccan Olympic team in the second game.
West Ham Make Winning Start in First Division
In London, West Ham United gave recovered manager Glenn Roeder a winning start in his bid to steer them straight back to the Premier League when they beat Preston North End 2-1 away in their first division opener yesterday.
