ABHA, 23 August 2004 — Morocco’s Al-Rajaa Club will face America Ducali of Colombia in the finals of the International Friendship soccer tournament at Prince Sultan Sports City here today.
Rajaa qualified with a 1-0 victory over South Africa’s Jomo Cosmos yesterday. Masloob Nabeel scored the winner following a penalty kick in the 96th minute of play.
Rajaa took the attack to the defensive South Africans from the very outset. Though the sustained pressure did not yield immediate results it paid off in the extra time. This is the second time the Moroccan team has reached the tournament’s finals.
In the second match, Ducali beat Al-Ittihad of Jeddah (4-1) in a pulsating match that went into extra time after the two teams drew (1-1). Ducali led with a goal through Yabusan until Fahd Abu Jaber won the equalizer in the 90th minute.
Ittihad captain Ahmed Khareesh was shown a red card in the first half of extra time after he hit a Ducali striker.
This totally changed the course of the match against the Saudi team as it conceded three consecutive goals in the 105, 109 and 112 minutes.
Meanwhile, the Saudi Football Federation yesterday released the names of players of the Kingdom’s team who are to attend a coaching camp in Riyadh from Aug. 24 in preparation for 2006 World Cup qualifying matches.
The players are: Mabrouk Zayed, Muhammad Al-Khawjali, Rashid Al-Muqrin, Mansour Al-Najae, Rida Tukr, Naif Al-Qadi, Mishaal Al-Saeed, Jaber Al-Haqawi, Salman Al-Khaledi, Hussein Abdul Ghani, Zaid Al-Muwalled, Ahemd Al-Dokhi, Hamad Al-Isa, Khamees Al-Owairan, Saud Kareeri, Abdullatif Al-Ghanam, Muhammad Noor, Mansour Al-Dossari, Abdu Ateef, Muhammad Al-Shalhoub, Ibrahim Suwaid, Hassan Muad, Tayseer Al-Jassem, Saheb Al-Abdullah, Talal Al-Mishaal, Yasser Al-Qahtani, Marzouk Al-Otaibi, Isa Al-Mahyani, Saleh Al-Bashir and Abdullah Al-Jamaan.
