JEDDAH, 3 September 2004 — Al-Ittihad and Al-Ahli suffered shock defeats on a day when the King Fahd Cup Soccer Tournament had a five-match program. Both Ittihad and Ahli, playing in their second matches, failed to find the form that had made them the early favorites as their visit yesterday turned into a veritable nightmare.

Ittihad lost 2-0 against Al-Taie in Hail while Ahli lost 3-0 to Al-Wehda in Makkah. In other encounters, Al-Nasr and Al-Shabab continued in their winning ways with Nasr taking full points against Ittifaq of Dammam with a 1-0 win in a match played in Riyadh while Shabab traveled to Madinah and came away with maximum points with a 2-0 verdict against Al-Ohod. Al-Hilal, meanwhile, staged a fine rally to hold Al-Qadisiya in Dammam.

Ittihad, the team that was undefeated in last year’s edition of the tournament, were given a shock by a fast-paced Taie relishing the contest at home. Both the goals came in the first half. Though Ittihad played with a sustained offense, Taie, after racking up the early numbers, pulled down the shutters and played with a packed defense to deny Ittihad.

In Makkah, Ahli started badly and failed to find their feet against a Wehda side relying heavily on the counters.

All the goals came in a ten-minute second-half span ( 72nd, 77th and 82nd minutes) with the Ahli defense, especially Waleed Abdrabu, caught napping. Wehda collected three important points and are now in seventh position.

The best match of the day in Dammam between Hilal and Qadisiya. Qadisiya were gifted their first following an own goal by Hilal defender, Khaled Aziz, in the 5th minute. The first half ended 1-0 with both the teams showing flashes of brilliance.

Hilal scored the equalizer soon after the break in the 52nd minute through Hussein Al-Ali. But Qadisiya stormed ahead through goals by Abdullah Al-Tarqi in the 58th minute and Khaled Al-Salem in the 70th minute. But Hilal pulled one back in the 72nd minute following a Meshal Mori strike and just when Qadisiya thought they had wrapped it up, Hilal scored again in the 80th minute through Ahmad Al-Suwaileh for a 3-3 tie to stay third in the standings.

Nasr won the match against Ittifaq 1-0 on a 35th minute Ahmad Al-Ajmi goal and are now second with 6 points the same as Shabab, who are ahead on goal difference.