JEDDAH, 12 December 2004 — Saudi Arabia, who had the majority of the share of exchanges, lost a perfect chance in opening their Group B campaign in the 17th Gulf Cup in Qatar when they lost 2-1 to Kuwait. Earlier, Bahrain and Yemen tied 1-1 in the other group match of the day.

The Kingdom, who also wasted a penalty, took an early lead in the match against Kuwait but were swamped by the late Kuwaiti rally.

In a match that was riddled with robust tackle both the teams were reduced to ten men, but it was Saudi Arabia, who had to play for the larger part of the match at reduced strength.

Saudi Arabia went ahead in the 13th minute when Saud Kariri essayed a perfect pass to the unguarded Yasser Al-Qahtani in front of Kuwaiti goalie. Yasser just tapped in with the goalie out of position.

The Saudis almost increased the lead in the 20th minute when they were awarded a penalty kick for hard tackle inside the penalty box against Ibraheem Suwaieed. Muhammad Al-Shalhoub stepped up to take the shot and despairingly saw the ball bounce out after thudding the crossbar.

To add to Saudi Arabia’s woes, first they had to replace defender Naif Al-Ghadi following injury, which left a gaping gap in the defense line. And just when the half was coming to a close, Saudi midfielder Muhammad Nur was shown the red card for a hard tackle against Bashar Abdullah.

Kuwait came on hard in the second half in search of the equalizer. But their overzealousness saw them lose Khaled Al-Shammari in the 63rd minute when he was awarded a red card for a hard tackle against Al-Qahtani.

But Kuwait did not have to wait for the equalizer long for in the 75th minute they drew level from a free kick executed by Musaed Nada. The ball deflected after it hit Ahmad Al-Dokhi’s hand and lodged into the Saudi net.

Al-Qahtani lost a perfect chance in front of the goal in the 79th minute to put Saudi Arabia ahead again. With the goal staring at him he managed to shoot the ball over the top bar.

Then against the run of play, Saudi Arabia were stunned in the 88th minute with a striking Kuwaiti winner. A dipping pass from Musaed Nada was met by Badr Al-Mutawa, after beating Saudi defender Reda Tukar. Mutawa lobbed the ball over a scrambling Saudi goalkeeper Muhammad Al-Daie, whose vain attempts to ward off the threat came to a naught.

Earlier, Yemen stunned the Bahraini team with a 1-1 draw. Bahrain in the 40th minute through Talal Hussein and Yemen equalized in the 47th minute of the second half from a nice free kick outside the penalty box.

Ittihad Hire New Coach

Meanwhile, AFC Club champions Al-Ittihad will have a new coach. Ittihad President Mansour Al-Balawi signed a contract in Beirut with Belgian Loca as the club’s new coach.

Loca replaces Croatian coach Tomislav Ivic, who was sacked after the club’s disappointing 3-1 loss to Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma of South Korea in the first leg of the AFC Champions League final played here last month.

The new Ittihad coach is expected to arrive here next Tuesday. Loca had coached Al-Ahli club two years ago. Loca had done an excellent job during his tenure with Ahli.

In another development, Ittihad suffered a shock 2-1 defeat at the hands of Al-Riyadh in the Prince Faisal ibn Fahd Under-23 event at Prince Faisal ibn Fahd Stadium in Riyadh. The result knocked Ittihad out of the competition with Al-Nasr and Riyadh vying for honors in Group B.