JEDDAH, 18 December 2004 — Bahrain issued a strong warning to their rivals with an emphatic 3-0 victory over Saudi Arabia and qualified for the semifinals as second in Group B yesterday in the 17th Gulf Cup Soccer Championship in Doha.
Needing to win to advance, Bahrain did just that behind a masterly performance that left the Kingdom’s dreams of “three-peat” in the region’s premier soccer event in tatters.
Kuwait finished on top of Group B with a 3-0 beating of Yemen in the day’s other match. Kuwait tallied seven points from wins against Saudi Arabia in the opener 2-1 and Yemen and a 1-1 draw against Bahrain.
Bahrain have five points from three matches that also saw them draw with Yemen 1-1.
Luck finally smiled on Bahrain after two disappointing draws.
The day simply belonged to Bahrain who outclassed the disorganized Saudi team.
At the start of yesterday’s game, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain played 14 head-to-head contests in the Gulf Cup. Saudi Arabia won seven times, Bahrain three and and the teams drew four times.
The Kingdom had two chances of qualifying either by drawing or winning. Sadly, they blew both marking the second time they failed to get past the group matches of a major international event after also getting eliminated in the Asian Cup in China last summer.
While Saudi Arabia failed to live up to expectations, Bahrain proved the tournament’s surprise package by conquering tall odds to move on in style.
In what bodes ill for Saudi Arabia they lost defender Zaid Al-Muwallad, who had to rush back home due to the death of his father. Naief Al-Ghadi also was sent home due to injury but Reda Tukar stayed on despite his injury.
Bahrain attacked from the beginning and were never really headed for the entire run of the 90-minute contest.
Saudi goalkeeper was first tested in the 12th minute when Talal Yousuf shot a strong ball from outside the penalty box that went inches above the top bar. The real chance of the first half for Bahrain came in the 15th minute from a corner kick that was headed back by Muhammad Salmeen to the unguarded Abdullah Al-Marzooqi who headed the ball and it hit the top bar missing a perfect chance to score.
The Bahraini goalkeeper, Ali Hussein, nearly let slip in a goal when the ball he cleared out came back near the goal mouth when Yasser Al-Qahtani blocked the ball.
Saudi Arabia played good defense in the first half and were had practically all spaces covered outside the penalty box.
Not to be outdone, the Bahrainis were quick coming down on defensen.
In the 32nd minute the Saudis missed a golden chance when Ibrahim Suwaieed made his move for a strike late allowing Hussein Baba, Bahrain defender, to snuff out the threat.
In the second half, Bahrain were under a lot of pressure to score because after 45 minutes they either qualify or exit the tournament. In the 61st minute and in a rare case, Muhammad Nur was given the red card for being booked twice in the tournament. The first time was against Kuwait.
Nur’s ejection was the turning point of the game. Bahrain added more pressure on Saudi team and were able to score the first goal in the 63rd minute through Abdullah Al-Marzooqi who scored a nice header on the right hand side of the goalie.
After the goal, Saudi Arabia seemed lost and disorganized, especially after Khamees Al-Owairan was substituted to introduce an attacker and that left a big gap in the line of defense. The second Bahraini goal came in the 78th minute from Salman Essa who received a nice cross behind Reda Tukar.
Then Bahrain rounded off their splendid performance when Talal Al-Yousuf scored on a free kick in the 90th minute, the ball rising over the wall of defenders and into the net.
Kuwait found no difficulty scoring three goals against Yemen who looked disinterested after Kuwait struck their first goal. The semifinal matches will be Oman against Bahrain and Kuwait against the hosts Qatar next Monday.
