JEDDAH, 21 December 2004 — Saudi Arabia’s first round exit in the 17th Gulf Cup Championship drew strong rebuke from the fans who felt they had been let down yet again by their beloved green and white in the international arena.
Arab News conducted a random interview of fans who all offered a variety of reasons, some unflattering, for the Doha debacle.
Forget about the weak performance in the first match and the confluence of events leading up to the crucial tie against Bahrain, among them the injury to Naif Al-Ghamdi and the death of the father of Zaid Al-Muwallad.
What these die-hards apparently can’t take was the manner in which the national team lost against Bahrain. The championship is already out of question, but not getting past the group matches is what irritates them who had hoped for at least a top four finish by the team.
Saud Al-Dossari, a 35-year-old teacher in Jeddah, said: “Losing against Bahrain 3-0 is a disaster by itself. Our players surrendered the match after Muhammad Nur was given the red card. Our players were struggling to stand on the field because they were out of shape. I do not want to put the blame on the coach, but he is part of the responsibility because the whole match against Bahrain he was playing with only one striker. I think we deserved to lose the match because with the way we played I did not think that we will do something in the semifinal”.
Businessman Faisal Muhammad said: “This should be a wake-up call for the Saudi Football Federation top brass to identify the mistakes and solve them before the important matches in the qualifying matches of World Cup competition. This disaster is great and I call it disaster because this is not the Saudi team that was one of the best teams in the Asian continent in the past. I was watching players without character playing on the field. All these players should get punished for their recklessness and the damage done to the image of the Saudi national team”.
Ali Hassan, a Saudi teenaged fan, said: “I put the whole blame on Muhammad Nur because he was the reason behind the loss against Bahrain. I cannot understand how could a professional player get two red cards in two matches? He was the reason why Saudi Arabia lost 6 points against Kuwait and Bahrain. He should have known that after he got the first yellow card to play more carefully, instead he continued to play aggressively until he was given the second yellow card and then the red card. Such player should not wear the Saudi national team jersey again. I wish I can ask the question, what is Muhammad Al-Daei doing as a goalkeeper? I thought he retired from international play after the embarrassing 8-0 loss against Germany 8-0? Aren’t there enough goalkeepers in the Kingdom?”
