JEDDAH, 1 May 2005 — An own goal against Al-Hilal in the extra session shattered Al-Ittihad’s dream of making it to the Crown Prince Cup Soccer final at the Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Stadium here.
After the teams drew 1-1 in aggregate till the regulation period, with Ittihad, who lost the first match in Riyadh 1-0 with a goal from Ahmad Al-Suwaileh, pushing the match into extra time with their regulation 1-0 win in the second leg. But for all their attacking display, one defensive lapse by Ittihad let in a goal and Hilal ran away 2-1 victors overall.
Ittihad were better organized in the return leg after a poor display in the first outing. They came on strongly in the first half and tested Hilal’s goalie in the very first minute with Muhammad Nur extending him to the hilt with a booming shot from outside the penalty box. Ittihad’s only goal of the match came in the seventh minute following a nice free kick effort from Manaf Abu Shgeer from inside the penalty box. The curving ball, looped over the crowded defense and was met by Hamad Al-Muntashiri in the air. Hamad redirected the ball superbly to put the match on even keel.
With the pressure to score a goal that would keep them in the fray eased, Ittihad pushed forward while taking advantage of the lack of coordinated Hilal defense. Ittihad relied heavily on their two wings Ibraheem Suwaied on the left and Manaf Abu Shgeer on the right, and they nearly scored their second in the 18th minute following a nice center from Manaf to Nur, whose weak effort was cleared by Hilal defenders. The first half was dominated by Ittihad with some incisive counter raids from Hilal, who were relying heavily on striker Sami Al-Jaber.
Hilal came in with a different plan in the second half and were the better organized of the two teams. Paulo De Silva of Hilal, in the 53rd minute, tested Ittihad goalie Mabrook Zaiyed with a stinging effort. In the 81st minute, Manaf shot from outside the penalty box just went inches wide from the post as Ittihad continued to threaten without any result.
Ironically it was Hilal who nearly put an end to the match during regulation when Muhammad Al-Shalhoub’s cross in front of the goalkeeper was collected neatly by Camacho in the 87th minute. But Mabrook was at hand to block his shot.
In extra time, the most dangerous move came from Muhammad Amin in the 97th minute. Amin received a nice through ball and let fly a first-timer. But his shot hit the left post that left Ittihad and its fans gasping.
Then in the 118th minute, Hilal were handed the match by Ittihad defender when Saleh Al-Sagri scored an own goal. With little time left, Ittihad’s desperate attempts to score the equalizer failed sending them out of the competition and Hilal into the final against Al-Qadisiya.
