JEDDAH, 8 July 2005 — Saudi Arabia have not missed the past three stagings of the World Cup having been qualified in 1994, 1998 and 2002. Next summer, the Kingdom will mark their fourth World Cup participation in Germany.
Will they leave a mark in the 2006 edition of the world’s greatest sporting event after the Olympics or lag behind the rest of the soccer elite?
Save for USA ’94 and despite the millions of riyals spent not much progress has been made as far as Saudi Arabia’s record in the World Cup is concerned. It’s not that Saudi Arabia lack the material or talent or the determination to put themselves at par with the world’s best. It’s just that there’s still the missing piece in the puzzle.
For a country where football is a national passion, success or failure in the World Cup is always an issue. And almost to a man success is what is demanded of from the national team ever since they first earn recognition in the region by winning the Asian Cup in 1984. The success continued in 1988 in Doha Qatar and 1996 in UAE. Saudi Arabia reached the final against the Japanese team in 1992 in Japan and 2000 in Lebanon and lost both matches by 1-0 against Japan.
If the World Cup finals were to be held now, Saudi Arabia should be in fine fettle going by the top form they displayed in the 3-0 thrashing of Uzbekistan during the return leg of the Asian qualifiers less than a month ago at the King Fahd International Stadium in Riyadh.
That victory sealed the Kingdom’s spot in the 2006 finals from Group A along with South Korea.
With 11 points at the top of the group, the Kingdom clash with Korea, with 10 points, in a non-bearing but prestige-laden match in Seoul on Aug. 17.
Saudi Arabia’s World Cup finals debut in 1994 was the best performance by any Saudi side. They got there with a 4-3 victory over Iran at the Asian qualifying in Qatar. The Saudi team stunned the world with their performance in a 2-1 loss against Holland in Group F, and won the next two matches against Morocco 2-1 and against Belgium 1-0 to qualify for the next round. The Saudis lost the match against Sweden 3-1 and were eliminated, but their reaching the second round was enough to earn the respect of the soccer establishment.
The Saudis were also made to earn their spot in the World Cup 1998 in France. They had to win a difficult deciding match against Qatar in Qatar by 1-0 on a remarkable goal by Ibrahim Al-Suwaid to qualify for the second time. Sadly, the performance in France was not satisfactory as the Saudis lost the opening match against Denmark 1-0 in Group C and against the champions France 4-0 and bowed out with 1 point after a draw against South Africa 2-2 on penalty goals by Sami Al-Jaber and Yousif Al-Thunayan.
And the Kingdom’s record in the World Cup dipped to a new low in the 2002 Korea-Japan when the Saudi side suffered three consecutive defeats including the embarrassing 8-0 rout by Germany in Group E. The other losses were against Cameroon 1-0 and Ireland 3-0.
The Kingdom’s qualification in Germany 2006 was most welcome, and everyone interviewed by Arab News commented positively as to how the national team would likely perform in next summer’s tournament.
Ahmad Ghamrawi, a middle-aged football fan, said: “For sure in the next World Cup the Saudi team will avoid the mistakes done in previous tournaments. They have proved that they are the best team in Asia when they qualified along with three others with a match in hand.”
Mayada Zuhair, Saudi female fan, said, “This year the Saudi team seemed better organized and with great understanding between them. I believe the Saudi team participation in next World Cup will be different and better then the performance in World Cup 94.”
“If the Saudi team reached the pre quarterfinals in World Cup in Germany, then that will make it easier for our team to advance to the quarterfinals. I am very optimistic that they could do better because we have a young team with the heart and energy to defend the Saudi team reputation,” Hassan Sameer, a lawyer, said. He added: “The Saudi team should not feel overconfident and show every team the respect because all teams that qualified to World Cup are strong.”
Saudi fans’ expectations this time are higher than the years past. Adnan Jastania, Al-Ittihad Club media officer told Arab News: “After the team that participated at the 1994 Word Cup, I believe this year’s team will be equal or will even give a better performance. It seems like our players are learning from the previous mistakes and are trying to avoid them.”
Abdullah Al-Athel, financial president of Youth Fair and board member of the Saudi Football National Team Committee said: “The Saudi team qualifying four consecutive times are not happening by chance. This shows that the efforts being made by the Saudi government, soccer federation management and the players.” He said the Saudi team participation in World Cup 2006 will be different than the previous ones. “The Saudi team will uphold the fine image of the country with a performance worthy of being Asia’s best.”
“Saudi players still have time to work harder on their performance. We have to show to the world that what happened in our last three participation was an unfair image of our team’s performance” said Abdulaziz Al-Doussari, Al-Ittifaq club’s president. Al-Doussari suggested that the Saudi team must play strong and friendly matches with international teams. He also concluded that the idea of camping and resting for a long period of time will cause boredom to the players and affect their performance later on.
Architect Samir Zahir praised Prince Sultan ibn Fahd, president of the Saudi Youth Welfare, and the Football Team Committee for the trust and encouragement they give to the members of the national team. Zahir concluded by also praising Argentinian coach Gabriel Calderon. With great effort Zahir believes that Calderon will be able to steer the Saudi team to great heights during the World Cup 2006.
