JEDDAH, 16 August 2005 — Soccer throbbed back to life on Sunday in the Kingdom after two months’ break with marquee team Al-Ittihad opening their Prince Faisal Cup campaign on the wrong foot when they went down in a shock 3-1 defeat by upstart Abha.
The match was played in Abha and the visitors paid the price for taking their hosts lightly as they never recovered from a 3-0 hole in a lifeless display.
Three other matches were played across the Kindom.
At the Prince Faisal ibn Fahd stadium in Riyadh, Al-Hilal secured a difficult 2-1 win against Al-Ansar of Madinah.
Hilal were first to score on a Mazin Al-Faraj’s goal in the 28th minute. Al-Ansar equalized in the 39th minute on a penalty kick by Deya Haroon. Al-Suwaileh of Hilal scored the winning goal five minutes before the end of the match giving Hilal their first three points in the tournament.
At Prince Muhammad ibn Fahd stadium in Dammam, the match between Al-Qadisiya and Al-Nasr ended in a 0-0 draw. In Makkah, Al-Wehda and Al-Ittifaq shared the points in another 1-1 draw. Ittifaq were first to score in the 45th minute through Saleh Basheer, while Adriano booted in Wehda’s goal in the 75th minute.
Abha were eager to make a good impression on their debut in the big leagues and they did just that by scoring the first three goals of the match — a penalty kick by Naser Al Qahtani in the 17th minute and a double by Muhammad Al-Amri (57th and 73rd minute).
An injury time goal by Khaled Al-Shamrani saved Ittihad from total humiliation.
