Saudi Arabia qualified for the 2006 World Cup in Germany after topping the rank of Group A. This will be the fourth time the Kingdom has made it to football’s greatest tournament.
Saudi Arabia has joined a group with tough Asian opponent South Korea, Uzbekistan and Gulf rival Kuwait. The start was not promising for Saudi Arabia as it drew 1-1 against Uzbekistan in Tashkent on Feb. 9. Saudi Arabia stunned critics on March 25 when the national team secured a huge win against South Korea 2-0 in Dammam.
Saudi Arabia was going to top the group by the end of first round if the team had won against Kuwait in Kuwait, but the Saudi national team drew 0-0 to get only five points from two draws and one win, giving the lead to the South Korean team with six points.
Round two started with Saudi Arabia against Kuwait in Riyadh on June 3 at King Fahd International Stadium in front of more than 60,000 cheering Saudi fans. Saudi Arabia secured a huge win against Kuwait 3-0, scored by Sami Al-Jaber, Al-Shalhoub and Al-Harthi. With this huge win, Saudi Arabia needed only one point against Uzbekistan to officially qualify for the World Cup.
On June 8 at King Fahd International Stadium, the Saudis qualified officially after securing another huge win against the Uzbeks 3-0. At the same time, South Korea also qualified officially after winning against Kuwait to qualify early and with one match left in the group against South Korea.
Saudi Arabia played the last match against South Korea in Seoul. Despite the fact that the match was irrelevant for World Cup qualification, Saudi Arabia insisted to go to Germany with an undefeated record. Saudi Arabia’s header by Al-Anbar secured the only goal, making the Koreans taste an embarrassing defeat in front of their home crowd.
Many people thought that the Saudi team would not make it to World Cup after the poor performance in the Asian Cup in China and Gulf Cup in Qatar. But the naysayers were proven wrong. The good preparation by the Saudi Football Federation and its continued support created a perfect concordant team. Saudi Arabia hired the best locally based coach from Hilal Club, the Brazilian Marcos Paqueta. The coach will succeed former Argentine coach Gabriel Calderon, whose performance with the Saudi team was unsatisfactory after the embarrassing performance in West Asian Games in Qatar. Not convinced with his performance with neither the Saudi team nor his World Cup strategies, the Saudi team replaced Calderon with Paqueta.
Fahd Al-Musaibeeh, manager of the national team, said earlier that qualifying for the fourth time in a row is the best Arab achievement. What was achieved was with full support from the government and the Saudi Football Federation. He promised Saudi fans he would vindicate Saudi Arabia after sub-par performances in the three previous World Cup appearances.
