JEDDAH, 7 March 2007 — Archrivals Al-Ahli and Al-Ittihad do battle at Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Stadium indoor hall here in the third week of preliminaries in the Saudi Water Polo League today. Safa meet Al-Qadisiya in the only other match.
Matches will also take place tomorrow and Friday to round out the week. Qadisiya play Ittihad and Ahli face Safa tomorrow, while Friday’s program sends Ahli against Qadisiya and Ittihad against Safa.
Ittihad dominated the first week but Ahli struck back to rule the second last weekend.
Ahli are looking to repeat their domination for the second straight week.
Organizers are inviting water polo fans to attend the matches. Admission is free of charge.
The Ittihad team received added morale boost with the announcement from the management that they would get a monthly allowance of SR1,000 starting from this month in addition to the SR5,000 bonus earlier promised them.
“They were under a bit of pressure last week, but hopefully this week things would be changed and they would be more enthusiastic with the promise of the financial reward,” said Ittihad team manager Majid Al-Malki.
Ittihad players were each promised a financial reward of SR 5, 000 for winning Al-Nokhbah Water Polo league two years ago, but until now they did not receive anything. They threatened not to play last weekend and only relented when the management promised them they would get the bonus money now in addition to the monthly allowances.
To add to Ittihad’s woes Adel Al-Malki broke his nose during the match with Qadisiya in the second round.
The doctor ordered at least 10 days’ rest for Al-Malki. Ittihad, however, remained confident of scoring the highest points this weekend mainly because of the presence of two professional players Denis from Ukraine and Dijan Pupovas from Crotia.
Ahli team manager Majid Ba Muflih is also optimistic about their chances of victory as their second import from Ukraine, Zadseif Genadi, has arrived and will play alongside Georgian Galktion Letadez. They already have one of the best Saudi players in Khalid Al-Harbi.
Tariq Al-Ahmed expects Qadisiya to perform better this week with the expected arrival from Bahrain of their second foreign player in time for the match tomorrow.
Meantime, Al-Ahmed blasted the erratic officiating of incompetent referees, citing two goals that were not counted but deemed good by the rest of the referees who worked the match against Ahli.
“Anyhow what matters is the final and we hope by that time things will get better,” he said.
In second round results last weekend, Ahli beat Ittihad 9-6, Safa 17-7 and Qadisiya 12-1, while Ittihad outplayed Qadisiya 11-7 and crushed Safa 18-1. Qadisiya’s lone win win was against Safa 25-3.
