JEDDAH, 8 May 2007 — Four teams are locked in relegation battle with one round left to the end of the regular season of the Saudi football league and the best four teams to dispute the King’s Cup in a stepladder competition already determined.
Al-Hazem, Al-Qadisiya, Al-Faisali and Al-Khaleej are competing to escape from the last two positions and avoid being relegated to the first division. Tomorrow, the identity of the two teams to drop to the first division will be known as Qadisiya meet Hazem, Khaleej face Al-Ahli and Faisali battle Al-Ittihad. Each of the four teams wishes to secure the game three points and hope that the other teams would either draw or lose.
Al-Hilal are the top seeded team in the final four and they play in the final match against the winner of the stepladder matches between Shabab, Wehda and Ittihad.
With one round still to be played, Hilal are on top of the team standings with 53 points, Ittihad second with 45 points, Shabab and Wehda are in third and fourth position with 44 points each but Wehda took fourth place on goal difference. Ahli are fifth with 28 points, Ittifaq sixth 25 points, Nasr seventh 21 points, Taie and Hazem eighth and ninth positions with 20 points each. Qadisiya are 10th with 19 points, Al-Faisali eleventh 18 points and Khaleej are 12th and last with 17 points.
Hilal will finish the regular season in first place no matter the result of the last round. It is likely that Ittihad will secure the second position after playing an easy match against lowly Al-Faisali in Jeddah. Al-Faisali will try to secure the game three points to escape from the 11th position. Ittihad are expected to go all out for a win if only not to lose the chance to secure the second position and avoid losing points because Wehda are looking forward to advance if Ittihad lose the match. Wehda have one match against Nasr in Makkah. If Wehda secure the game three points then Wehda will advance to the third position and have the advantage to play the first stepladder match in Makkah. A combination of an Ittihad defeat and Wehda victory would give Wehda the second position.
Meantime, 369 goals were scored in the Saudi league so far. Ittihad’s attacking line is considered the strongest with 47 goals followed by Shabab with 45. The strongest defense line is Hilal’s with only 15 goals scored against the team. The weakest is Khaleej’s with 39 goals scored against the team. Hilal are the first team with the highest number of wins with 17 followed by Ittihad with 14. Al-Khaleej and Al-Faisali are the teams with the least victories at only 4 each.
