JEDDAH: One down three to go. Saudi Arabia continues its uphill battle for a spot in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa when it plays UAE today at King Fahd International Stadium in Riyadh.
The Saudi national team enters the Asian World Cup qualifying match fresh off a morale-boosting 2-1 victory over Iran in Tehran on Saturday. Given a lifeline, the Saudi team’s situation remains one match at a time as far as qualifying straight from its group is concerned.
The win enabled the Kingdom to take over third place from Iran on 7 points in the team standings in Group B. Iran dropped to fourth on 6 points and UAE fifth and last on 1 point.
North Korea leads Group B on 10 points and South Korea second on 8 points, from four matches.
After the UAE match Saudi Arabia’s fate will be decided with predictably tough matches against the two Koreas.
For now though the Saudis are keeping focused in their match against UAE.
Saudi national team coach, Portuguese Jose Peseiro, said that the match against UAE is as equally important as the Iran match. He said the players will face a difficult mission and they must win this match to prove themselves.
After the training session on Monday night, Peseiro said, “I have great confidence in my players and their capability to achieve the win against UAE.
Each game has its own situation and pressure and it is natural that we will work hard to relieve players from this pressure.”
Of Iran match, Peseiro said he was happy with the performance and that the players did what they were told to do. Peseiro said that the team made some mistakes but he will make sure that against UAE their goal will be shut from opposing players.
He said that the absence of Yaser Al-Qahtani would not affect the team, after the Al-Hilal striker reported late for training.
In a politically-charged match, South Korea and North Korea face off in Seoul today.
A South Korean victory would result in a switch of places between the two rivals, with Saudi Arabia equalling North Korea on 10 points if it won against UAE although North Korea has the edge in goal difference. In this case, Saudi Arabia needs to score as many goals as possible to beat NK’s advantage.
If the two Koreas tied and the Saudis won Saudi Arabia moves up to second place with 10 points and South Korea drops to third with 8 points. If Saudi Arabia tied or lost against UAE, Iran benefits and bounces back into the qualifying picture.
