JEDDAH, 24 December 2004 — Oman and Qatar will both be seeking a piece of Gulf Cup history when they clash today in the final of the 17th edition of the premier soccer event in the region.
Kickoff will be at 7:30 p.m. (Saudi time) and expectedly a battle royal looms between two teams that have played the best soccer in the tournament in Doha.
Although Qatar won over Oman, 2-1, in their group match the final is an entirely different ball game with a lot of factors, among them, luck, mental toughness and physical conditioning coming into play.
Oman have never won since the tournament was incepted in 1970 but victory in Doha would validate their status as the new rising star in the region.
The host team, on the other hand, are looking to duplicate the spirit of 1992 when they hosted and won the cup as well.
Only four countries in the history of the Gulf Cup have won the championship. Kuwait lead the race with nine titles thus far. Saudi Arabia and Iraq each have three and Qatar one.
While Qatar enjoy the support of the crowd Oman are on the top of their game and motivated no less by their impressive 3-2 semifinal victory against Bahrain, who beat Kuwait 3-1 in the knockout battle for third place yesterday.
Qatar reached the final after beating Kuwait 2-0 in the crossover semifinal where they qualified second in Group A after that win against Oman 2-1 and draws against UAE 2-2 and Iraq 3-3. Qatar.
Oman is widely considered the strongest side, a fact they underlined when they qualified first in Group A with wins against Iraq 3-1 and United Arab Emirates 2-1. The defeat by Qatar was the only blemish in their otherwise immaculate record.
Qatar lead their head-to-head matches with 12 victories against three for Oman.
Against this backdrop Oman are expected to try and win their first ever Gulf Cup title. Oman will be relying heavily on their strikers Emad Sulaiman and Badr Maymani.
Qatar are pinning their hopes on striker Sayed Ali Basheer. If Qatar were to stop Oman, they will have to solve the problem that is Oman’s 1-2 scoring punch. The game for third place was mainly dominated by Bahrain who scored goals in the 31st minute on an own goal by Musaied Nada, in the 57th by Ala Hubail and in the 90th by Naser Duaiej. Kuwait scored their lone goal in the 34th minute by Saqr Khudair.
