JEDDAH, 14 May 2005 — Al-Hilal won the Crown Prince Cup for the fifth time in their fabled history beating Al-Qadisiya 2-1 in the final yesterday before a near capacity crowd of 55,000 at the King Fahd International Stadium in Riyadh.
Experience spelled the difference in the contest as Hilal practically had their way in getting the number of a gallant Qadisiya side.
Crown Prince Abdullah attended the final match and handed out the prizes during the awards ceremony.
After an early strike by Jose Sosa in the 18th minute gave the Alkhobar-based Qadisiya momentum in the match the home team refused to be rattled and responded with two beautifully executed goals.
The victory gave Hilal their second major championship in the 2005 season after having won the Prince Faisal ibn Fahd Cup against Al-Ittifaq.
Qadisiya, playing in the final of the competition for the first time since winning the title against Al-Shabab in 1992, put up a spirited fight against Hilal all evening.
But a critical goal by Muhammad Anbar in the 82nd minute after Hilal had equalized via a 34th minute strike by Muhammad Al-Shalhoub took the wind out of Qadisiya sails. Qadisiya nearly went ahead in the 2nd minute when Yasser Al-Qahtani engineered a corner kick that passed dangerously in front of the Hilal goal in an early warning to the Hilal team.
In the 8th minute star of the match Al-Shalhoub made a fine solo effort, took the ball inside the penalty box past Qadisiya defenders and slammed a shot just over the top bar. Omar Al-Ghamdi’s nice shot two minutes later had Qadisiya scrambling but the shot was cleared by the goalie.
Sami Al-Jaber’s attempt in the 13th minute from inside the penalty box hit the side bar missing another chance for Hilal.
The blue and white sea of Hilal fans were silenced when Sosa’s powerful long-range shot found the net for what proved to be Qadisiya’s first and only goal. Hilal, with many years of championship experience under their belt, pushed forward with all their might in search of the equalizer that thankfully came 16 minutes later when Al-Shalhoub found the time and space to hit home from the top of the penalty box.
In the second half, Hilal were more dangerous with Al-Shalhoub and captain Sami Al-Jaber gaving Qadisiya defenders a lot of headache. Al-Anbar nearly scored for Hilal in the 70th minute when he received a nice cross inside the box but his shot went wide.
But in the the 82nd minute Al-Anbar was not to be denied as he lunged at and headed in a nice cross by Ahmad Al-Dokhi sending Hilal fans into a frenzy. To compound Qadisiya’s woes Abdu Hakami was red carded by the Italian referee for hard tackle. Al-Qahtani was also ejected after being shown his second yellow card.
