JEDDAH, 25 February 2006 — Three matches were played yesterday in the 19th round of the Saudi soccer league. In Jeddah Ittihad found no difficulty eliminating an already weakened Al- Qadisiya 2-0 in a one sided match at Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Stadium. Muhammad Nur scored on a very nice header in the 24th minute of the first half. Tago converted Ittihad’s second goal from a rebound of Kalon’s shot in the 54th minute.
With the victory worth theee points, Ittihad jumped to third place with 29 points and in the process pushed idle Al-Ahli down to fourth with 28 points. Qadisiya are in the 10th place with 16 points.
In Al-Rass, Hazem defeated Al-Ansar 2-0 and Al-Shabab defeated Taie also by 2-0 in Riyadh. Shabab strengthened their position in the first rank with 41 points. Taie are ninth with 18 points, Hazem fifth with 26 and Ansar last with 9 points.
The rest of the schedule has put Ahli in a difficult situation especially after the 3-2 defeat by Hilal on Thursday.
Ittihad with four games in hand are likely to jump to second position with a sweep of their remaining matches, a tall order indeed since they will be facing tough teams Shabab and Hilal and playing two games against great rival Ahli.
On Tuesday, Ittihad will host Shabab in an explosive match in Jeddah. An Ittihad win would favor Hilal who are hoping Shabab lose to at least equalize on points.
