JEDDAH, 22 September 2006 — Saudi football got hit badly on Wednesday when two of its more popular clubs Al-Shabab and Al-Ittihad exited the AFC Champions League.
While Shabab faced the near impossible task of springing a comeback against Korea’s Ulsan Horang-i in the 2nd leg match in Riyadh after putting themselves in a 6-0 hole in South Korea, the biggest shock came when two-time defending champions Ittihad were eliminated by Al-Karama of Syria in Syria.
After winning 2-0 in Jeddah Ittihad suffered an embarrassing 4-0 defeat against the AFC Champions League newcomers. Many fans and sport critics can’t believe their eyes asking what went wrong? They never imagined that both Saudi teams would make an early exit from the competition.
Ittihad fans put the blame on players for losing the match against the inexperienced Syrian side. Suleiman Abu Hadi, Ittihadi fan, said, “This is the price we pay for not respecting the opposing team. We all remember Argentina the defending World Cup champion in 1990 against Cameroon and how they lost against the Cameroonians in the opening match because they thought since they were the champions it would be an easy match. Same thing with Ittihad here; we all said that it will be a small visit to Syria and we started to think about the semifinals. Players should be held accountable for this embarrassing defeat.”
“In situations like this, I think the president for Ittihad club should resign,” said Hassan Al-Ghamdi. He blames Ittihad club president for not being with the team in this very important match. He said that the president of Ittihad club has nothing else to bring to Ittihad and that it was time that he leaves the presidency of Ittihad club.
Abdullah Al-Mutairi, a Hilali fan, said that the Saudi Youth Welfare Presidency should hold both teams accountable for the poor performance they showed in Asia’s premier club competition. He said, “They represented Saudi Arabia and they failed miserably. There was no honor in the defeat 6-0 against the Korean team in Korea or 4-0 against the Syrian team in Syria after Ittihad was up 2-0 in first leg match. This is the reputation of the Saudi football and those that cannot be responsible to protect this reputation should either step down or be held responsible by Saudi officials.”
Saudi sport critic at ART Channel, Madani Rahimi, said that the coach is responsible for the defeat against Al-Karama because he fielded players that were not ready for the match like Abdullah Al-Waked and Al-Sagri who just came from injury. Ittihad looked ordinary against Al-Karama and did not play like the defending champions that they are.
