JEDDAH, 17 January 2007 — After the passing of two Hijri years, the Gulf Cup is back and Saudi Arabia, together with the rest of the Gulf countries, is looking forward to competing in the tournament beginning today and continue until the end of the month in Abu Dhabi.
The Gulf Cup has started to grow bigger. Yemen has been participating in the last two previous cups. Participating countries are playing football against each other and other sports including basketball, volleyball and handball. Countries participating in the tournament include Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and the Emirates. A Saudi handball team is also participating in the tournament for the first time ever.
The handball team participated previously in the Asian Games when they won three out of their seven matches against the UAE (33-29), Japan (26-25) and Uzbekistan (51-23). The team lost against Syria (34-25), Iran (28-19), Bahrain (32-31) and Qatar (10-0). The Saudi loss against Qatar was due to a misunderstanding as both teams showed up wearing white and the Saudi team failed to change and return within the scheduled 15 minutes.
According to Handball Team Manager Col. Talal Hashim, a 15 day training camp before the 15th Asian Games and the recent 13 days spent by the team in Cairo has prepared the group to be ready and fit to compete. “The team that works harder will eventually gain the title,” he said while speaking to Arab News from Cairo.
The squad list has not yet been approved and 20 players still have to undergo the training camps. These are Manaf Al Saeed, Bander Al-Harbi, Faisal Al-Falati, Hussain Al Ikhwan, Ahmed Al-Anbawi and Hassan Al-Jadaani from (Al-Ahli); Mohammed Al Salem, Nabil Al-Abidi, Mustafa Al Habeeb, Riyadh Al-Hijji, Qusai Al Saeed, Sultan Al-Abidi and Fathi Al-Khudaimi (Al-Noor); Yassir Shakhour and Ali Al-Sihati (Al-Khaleej); Abdullah Al-Ali and Abdullah Al-Doussari (Al-Qadeseyah); Turki Baidi (Al-Wehdah) and Hassan Al-Janbi (Mudar).
“We played five friendly matches against various Egyptian teams and thank God we won four and only lost one,” he said, adding, “Participating in this Gulf Cup means a lot to us, especially as a gulf country. Whether we win or loose we are happy to just participate. However, we are looking forward to succeeding.”
In addition, due to the popularity of football in the gulf, Arab News ran an online poll asking who would be the football champion in the Gulf Cup.
Out of 1,247 voters, 62.6 percent felt Saudi Arabia would come first, followed by 9.4 percent saying Iraq, 9.2 percent saying Qatar, 6.4 percent saying the UAE, 3.3 percent saying Yemen, followed by Bahrain and finally Oman and Kuwait joint with 2.8 percent of voters supporting them.
The expectations of Saudi getting first place did not only come from online readers but also football fans in the Kingdom have high expectations that their national team will now deliver some surprises. Many people believe the reason behind this is the fact that Saudi Arabia did not participate in the Asian Games in order to save up their energy for the Gulf Cup.
“They represent our country and whenever our national team is playing we have to wish them the best of luck,” said Madani Rahimi, a sports commenter at ART channel. Though they may face some difficulties, he added, they need to work hard and aim for the top to secure their position in Asia.
From Abu Dhabi, National Football Team Manager Fahad Al-Misaibeih told Arab News, “Our football team is ready and hopefully looking forward to add another victory to their records.”
He added that the absence of a few players like Mohammed Noor and Nawwaf Al-Timyat would not shake the team’s confidence because they are all prepared and willing to give their best. “No matter what the coach decides for the squad list he is for sure doing the right decision because he knows better,” he said.
Prince Sultan ibn Fahd, the president of both the Youth Welfare and the Saudi Football Federation, is head of a Saudi delegation that includes 61 media representatives. Joining them also is Khalid Al-Husain, supervisor at the Saudi delegation in Abu Dhabi and general director of administration of Media and Publishing at Youth Welfare.
Because having fans from your own nation makes a big difference in lifting up a teams’ spirits, the Saudi team has now been joined by 40 Saudi football fans wearing green. The fans are traveling to Abu Dhabi and have been given free tickets and accommodation from Mobily who is the official sponsor of the Saudi national team.
The team, who flew on Sunday to Abu Dhabi, included the technical committee; the national team coach Marcos Paqueta, his assistants Nassir Al-Jouhar and Marsello Kappo, goalkeeper coach Fangir Santos and translator Foaad Mughamir. The squad who were chosen include Tayseer Al-Natif, Yassir Al-Missileim, Mohammed Khoja, Majid Al-Amri, Naif Al-Ghadi, Mohammed Ameen, Mohammed Musaad, Hussain Abdulghani, Soud Kariri, Abduh Atif, Omar Al-ghamdi, Yassir Al-Qahtani, Yousif Al-Salem, Bader Al-Higbani, Abdulrahman Al-Qahtani, Usamah Hawasawi, Mohammed Al-Shalhoub, Hamad Al-Muntashiri, Hassan Muath, Malik Muath, Kamil Al-Mussa, Saleh Al-Sagri, Khalid Aziz, Saad Al-Harthi, Tayseer Al-Jasim and Salih Bashir.
