JEDDAH, 10 February 2007 — Al-Ahli coach Nebusha dared Ahli fans its trophy or his head. Obviously, Nebusha got to stay as coach, at least until the foreseeable future, after Ahli won the Prince Faisal Cup last night with an almost clinical 3-0 victory over Al-Ittihad at the Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Stadium here.
The victory ended the Ahli jinx against Ittihad in final matches and more importantly gave Ahli the confidence they needed for the upcoming match in the Arab Champions League on Tuesday.
Also, Ahli ended their two-year wait for a major by winning the first trophy of the season in style.
Prince Nawaf ibn Faisal, vice president of Saudi Soccer Federation, presented the trophy and gold medals to Ahli after the match during the awards ceremony.
In spectacular night more than 25,000 fans came as early as 4 p.m. and filled every square inch of the stadium to witness this historic final between the two Jeddah rivals.
The stadium was packed and the excitement among fans built up two hours before the game started.
Luck did play against Ittihad in this final match as the team lost the services of many of their key players either due to injury or suspension. Ittihad played under a lot of pressure in the second half as two of their players, Mustapha Malaieka the goalkeeper and midfielder Manaf Abu Shgeer, were red carded. Despite that Ittihad soldiered on, played to the last minute of the match two men down and showed excellent performance.
Ittihad largely dominated the first half even though Ahli took a 1-0 lead. The Ittihad attacks with a few exception were ineffective due to Ahli’s strong defense line marshaled by Ahli captain Khaled Badra.
Malek Muaz threatened the Ittihad goalkeeper right in the second minute from a nice shot from outside the penalty box that went over the top bar. This was a message for the defenders to wake up. The strike came good one minute later when Muaz again received a nice ball and fired a rocket shot from outside the penalty box Ahli’s first goal. The goalkeeper only tried but failed to block the ball that went to the right hand side of the goalie.
No challenges against strikers were mounted and it an open season from the first minute. Muaz struck Al-Muntasheri from the first minute and sent another message that more are coming and the defenders had better shape up to stop him. Ahli drew back to the defense line taking advantage of the shortage in manpower of Ittihad and drawing the enemy out for fast counter attacks.
On the other side of the field there was another sidelight between Ittihad striker Al-Hassan Keta and Ahli defender Khaled Badra. Badra held Keta in check and manage to limit his scoring threats to the minimum in the first half.
Facing a tough defense line that could not be penetrated by Ittihad strikers, Ittihad relied on strong shots from outside the penalty box. Fangar shot a nice ball in the 16th minute but was cleared by Ahli goalkeeper. Saud Kariri shot a nice ball inside the penalty box but was covered by Ahli goalie missing a perfect chance to score an equalizer. Karir came again in the 23rd minute and from a shot outside the penalty box nearly scored for Ittihad but went dangerously wide on the right hand side of the goalie.
The most dangerous attempt came from Adnan Falatta in the 24th minute when he took the ball inside the penalty box but his shot went over the top. Manaf tried from his side to score from a strong shot in the 29th minute but was blocked by the goalie.
The second half was different. Ittihad introduced Hamza Idrees who has a fine record in scoring against Ahli in the final match. He was ineffective as Ahli ably put him under control.
Ittihad received a string hit when the goalkeeper was red carded due to touching a ball outside the penalty box. This upset Manaf who already had a yellow card and with his continuous argument against the Spanish referee, the referee had no choice but to give him the yellow and the red in the 61st. This was a big blow and the Ittihad coach had to take one player out to make way for a goalkeeper. This created a confusion in Ittihad lines and weakened the resolve of the players.
In the 68th minute Ahli scored the second goal courtesy of Kaio from a ball that was deflected by the goalkeeper and ricocheted back to Kaio who put the ball in the back of the net.
Ittihad pressed forward in search of a goal and a chance to come back in the game. Fanger shot a nice ball in the 71st minute but was nicely blocked by the goalkeeper. The mercy bullet came in the 78th minute when Saheb Al-Abdullah was tackled inside the penalty box. The referee awarded Ahli a penalty kick. Badra came forward and slammed the ball in the back of the net to send the fans in a sea of green and white into a frenzy 10 minutes before the stoppage time.
The match was stopped more than once for the remainder the match after Ittihad fans began to throw debris into the pitch in protest against the referee.
Ahli club president Ahmad Al-Marzooki said winning the trophy was specially sweet because it was achieved against a tough rival Ittihad. He congratulated Ahli fans. He said that Ahli was the stronger and better team on this night.
