JEDDAH, 11 July 2007 — Saudi Arabia hope history will be on their side when they open their 2007 Asian Cup campaign against rivals South Korea today.
In their long-standing rivalry the Koreans have never won against the Saudis in this competition where they won five championships between them.
The Kingdom, however, are not taking things to chance and have prepared a plan that cuts two ways — Korea and the rest of the group matches.
The match between the two Asian giants is being bruited about as an early final in the tournament, where a win is the one and only thing that matters for either team.
The luck of the draw has the Koreans standing early in the way of national football team Brazilian coach Helio dos Anjos, who must produce a result if the Green Falcons were to advance past the group stage of the tournament.
For both teams, securing the game three points against each other is crucial before facing the other teams.
Saudi players are already enthusiastic about the match and promised their fans to secure the game three points and get over the disappointment from the last Asian Cup.
Tayseer Al-Jasim, Saudi midfielder from Ahli club, told a local sport daily that the team reached a level of readiness to face any strong team in the competition. “We understand that the other teams are strong and prepared for the competition. Bahrain does not need any introduction, Indonesia play with home crowd advantage. South Korea came fourth in the 2002 World Cup competition in South Korea and Japan. The other teams also would do well to read the Saudi history in the Asian Cup to know that we mean business in the tournament.”
So far, the Asian tigers are rising, this time in football with teams like Vietnam and Indonesia defeating UAE and Bahrain. Oman and Qatar drew 1-1 against Japan and Australia. This means no Gulf country has so far won in the competition. Saudi Arabia are looking forward to be the first team to do that.
Oman have been perceived by many to fall easy prey for Australia only for the Gulf state to hold the Asian Cup debutants to a 1-1 draw in their match n Sunday.
Saudi Arabia have been tipped to lose against South Korea, an observation that is not without basis given the absence of a number of key players like the midfielder Muhammad Nur and defender Hamad Al-Muntasheri.
Still, it will not be an easy task for the Koreans more so because the record shows South Korea have never defeated Saudi Arabia in any match in the competition. Saudi Arabia defeated South Korea in the final match of the Asian Cup in 1988 in Qatar 3-4 on penalty kicks. Saudi Arabia again beat South Korea 2-0 in 2006 in Beirut. In their 15 head-to-head matches, Saudi Arabia won 6 times, South Korea 5 and tied in 4.
Saudi Arabia have an excellent Asian Cup record. Saudi Arabia reached the final for 16 years from 1984 to 2000, winning the title three times — in 1984 against China (2-0) in Singapore, 1988 against South Korea (4-3) in Qatar and 1996 against UAE (4-2) in UAE. Saudi Arabia lost twice in the final against Japan (1-0) in 1992 in Japan and (1-0) in 2000 in Lebanon.
The Saudi strength is in the striking line manned by the most dangerous strikers of the Saudi league namely Yaser Al-Qahtani and Malek Muaz. The weakest link might be the goalkeeper Yaser Al-Musaileem, who will play for the first time in Asian Cup level.
The South Koreans are expected to be in attack mode from the very first minute in a bid to secure an early goal. Taking control of the midfield means taking control of the match and this is an area where Saudi players Al-Jasim and Saheb Al-Abdullah face a difficult task, as the Koreans are likely to dominate the midfield.
Meantime, the head of the Saudi delegation in Jakarta, Indonesia, Prince Nawaf ibn Faisal has given orders to distribute 500 free match tickets to the Saudi community to enable them to attend their l national team’s first match against South Korea today at 3:35 p.m. Ambassador Abdulrahman Al-Khayyat said a team was assigned for the purpose of distributing the tickets in addition to the Saudi flags and jerseys with the logo of the team.
