JEDDAH, 26 October 2007 — Al-Ittihad fans chanted “One-one-one Itti is still No. 1” after winning yesterday’s Jeddah derby 2-0 against rivals Al-Ahli in the Saudi Premier League.
The Jeddah Tigers remained undefeated at the top of the table with 22 points in eight matches while Al-Ahli lost for the fourth time in six matches to remain on 6 points.
Ittihad scored their first goal through Hassan Kita who also made an assist for the second goal by team captain Mohammed Noor. Like in their past matches the two teams started the derby with trepidation. The ball was confined to the middle of the field most of the first quarter except for a few goal-threatening attempts by both teams.
The King Abdullah Al-Faisal stadium was fully packed with fans swarming the gates early afternoon. It took more than 20 minutes before the players got into the groove. Al-Ahli had more possession at the start of the match while the black and yellow striped team struggled for the first 30 minutes.
Al-Ahli dictated the pace of the match but with out any major threat on Ittihadi goalie Tasser Al-Netaif. Malik Muaz’s solo breakway in the 24th minute after outfoxing a slew of Ittihadi defenders to shoot wide of the post awakened the apparently sleeping Tigers.
Ittihad picked up pace and started launching tactical attacks on Ahli’s goal with defender Reda Tukar and Hassan Keta missing good chances in the 32nd and 35th minutes.
Ahli came close to scoring when Tasser Al-Nitaief managed to clear Rodrigo’s curved corner kick. Ahli were forced to substitute their young defender Ahmad Eid with veteran Khaled Badra, who just came back from an injury, in the last minute of the first half due to an injury.
Ittihad entered the second half in different form. They were more focused pinning opponents to their side of the field. The camera caught team captains going at it throughout the match in a private settling of past scores. Noor was awarded a free kick in the 85th minute when Abdulghani brought him down near the penalty box. Kita headed in Noor’s free kick to score Ittihad’s first goal.
The side competition ended two minutes later when “hot head” Abdulghani was shown the red card after kicking the calmer Noor. His ejection put his team in a tight jam. While the referee red carded Abdulghani he did not see the infraction by Rodrigo who joined Abdulghani in kicking Noor.
A minute later Noor found himself face to face with Al-Ahli’s goalie following a guided missile-like pass by Kita.
