JEDDAH, 11 December 2007 — Al-Ahli’s inability to put away victory was again exposed yesterday when the Jeddah-based team settled for a 1-1 draw at home against Wehda in the Saudi Football League at the Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Stadium here.
Ahli entered the match determined to score a win and end the series of ties in the competition. Instead, Wehda made them share the spoils in the 90-minute contest.
Wehda were first to score in the second minute from a free kick by Kamel Al-Mousa. Ahli pushed forward and dominated the entire match. Malek Muaz finally came through to score the equalizer for Ahli in the 37th minute, drilling a nice shot from inside the penalty box that went past the left hand side of the goalie.
Ahli continued to push forward and they were denied two penalty kicks — one when Tayseer Al-Jasem was tackled hard in the first half and another when the same infraction was committed against Kaio after the break.
In Riyadh, Al-Hilal defeated Al-Ittifaq 2-0 in a one sided match. In Al-Rass Al-Hazem defeated Al-Watani 1-0 and in Dammam, Al-Nasr secured the game three points against Al-Qadisiya after winning their match by 2-0.
With the victory, Hilal strengthened their grip on second place and narrowed the gap on leaders Ittihad with 19 points. Al-Nasr jumped to third position with 18 points.
Wehda came fourth with 16 points after yesterday’s results. Shabab are in fifth position with 16 points, while Ittifaq, Hazem and Al-Watani followed in sixth, seventh and eighth spots with 15 points each.
Ahli, winners of two major trophies last season, are uncharacteristically struggling in ninth place with 10 points. Najran, Taie and winless Qadisiya bring up the rear with 8, 4 and 2 points in that order.
Today, Taie face Najran in Hail and Shabab entertain Ittihad in Riyadh.