JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia and its Asian rival of long-standing, South Korea, clash today in a crucial Group B third round match of the final phase of the World Cup 2010 Asian qualifying tournament at the King Fahd International Stadium in Riyadh.
The situation is very critical in Group B with South Korea, Iran, Saudi Arabia and North Korea all with four points each.
UAE will try to keep its flickering hopes alive when it hosts Iran today. The Emiratis are in the bottom of the group with no point.
South Korea leads the group on goal difference, Saudi Arabia and Iran share second and third places with North Korea in fourth position.
Bidding to qualify for the World Cup finals for the fifth time in a row, the Saudis are banking on the home-field advantage to get past the Koreans and secure the game’s three points.
Before the Korea match the Kingdom team played two friendly matches which it won against Thailand 1-0 and Bahrain 4-0.
South Korea in preparation of today’s had tuneup matches against Uzbekistan and Qatar, which the Koreans won 3-0 and drew 1-1. In the head-to-head World Cup qualifying matches between the two sides the match today will be the fifth one.
Saudi Arabia won two matches while South Korea took one and drew another. The Saudis still hold the edge overall. In 15 outings, the Saudis won six matches to the Koreans four. They tied in five matches. The Saudi national coach, Naser Al-Jowhar, said that he studied the South Korean team. He said, “We will attack from the beginning and in fact we will force the South Korean team to defend from the first minute of the match. We will not give up as long as we are playing in our homeland.”
“Saudi Arabia faced some difficult moments with Malek Muaz, Hussein Abdul Ghani and Yaser Al-Qahtani nursing injuries. However, the Saudi team is more stable now and the Saudi fans who will attend the match will see the result of this stability in their performance,” he added.
Qatar will face Japan in another very important match in Group A. Australia is on top of Group -A with six points, followed by Japan in second place with four points and Qatar in third with four points. Bahrain and Uzbekistan are fourth and fifth with one point each.
