The Saudi football season comes to a close this Friday when Al-Ahli and Al-Nasr face off in the King’s Cup final in Jeddah, with the Jeddah-based club looking to defend its title against the challenger from Riyadh in a rematch of last year’s clash.
For Nasr the match offers a chance to redeem itself from defeat by Ahli, whose journey to the final was not a breeze. They had to face Al-Hilal in the semifinals and Hilal did not just hand the slot to them.
Nasr won against Al-Shabab, the league champion, in the quarterfinals and Fateh in the semifinals. I say, Nasr’s fate was a little easier on them.
Ahli is one of the strongest teams this year, almost winning the league title.
They had a pretty good season only losing 4 matches the entire time.
I must commend their good coach and very good foreign players who really made a difference for their team. They also showed good team work and played well. It was fun to see them in the field.
Nasr, on the other hand, finished 7th in the league and one of the also-rans. Both its local and foreign players are not as good as we expected them to be.
I must say the only good thing about this team was its Colombian coach Francisco Maturana. I believe Nasr got to where it is now because of pure luck.
In my opinion, they reached the finals with a helping hand from the referee, who disallowed a Fateh goal in the closing minutes of stoppage time during the Nasr-Fateh second leg semifinal match on Monday. This is quite shameful for the referees committee, but a stroke of luck for Nasr, which makes me wonder if Nasr will benefit from another whistle to win the King’s Cup.
I hope not…I so hope not. Let us all be there on Friday evening and enjoy the game.
Ahli eyes repeat
