[Asian Regional
Final Qualifiers - Group A]
8 Matches 4 Wins 2 Ties 2 Losses (14 points)
| 9/14/97 | Vs. Kuwait | Win | 2-1 |
| 9/19/97 | Vs. Iran | Draw | 1-1 |
| 10/3/97 | Vs. China | Lose | 1-0 |
| 10/11/97 | Vs. Qatar | Lose | 1-0 |
| 10/17/97 | Vs. Kuwait | Lose | 2-1 |
| 10/24/97 | Vs. Iran | Win | 1-0 |
| 11/6/97 | Vs. China | Draw | 1-1 |
| 11/12/97 | Vs. Qatar | Win | 0-1 |
| Offense |
 |
Defense |
|
| Organization |
|
Experience |
|
| Talent |
|
Capacity to surprise |
|
|
After he was named the new coach for the Saudi national team last December, Carlos Alberto Pareira spent about two months observing the domestic league, then surprised everyone by naming a list of 26 candidates for the national team. The first surprise was the return of Amin, who was the captain at the World Cup in the United States in 1994. Amin had been away from the national team since his poor play in the 1996 Gulf Cup. Pareira also invited Al-owairan, who had had to stay out of the public eye because of violating Koranic regulations. It appears that Pareira's plan is to solidify the defense around seven players and bet the attack on the recovery of Al-owairan.
The team's weapon is a powerful defense. First, the goalkeeper is the mature Al Daeyea. The defense corps has Al-khlawi the farthest back with the defensive leader S.Zebramawi in front of him. With Alshahani on the right and Sulimani on the left, the Saudi lineup boasts the strongest defense in Asia.
The midfield is still undecided. Since Amin has returned to the defensive position, he will compete with Maater for this position. The other three positions are even more fluid. Al-dossary and Al-muwalid have goal-scoring capacity, but are not good at game making. Furthermore, if Al-temawi is unstable, then it is no wonder that Pareira wanted Al-owairan to come back. Mahalel and Al-jaber seem likely to line up at the top, but the lack of the finishing touch is becoming an eternal theme and it may be that the only hope for the Saudis is to get out on top first and protect their lead.
* SAUDI ARABIAN
FOOTBALL FEDERATION
[Address]
- Al Mather Quarter,
- Olympic Complex, PO
- BOX 5844, Riyadh 11432
[Established] 1959
* 2nd World Cup
(1994, 1998)
No championships |
Mohammed AL DAEYEA
* Goalkeeper
If Al Daeyea can pull off a string of the kind of super-saves he demonstrated in the previous World Cup, then Saudi Arabia may be able to win through the preliminary round again. Al Daeyea reigns as the top goalkeeper in Asia and enjoys a strong reputation as the only real goalkeeper in Asia, which is seen as a developing area for goalkeepers. Of course, domestically as well he is a star player who takes a back seat to no one, not even Owairan and was the most value player on the 1994 team that made Saudi Arabia's first appearance in the World Cup tournament and was able to win through the preliminary round. His play is balanced, with few mistakes. His specialty is super saves in the decisive moments and he has saved his team any number of times. His many super saves in the match against Holland in 1994 and the penalty kicks in the match against Iran in the qualifiers this time were particularly impressive. What type of super saves will he show us in the hard-fought matches in France?
Carlos Alberto PAREIRA
Pareira is a top World Cup coach and is making his fourth straight appearance in the World Cup. It goes without saying that in the last World Cup, he led his native Brazil to the championship. He has long had deep ties with the Mideast. In 1980, he led Kuwait to the Asia Cup championship and reigned as king of that same tournament in 1988 with Saudi Arabia. He has been the Saudi coach since the Confederation Cup in 1997. Basically, he uses a 4-4-2 and uses the traditional 5-3-2 according to the opponent and circumstances. He also appeared in the 1990 World Cup in Italy leading the U.A.E.
|
