Ittihad v Nassr - official thread

Itti through to the FINAL

Al Ittihad last night booked their place in the Final of The Custodian of the 2 Holy Mosques Cup..

Al Ittihad was able to over turn the result from being 1-0 down to a 2-1 win in the last 15 minutes.

The game was a good one which saw Al Ittihad have most of the possession with Al Nasr creating very dangerous chances. Al Ittihad were forced to make an early substitution when Viera had to go out injured and Sergio came in.. Thus, Al Ittihad moved from a flat 4-4-2 to a rather offensive 4-3-3.. Nearly immediately.. Sergio missed a golden oppurtunity to score when Hamza Idrees' cross went past Al Yami and Sergio had an open goal to score in but for Al Khojali's impressive save.

The first half ended 0-0

The second half saw a very well taken goal from Al Nasr's left back (Al Jahawi).. a long ball eluded the Itti defence and Al Jahawi smacked it into the far top corner..

From then on it turned into an Itti onslaught with attack after attack going wide.. Oscar seemed to throw in all his cards when he brought in Mohammed Ameen Haydar and Manaf Abu Shgair to improve his chances of equalizing. And that chance came when Mohammed Noor went for a ball with Al Khojali.. and was wrestled to the ground.. not once.. but twice!! a penalty was awarded which Landomar scored.. Al Yami then turned the tide with a beauty.. he took a pass and went past a defender and cleverly slotted it in the near corner..

IMO, the worst thing about the whole game was the ref.. he was appalling!! (i think his name was al marwani).. anyway.. he gave a few very very bad calls.. He Yellow carded Sergio for wasting too much time on a free kick while he was still organising the Nasr wall !! that was followed by a red card a minute later which I guess was cuz Sergio said something.. He also gave Al Muwallad a yellow card for a foul which was an obvious dive from the attacker.. these players will now miss the Crown Prince Cup Final against Al Ahli next week!! whether Sergio will be further suspended remains to be seen.. but knowing the Hilali influence in the Saudi FA.. expect a suspension till after the Final with Al Hilal!!

I found it surprising that Al Nasr's owner, Prince Abdul Rahman Bin Saud called for a penalty for Al Nasr and of course said Al Itti's penalty wasn't a penalty at all.. but then I remembered this guy cannot accept defeat at all!!..

Anyway.. I think Al Ittihad deserved the win.. and deserve their place in the final.. Wish them the best of luck against Al Hilal..

Mo,

Count how many days between Hilal's final match against Hyundai and the Ansar match. And then, between the Ansar match and the Taeei match. It is not fair to expect us to play all these games within 2 or 3 day intervals!

As fot the Itti Vs. Nasr match. I think the result was fair and the refereeing was arguably one of the best this season. The only bad call is giving Yami a yellow. It was not a penalty but AL-Yami did not dive. Sergio recieved a yellow for wasting time, he probably wasn't, but he did not have to harrass the ref. for 2-3 mins. He got a yellow in injury time. That meant he would miss the Ahli match. Honestly, I don't think Itti needs him in that one. Ahli is far from its best shape. But then, he would have been ready for the Hilal match. Moreover, he would have been assured playing against Hilal since their won't be a chance of getting the third yellow against Ahli. But the idiot chased the referee for 2-3 mins. Until the ref. had it and gave hime the marching orders 30seconds from time As I understand, he will now miss two matches for that red. Is he that stupid or did he intend to get a red?

http://www.itihadclub.com/vbg/showthread.php?threadid=10729

You can see the PK above. Although the one who put it was trying to prove that it was a 100% PK, I think it proves otherwise. While it is questionable that Noor snatched the ball from Khojali's hands, it is clear that Khojali cleared the ball before tipping Noor. Maybe Khojali should have held his arm and rolled over the grass. That way the ref. would be forced to call it a foul on Noor! I am however both surprised and happy to see that a lot of Ittihadis (more than half) agree that it wasn't a PK and that Sergio desrved the red. Such level headedness is not present in other Saudi club fans. Not even close. The Itti president, Jamjoom, made an even bolder statement last week. Abdul Rahman bin Saud tried to through off Ittihad's concentration by making all that fuss about scheduling, Sri Lanki films, and how great Ittihad is. Ittihad almost fell for that trap. They were so close to being eliminated by Nasr yesterday and played arguably one of their worst games.

I just recieved a call from a Nasrawi relative, I dismissed his accusations for the referee as typical Nasrawi after every loss. But when he swore to me that both Shattali and Juweini said that it was not a PK, I wondered. Moreover, the ref. gave no yellow cards for almost the first 60 mins. At least one was deserved when Al-Mullad tackled a Nasrawi from behind in the 1st half. Also, the ref. gave Khojali a yellow for time wasting, so he was fair to both teams. However, the PK was the determining factor since it changed the whole game in the last 10 mins. To be fair to the ref. it looked like a PK. I think it is impossible to call it otherwise without seeing the slow motion. It really looked like the most obvious PK. Moreover, the ref. gave Al-Yami a yellow a few mins. before that. It was impossible not to call this one.

Normally, I don't talk or give an opinion about refereeing especially when the Saudi NT or Hilal are involved, since I will most probably be biased. But I believe that this case proves that it is impossible to be 100% fair or correct in refereeing. Clearly, Al-Marwani tried his best to do so and really did not show any favoratism towards any team. However, he did make a mistake in calling that PK (again I don't think any ref. would call it otherwise without slow motion). A mistake that truely buried Al Nasr.

Referees do make critical mistakes. But that does not mean that it is intentional. Saudi football will improve a lot if the fans understand that. Enough with the conspiracy theories and that everybody is after you.

Hi Dossary,

Well the least I can say is.. wonderful post Very logical and well written..

As for the game.. well both yellow cards shouldn't have been given (Al Yami and Sergio).. Al Yami for what you mentioned.. and Sergio.. cuz he actually wasn't time wasting.. !! How can you be wasting time when the ref hasn't organized the wall!! But yes.. Sergio was a big dope for badgerring the ref until he provoked him to give him the red card.. From what I understand, His contract has been cancelled.. and he's leaving for good.. He's been suspended to the end of the year.

As for the penalty.. well it actually consisted of 3 tackles.. the 1st and third are on the ball while the 2nd is the one I would question (although the ref did blow the whistle on the third tackle).. But as you said.. a ref has a split second to decide whether to call for the penalty or not.. and without replay challenging (like in the NFL).. there's not much he can do..

As for the match scheduling fix.. well HiJazzey is 100% right.. Ok.. if Al Hilal had THAT much of a tough time in those couple of weeks.. postpone the Itti-Ahli game to match Al Hilal-Taie game!! simple....

Did you guys read President what Jamjoom had to say? He claimed that he denied the Itti-Nasrawi proposal!

The Saudi league needs a lot of scheduling problems. We only have 12 teams, yet we have more problems than leagues with 20 teams. There is no question that matches should be played at the same time in the final round. This question was answered after the Germany-Austria incident in WC1982. However, it has never been done in the Saudi league. So what is the difference this year? Is it because Hilal benifitted? What if it was another team? Sould turn a blind eye then? If you go back to league games in eighties you will see what I mean. An incompetent Saudi FA should be blamed. Claiming that a pro Hilali etc.. FA is to blame means that the real problems with the FA will never be solved. Its easy to use a scapegoat, in this case Hilal. I.e. do you think if the Saudi FA never decrees anything that benefits Hilal means that it will be competent then?

As for moving the Itti-Ahli game back. Ahli would certainly object because it will deny them two more rest days before the crucial Nasr game.

And Ahmad, I seriusly doubt that Ittihad had only two days of rest. Even if so, Ittihad had already reached the golden square that year. In fact, it was widely known then that Ittihad intentionally lost 4-1 to Al-Nasr (who did not qualify to the golden square) so as to play against Shabab and not Al-Ahli. Remeber, that Ahli was still a boogy team back then. Only after beating them in the final match did that view change. And boy did that view change

Mo,

Let me right it again:

1- It has never been done (Unfortunately).

2- Ahli would not agree on delaying their match for Itti's sake.

3- Ittihad president, as a member of the Saudi FA, was involved in the scheduling and agrees with it.

4- The chain of games can not be delayed. Unless you think the King and the Crown prince can come at any day, then no problem! And ofcourse, the NT players will leave right after the last game.

I hope its clear now?

The problem is with sceduling. Maybe this year the season is tight because of the NT in the WC. But next year, they should add an extra free week to resolve such matters without hurting other teams.