World Cup Countdown: The ones to watch for Saudi Arabia
With exactly 32 days until the World Cup kicks off, we continue our mini-previews with the competition fast approaching.
After focusing on hosts Russia on Saturday, we turn our attention to Group A rivals and opening match opponents Saudi Arabia.
Juan Antonio Pizzi’s side may have avoided some in the draw of the bigger teams in the competition, but with Uruguay and Egypt vying with Russia for a place in the next round of the World Cup, they’ll find things difficult this year. Indeed, Saudi Arabia lost three of five away games in qualifying, with their home record the reason for their automatic qualification for football’s biggest tournament.
Home comforts won’t be in play this summer and they need to hit the ground running in the opening match of the World Cup in order to upsets the hosts. By moving to Spain in January, Yayha Al-Shehri and Salem Al-Dawsari have gained experience in La Liga, despite a lack of game time for Leganes and Villarreal, respectively, but the goalscoring burden will fall on the shoulders of Mohammad Al-Sahlawi.
He has scored 28 goals in 37 Saudi Arabia appearances and he is expected to get the nod to lead the attack ahead of Muhannad Assiri this summer. The Al Nassr striker has 102 goals to his name from 174 club appearances and, back in March, it was confirmed he would spend three weeks with Manchester United in order to improve his match sharpness coming into the competition. He’ll hope to pick up some tips from Romelu Lukaku and co. as Saudi Arabia look to spring an upset in Russia.
Al-Sahlawi has the experience to score the goals and by shouldering the pressure, there may be a chance for 28-year-old Nawaf Al Abid to exploit any space left from midfield to hurt opponents. No player scored more goals in the third round of AFC qualifying than the Al-Hilal ace (5) and opponents will need to be wary of his goalscoring threat from deep when they face Saudi Arabia this summer.
That being said, they are a nation plagued by uncertainty at a managerial level. When Pizzi took over the reins in November, he was the Green Falcons’ third manager in as many months. He’s overseen just three wins from eight matches at the helm, those coming against Algeria, Kuwait and Moldova. With just one win from their last eight away games, all signs point to an early group stage exit for Saudi Arabia.
However, if Al-Sahlawi and Al Abid can strike while the iron is hot, then Saudi Arabia will hope to sit deep and exploit opponents on the break. They conceded just 10 goals in qualifying, though eight of those were away from home, byt they’ll look to frustrate teams and look for the goalscoring duo to work wonders in the final third.
