Asian Cup Preview: Jordon Vs Saudi Arabia
Nassir Al Johar starts life on the hot seat!
The new Saudi Arabia coach is in for a bumpy ride as his first game as the coach will be a high pressure one. His team takes on Jordan at the Al Rayyan Stadium, and the match will determine whether the Green Falcons will be making it to the quarter finals
of the tournament or not.
Jose Perseiro started the tournament as the manager of the Saudi Arabia, but the Portuguese coach was shown the door soon after his side shockingly lost to Syria 2-1. It is, however, very unlikely that another defeat will prompt the Saudi authorities to
sack Al Johar, at least not till the end of the tournament.
Nassir seems to be a suitable candidate for managing the Saudi side, as he led the Saudi team to the semi-finals of the prestigious Asia Cup in 2000. But the new coach has been very quick to tell the fans that instant success should not be expected from
his side. He said, "I don't pretend that I have a magic wand and can change things suddenly, but I can only promise we will do our best and I have big hopes for the national team." The experienced coach, however, did add that he is confident that the current
Saudi national team can improve a lot.
The 2-1 defeat at the hands of Syria really came as a shock, not just to the Saudi fans, but to all other Asian fans, as Saudi Arabia has always been a dominant force in Asia. The worst thing about the defeat is that it has taken Saudi Arabia perilously
close to an early exit from the tournament, and they have to win the remaining two games just to ensure that they make it beyond the group stages.
The 1st of the two remaining matches is against a very confident http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Maya-Yoshida-c25060.
Al Johar believes that in football, every team commits mistakes and his side made minor mistakes that were their undoing. He also added that his team will make sure that they don’t repeat the same mistakes in their upcoming matches.
Luckily for http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Hatem-Aqel-c15882 will not be playing for his team after an injury in the 1-1 draw against Japan. It was initially thought that he might come back against Saudi Arabia, but it turned out that the knee injury will keep him
down at least for another game after all.
Adnan Hamad, the coach for Jordan, remains upbeat about his side’s chances of winning and reckons that his players have enough ability and enthusiasm to get a positive result. He also said that he is aiming for qualification to the knockout phase of the
Asian Cup and believes that they can do it if they play the same way they did against Japan.
Current Group B standings:
Team P W D L Points
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Syria-c3017 1 1 0 0 3
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Japan-c2928 1 0 1 0 1
Jordan 1 0 1 0 1
S.Arabia 1 0 0 1 0
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