Watch FIFA World Cup 2010 Qualifying round the qualification for the World Cup 2010 in South Africa. watch today's match Saudi Arabia Vs Bahrain. Don't mess this match look on your PC and watch this match live.
Saudi Arabia
vs
Bahrain
Saudi Arabia vs Bahrain Live Stream Match
Match scheduled:
Date : September 9, 2009
Time : 19:15 until 21:15 GMT
World Cup 2010 Qualifying Live
Saudi Arabia vs Bahrain live streams and TV channels
Saudi Arabia coach Jose Peseiro declared that he was happy with his team’s performance as they drew 0-0 in Bahrain in the first leg of their 2010 World Cup play-off.
Bahrain dominated the match but were unable to find a way past Saudi goalkeeper Waleed Abdulla who produced a string of fine saves to deny the hosts.
Now the Green Falcons have the advantage going into the second leg which will take place in Riyadh on Wednesday.
Whichever team triumphs at the King Fahd International Stadium, will take on New Zealand in a final World Cup decider in October and November.
"It was a positive game from both teams who tried to score and they showed this intention but they couldn't do it and the game finished scoreless,” said Peseiro according to the Asian Football Confederation’s official homepage.
If it is 35 years since the World Cup was without a West Asian nation, it was 1990 that was the last time the world did battle without Saudi Arabia.
The Green Falcons are second only to South Korea in terms of appearances and they are going for a fifth successive spot. They are four games and two opponents, Bahrain and New Zealand, away from going to South Africa. With their reputation, they are fancied to do just that.
Saudi Arabia’s modern World Cup reputation is tied up with a certain night in Sapporo in 2002. A German team that had been expected to do little in Korea/Japan ran riot against a shellshocked Saudi backline.
There is no point denying that the 8-0 thrashing was anything other than a terrible night for Asian football and at the time, it provoked concerns that the first World Cup to be held on the giant continent would not have any representatives pass through the first stage.
That didn’t happen fortunately but like China, the Saudis crashed out without scoring. Looking back at the team, it was full of good players such as Sami Al-Jaber, the talented but luckless Nawaf Al-Temyat and my favourite, a choice I always receive a lot of stick for from some Saudi fans, Mohammed Noor.
At the back though, it was a shambles. Any kind of cross caused huge problems in the Saudi backline. The Germans completely won the physical battle, were dominant in the air and could have scored more. From the moment Miroslav Klose headed his and his team’s second midway through the first half, the game was over.
The fact that Germany made it to the final didn’t really make anyone in the Kingdom feel any better and it is a night still seared into Saudi soccer consciousness.
2006 was better but still not great. With Yasser Al-Qahtani and Sami Al-Jaber both scoring good goals in the opener against Tunisia in Munich, there was a sense that the baton was being passed from the old master to the young apprentice.
Once again though, poor defending, this time deep into injury time, meant that the North Africans got a point. With Spain and Ukraine to come, the second round was always going to be a tough ask.
It wasn’t always this way. As Saeed Al Owairan wove his way through the Belgium defence in 1994 to shot the Saudis into the second round, few would have been surprised that it would be the first of numerous qualifications by the team but most would have expected better performances to come.
But when it comes to big competitions, you can never quite be sure what you are getting with Saudi Arabia. The team is more unpredictable than most.
Not impressive in qualification for 2002, they tanked on the big stage. The road to 2006 was much smoother, assured, classy and confident, but once again, the team just didn’t deliver. The 2004 Asian Cup was a nightmare, 2007 almost a wonderful triumph with great attacking football.
This qualification campaign has been the proverbial roller-coaster. Two defeats and no goals scored iagainst the two Korea threatened elimination and ended the job of Nasser Al Johar.
His successor Jose Peseiro was able to engineer dramatic come from behind wins against Iran and UAE which allowed the Saudis to squeeze into third - though again, two disappointing performances against South and North Korea at the end meant that an automatic place was out of reach.
