Saudi Arabia.. confident steps towards Doha

They are moving steadily towards Doha, and are strongly seeking to reserve a seat among the world’s top players in an exceptional and historical version of the World Cup hosted for the first time by an Arab Middle Eastern country. It is the Saudi green that shines under the leadership of French Herve Renard in the final stage of the Asian qualifiers, and is very close to qualifying for the sixth time in its history of the largest competition, as the green tops its group in the final qualifiers for the World Cup Qatar 2022, after 5 rounds, with four consecutive victories (Vietnam, Oman, China, Japan), and a single draw against the Australian kangaroo in Sydney.

This prompts us to shed light on the strongest Arab team, as Saudi Arabia was one of the first Asian countries to play football and its federation was one of the first federations established in the Asian continent in 1956. Saudi Arabia began to participate in international tournaments with the first beginning of its establishment in 1957 in the Arab Games, which it hosted Lebanon, and the tournament included Tunisia, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Syria, Libya and Kuwait, and it played its first international confrontation against Lebanon in a meeting that ended in a 1-1 draw.

On December 21, 1975 AD, Saudi Arabia participated in the Palestine Cup (Arab Cup), hosted by Tunisia. Saudi Arabia participated for the first time in this edition with Egypt and Yemen in the same second group, and Iraq, Tunisia and the Emirates in the first group, and Syria, Libya, Sudan and Palestine.

On December 10, 1978, the Saudi national team participated for the first time in an Asian championship, and the Asian Games were held in the Thai capital, Bangkok, and the Saudi group included China, Qatar and Iraq.

The start of the Saudi team towards Asian fame was in the 1984 Asian Cup, which culminated in its title for the first time in its history from the first participation against the Chinese team, where it managed to beat it 2-0 in the final match, after which the Saudi team dominated the yellow continent by being a permanent guest in the final rounds with all the copies that followed that tournament until the year 2000 AD.

Al-Akhdar appeared for the first time in the Olympics in the 1984 Summer Games. In this tournament, the Green Falcons faced Brazil, Morocco and West Germany, and Majed Abdullah managed to score the first Saudi goal in the Olympics.

Ten years later, Saudi Arabia qualified for the largest international sports forum in the world, the World Cup in 1994. The Saudi Green achieved a historic achievement in this tournament, as it succeeded with its first participation in reaching the round of 16 in a group that was not easy, which included the Netherlands, Morocco and Belgium. They were able to beat both Morocco and Belgium, to snatch the second card and ascend with the Dutch national team.

This distinguished performance in that version made the Saudi team the strongest team of the yellow continent at that time and the most prominent candidate to win the 1996 AFC Asian Cup title for the third time in its history. And it had been actually achieved. The Saudi team was able to beat the owner of the land, the UAE team, and with this victory, the Saudi team became the most crowned Asian team in the title in 4 copies in which it participated only, and Al-Akhdar succeeded in qualifying for the World Cup for four consecutive sessions, USA 1994, France 1998, South Korea and Japan 2002, Germany 2006, then missed the 2010, 2014, before returning in the Russia 2018.

After the 2006 World Cup, the team weakened with the loss of more players such as Sami Al-Jaber and Muhammad Al-Deayea. Then it missed the World Cup finals for two consecutive sessions in 2010 and 2014, until it was able to return to the World Cup in the 2018 version in Russia with the goal of Fahd Al-Mawlid against Japan, but it was eliminated in the first round after losing the first two rounds against Russia and Uruguay, and played in the last round against the Egyptian team, and succeeded in winning 2-1, with two goals from Salman Al-Faraj, and Al-Dosari’s shot in the last seconds of the meeting, and Egypt scored a goal through Mohamed Salah, in the first international match between the two teams since the 1999 Confederations Cup, in the most famous meeting that ended with five goals for the green against one goal for the Egyptian team.