Saudi Arabia and Costa Rica face to face in a friendly match in Newcastle
The first Saudi football team is opening a new page for upcoming competitions under the leadership of Italian Roberto Mancini, who took over the technical leadership to succeed Frenchman Hervé Renard, who broke up with Al-Akhdar after a journey that lasted for more than three years.
Today, Friday, the Saudi Greens will face their counterpart, Costa Rica, in an international friendly match that will be held at St. James Park in the English city of Newcastle, which hosts the preparatory camp, as part of the second phase of the preparation program for the 2023 Asian Cup, which will be held in Qatar early next year.
Costa Rica’s first friendly test for Mancini (Getty Images)
The Saudi national team’s first appearance under the leadership of Mancini will be against its Costa Rican counterpart, and the first in nearly six months, as the last confrontation it played last March, against Bolivia, which it lost 2-0.
Attention will turn towards Al-Akhdar, on Friday evening, to watch the tactical approach that the Italian coach, who has rich experience in world football stadiums, will follow, the last of which was the Italian national team, and before that the English Manchester City, and despite the short period of time between assuming the technical leadership of the team and this confrontation, only a week, The features of coach Mancini’s technical approach will stand out in the two friendly matches.
In addition to facing Costa Rica, the South Korean national team will be the second friendly test for the Saudi green in the Newcastle camp, next Tuesday, with the end of the camp schedule.
Salman Al-Faraj, who wore the captaincy of the Saudi national team in his recent years, is the most prominent name that was absent from coach Mancini’s list, and despite Al-Faraj’s absence from the matches due to injury, and his return to play in the last two matches for his Al-Hilal team, he was not present in the Italian coach’s options, and the features were not clear. After his permanent absence or to this camp.
Al-Faraj did not return to the Saudi national team list even in the last camp of French coach Renard, which was held last March, and the last appearance of the captain was in the Qatar World Cup 2022, which witnessed a historic victory for the Saudi green at the time over the Argentine national team, who later won the title.
Saudi national team players during training in Newcastle (Saudi Federation)
Mancini’s list included the majority of the names that were present in the international scene of the Saudi national team, in recent years, as the four goalkeepers attended, namely Muhammad Al Owais, Nawaf Al Aqidi, Muhammad Al-Rubaie and Raghed Al-Najjar, and in the defense line, Yasser Al-Shahrani, Abdullah Al-Omari, Hassan Timbukti, Ahmed Sharahili and Ali Al-Bulayhi attended. And Sultan Al-Ghannam, Saud Abdul-Hamid, and Ahmed Basmoud.
As for the middle of the field, it was attended by Riyad Sharahili, Abdullah Al-Khaibri, Ali Hazazi, Muhammad Kno, Salem Al-Dosari, Nasser Al-Dosari, Sami Al-Naji, Samihan Al-Nabit, Abdul Aziz Al-Bishi, Abdul Rahman Gharib and Fahd Al-Rashidi. As for the front line, Fahd Al-Mawlid, Abdullah Al-Hamdan and Firas Al-Buraikan appeared.
After his return from suspension due to the recent doping issue that prevented him from being present in the Qatar World Cup 2022, Fahd Al-Muwallad, Al-Shabab club player, registered his presence in Mancini’s list, and Raghad Al-Najjar, Al-Taawon goalkeeper, got the opportunity to attend the international list, and Ahmed Basmaoud, Al-Ittihad player, and Ali Hazazi, player. the agreement.
Absent from the current list of the Saudi green, a number of names that were present in the last list of “last March”, as Miteb Al-Harbi, Zakaria Hawsawi, Hussein Al-Qahtani, Haroun Kamara, Saleh Al-Shehri, Haitham Asiri and Abdul Rahman Al-Aboud were excluded.
The Italian Mancini was not able to see many matches or get to know the players closely, but the time before him until the most prominent Asian Nations Cup will be enough for him to get to know the names that he will bet on in the continental championship, which are among his goals, as he explained in his first press conference after Signing of the contract.
The former Italy coach recorded his presence in a number of matches for the Saudi Professional League, hours after his arrival in the capital, Riyadh, in the last week before the international break, and his assistants, including the national Mohamed Amin, were present in different stadiums.
Mancini gave possession great importance in the training in which he led the Saudi green during the past days in the English city of Newcastle.
Friday’s confrontation with Costa Rica is the fifth in the history of the two teams’ confrontations, according to the Saudi national team’s website. These four confrontations were attended in the nineties, and witnessed a great victory for Costa Rica by winning three confrontations, in exchange for a single Saudi victory.
The first confrontation was in September 1993, and it was held at Prince Saud bin Jalawi Stadium in the city of Khobar, and ended with a victory for Costa Rica with two goals for a goal bearing the signature of Saeed Al-Owairan, the former Saudi star of Al-Akhdar, and on the same stadium in the same year, the second confrontation was and ended with a Saudi victory, with a score of 3 – 2 records for Al-Akhdar Saeed Al-Owairan, Majid Abdullah and Hamza Idris.
In 1994, it was the third confrontation between the Saudi national team and its counterpart, Costa Rica, and it ended with a great victory for the latter with three goals for a Saudi goal that bore the signature of Khaled Massad.
The Saudi green is preparing to start the journey of searching for the restoration of its continental glories, when it enters the Asian Cup competitions early next year in the Qatari capital, Doha, as the Saudi national team is in Group F, alongside the teams of Oman, Kyrgyzstan and Thailand.
Coach Roberto Mancini’s contract extends until 2027, the same year in which Saudi Arabia hosts the continental championship for the first time in history, and before that he attends the 2026 World Cup, as hopes appear high for the coach who returned his country to the podiums in the European Nations Championship after a long absence, and so did he with Manchester City, who brought him back to the English Premier League title after years of absence.
Before the continental championship, the Saudi national team will be on a date with the Asian qualifiers for the next World Cup, where it will meet its counterpart Jordan next November as its first official appearance under the leadership of Coach Mancini, to meet in March 2024 the Tajikistan national team, who will attend next to it in the group. Then he meets him again in the same month, and concludes his confrontations with Jordan in June (June) of the new year.
2023-09-07 23:21:20
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