Dubai, United Arab Emirates (CNN) – The Saudi team drew with its American counterpart, in a friendly match that brought them together at the “Nueva La Condomina” stadium in Spain, as part of the two teams’ preparations for the World Cup scheduled to be held at the end of this year.
The Saudi Green was missing a number of players due to injury, as Salem Al-Dosari, Salman Al-Faraj, Yasser Al-Shahrani and Muhammad Al-Owais were absent from its ranks.
This is the second draw for the Saudi national team during the preparatory period this September, as it had previously tied with Ecuador a few days ago.
The Saudi Green failed to score any goal in the team’s last 4 consecutive matches, after 360 minutes had passed.
Reactions to the Saudi team’s performance against America varied, as some believed that the team was developing match after match, while others expressed concern about the lack of goals, amid calls for Nawaf Al-Abed to participate in the Qatar 2022 World Cup.
Yasser Al-Mishal, president of the Saudi Football Association, told the Saudi channel “SSC”, “Our goal through friendlies is to appear distinctive and not only score goals, and the players are keen to be on the final list in the World Cup.”
The journalist Walid Al-Faraj wrote on his Twitter account: “It is clear that it is a very tactical match that witnessed the implementation of some of what was rehearsed with Renard. It is true that we did not register for the fourth friendly match, but there were serious attempts and this is important. Defensively, keeping a clean sheet against America is also good. Honestly. I’m starting to feel we’re heading in the right direction, with you green.”
Here are the most prominent reactions to the performance of the Saudi national team against America: