The Saudi national team returns to the Gulf Cup final after a 7-year absence from the final scene, bringing with it a remarkable historical record this time. The confrontation with the Emirates, on Tuesday, will be Al-Akhdar’s sixth final match in the history of the tournament, after his previous five participations in the final ended in runner-up.
Al-Akhdar reserved his place in the “Gulf 27” final after defeating Qatar in the semi-finals on penalties 3-2, after the original and extra time ended in a goalless draw, to face the UAE, which qualified by defeating Oman 1-0. The final match will be held on Tuesday at Al-Enmaa Stadium in King Abdullah Sports City in Jeddah.
The next match carries a different peculiarity in Saudi history with the Gulf Cup. Al-Akhdar won the championship 3 times, in 1994, 2002 and 2003, but his 3 titles came in versions that did not adopt a final decisive match to determine the champion, which makes facing the UAE an opportunity to achieve the first Saudi victory in a Gulf Cup final match.
The beginning of the Saudi Arabia story with the finals goes back to “Gulf 3” in 1974, when it reached the final match against Kuwait, in the first edition that witnessed a final round after the teams were divided into two groups. The confrontation was held in Kuwait on March 29, and ended with the Kuwaiti team winning 4-0, leaving Al-Akhdar content with second place.
After that final, the tournament system changed and competitions returned for long periods to the league system, which is the system that witnessed Saudi Arabia achieving its 3 titles. Therefore, it took Green 35 years to appear again in a final match.
The comeback came in “Gulf 19” in 2009 in Muscat, when the Omani team faced the home team. The regular and extra time ended in a goalless draw, before penalty kicks decided the title in favor of Oman with a score of 6-5, causing the Saudi team to lose the second final in its history.
The wait for Al-Akhdar was not long this time, as he returned less than two years later to the final match in the “Gulf 20”, which was hosted by Yemen in 2010. The opponent was Kuwait again, in a repeat of the 1974 final, and the confrontation ended on December 5 with Kuwait winning by a goal to no return, so that the Saudi finals at that time became 3, all of which ended in runner-up.
At “Gulf 22” in Riyadh in 2014, the Saudi team got a new opportunity to achieve the title in the final match, this time against Qatar. The confrontation was held on November 26, and ended with the Qatari team winning 2-1, causing Al-Akhdar to lose the fourth final, and the first it played on home soil.
As for the fifth and final appearance before the current edition, it was at “Khaleeji 24” in 2019 in Doha. The Saudi national team reached the final to face Bahrain on December 8, but Bahrain won the match with a goal without a goal, so that Al-Akhdar’s record in the final matches stopped at 5 matches without a victory.
Between Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain, the previous five finals reveal a clear number: 5 matches, 5 runner-up times, only 3 goals scored by Al-Akhdar in those finals compared to 8 goals he received, with the result of the match being calculated before the penalty shoot-out in the 2009 final.
The Saudi national team also played in 5 finals against 4 different teams. Kuwait twice in 1974 and 2010, Oman in 2009, Qatar in 2014, and Bahrain in 2019. The UAE will thus be the fifth different team that the Greens will meet in a Gulf Cup final match.
The Saudi team enters the sixth final this time with a completely different defensive record than before, after finishing the group stage in “Gulf 27” with a full score, achieving 9 points from 3 victories over Kuwait 1-0, Oman 3-0, and Iraq 2-0, scoring 6 goals without conceding a goal.
The defensive record against Qatar continued in the semi-final, as the match ended without goals after 120 minutes before Al-Akhdar won the qualification on penalty kicks 3-2. Thus, the Saudi team reached the final match after playing 4 matches and 390 minutes of play without conceding a single goal, apart from penalty kicks.
The numbers that the final carries are not limited to the search for the first victory in a final match; Saudi Arabia enters the confrontation with the UAE in pursuit of the fourth Gulf title, after winning 1994, 2002 and 2003, which means that the last time Al-Akhdar lifted the cup dates back to 23 years. The Saudi national team currently has 3 titles, compared to 10 for Kuwait, 4 for Iraq, 3 for Qatar, and two titles for each of the Emirates, Bahrain and Oman.
The sixth final comes 7 years after Al-Akhdar’s last appearance in the final match in 2019, while it will be the second that he plays on his home soil after the 2014 Riyadh final, and the first in Jeddah.
Thus, the UAE’s confrontation puts the Saudi national team in front of more than one historical barrier in one night: ending the wait for the title that has extended since 2003, raising its tally to 4 titles, and most importantly changing a record that has remained constant through 5 finals extending from 1974 to 2019.
Fifty-two years after Al-Akhdar’s first final against Kuwait, he returns on Tuesday to the sixth final, this time against the Emirates, searching for a result he has never achieved before in the history of the Gulf Cup: to leave the final match a champion.
