Al-Nasr of Saudi Arabia loses by four to Al-Ain of the Emirates in the opening of the Asian Elite League

The resounding loss of the Saudi Al-Nassr team, at the beginning of its journey in the “Asian Elite League”, in a four-way victory against Al-Ain of the Emirates, was not just a passing defeat in a football match, but rather a spark mutated that sparked widespread and unprecedented anger, amid widespread public demands for radical changes to restructure the yellow team.

Australian coach, Ange Postecoglou, surprised critics and fans by entering a new tactical formation based on 5 defenders.

The coach wanted to secure defensive depth and reduce the danger of the Emirati parties, but this strategy had completely opposite results on the ground. This contractionary approach caused the cancellation of Al-Nasr's well-known offensive identity, creating a clear state of improvisation and forced spacing between the lines. The team seemed lost in the transitions, unable to build the game, and strangely surrendered in the face of the high organization and the fierce attacking tide of the hosts. This facilitated the task of dismantling the Nassar arsenal.

The match witnessed what can be described as a “festival” of gross defensive errors and poor positioning, which Al Ain’s attack cleverly exploited.

The downfall began when defender Saad Al-Nasser made a grave mistake in returning the ball to the goalkeeper. Hussein Rahimi took advantage of it to snatch it and put it into the net, scoring the first goal. Then the technical disasters continued, with the system completely collapsing in the second half. Where wide and deep spaces were left in the back line; This allowed the two brothers Hussein and Sufyan Rahimi, along with the Greek striker Giorgos Giakoumakis, to hit the offside trap and be alone with the goal with complete ease, amid a strange absence of reverse coverage. While Al-Nasr fans waited for a strong continental appearance worthy of the new version of the “AFC Champions League for the Elite,” and erasing the disappointments of previous seasons, the inauguration was lackluster and disappointed all expectations.

The 4-0 defeat in the first round was not just an early stumble, but rather put Al-Nassr under intense pressure from the first match. The confrontation revealed that the team currently lacks the strong continental personality and organizational confidence necessary to keep up with the elite clubs on the Asian continent. This requires an immediate review of all accounts.

Portuguese legend Cristiano Ronaldo lived a completely isolated night on the front line. Due to the obvious tactical sterility and the absence of real funding from the midfield, “The Don” found himself alone and helpless, unable, unusually, to pose a threat to the Al Ain goalkeeper, with the exception of diligent attempts and a late free kick that was blocked by the defense.

This technical isolation quickly opened the door to sharp questions from the media during the press conference about his level and decline in fitness. However, Al-Nassr’s technical director, Ange Postecoglou, categorically refused to present the team captain as a “scapegoat” for the Asian defeat. In frank and surprising statements, the coach directed the blame entirely towards himself, saying: “Cristiano Ronaldo is a great player, and the responsibility is mine alone.” The Australian continued his desperate defense to prevent the Don's morale from being crushed by the angry fans: “Ronaldo cannot be blamed for some technical matters, as he is part of a system, and Al-Nasr as a whole was bad tonight.”

With this speech, Postecoglou exonerated his stars and the Portuguese legend from the burden of the harsh result, declaring his individual responsibility for the mistake, and stressing that the sterile collective system he had put in place was what failed the attack and paralyzed its movement.

The Asian tragedy was not the result of that night, but rather was a natural and immediate extension of the clear state of fluctuation that Al-Nasr is experiencing locally in the Saudi League Championship. The team's recent stumble locally in a disappointing draw against Al Khaleej Club (1-1) was an early warning bell and a real indicator of a deep technical defect. This mental and tactical decline, which was clearly evident in the league, was incapable of the technical staff to address it or find solutions for it, and it cast its dark shadows immediately after entering the most fierce and pressured continental battle.

Immediately after the final whistle of the match was blown, the official account of Al-Nasr Club on the “X” platform became an arena for public unrest and popular trial. Within a very few hours, the flood of comments exploded, exceeding 8,000 angry responses from fans experiencing shock.

The Yellow Nasraoui Stadium directed its anger at the administration and the technical committee for not concluding sufficient quality deals capable of filling the clear historical gaps in vital positions, specifically in the defense line and goalkeeping. The fans considered that the inaction in the transfer market, along with the restrictions imposed on the club’s deals, were the main reasons behind the scandalous technical deficit.

While the competing teams were armed with heavy international names, Al-Nasr appeared exposed and without a bench that would make a difference. Which made the fans demand the new honorary bloc as the only solution to buy the club and liberate it for investment to build a team worthy of the future.

The Saudi Football Association launched a new project to develop club academies, targeting clubs in the Saudi Professional League and the first and second division leagues, as part of its efforts to develop the talent system, raise the quality of work in club academies, and build a sustainable path to prepare and develop talent.

The launch of the project came during the club forum held by the Saudi Football Federation, on Wednesday, in the city of Riyadh, in the presence of Secretary-General Majid Al-Sahib, Executive Director of Football in the Saudi Football Federation, Matt Crocker, Philip Sandros, high performance specialist and talent development planner at the International Federation of Association Football, and representatives of the 68 clubs targeted in the project.

At the beginning of the forum, Secretary-General Majid Al-Sahib welcomed the attendees, stressing the importance of partnership with clubs in developing the football system, and the role that academies represent in building a sustainable talent base and supporting the future of Saudi football.

Executive Director of Football at the Saudi Federation, Matt Crocker, reviewed the general direction of the project, its objectives, and courses of action during the next stage, while Chairman of the Competitions Committee, Naeem Al-Bakr, discussed the development of age group competitions and the expansion they witnessed during the last period, and their role in providing a gradual competitive path for players.

For his part, Director of Football Development at the Saudi Federation, Mark Canham, reviewed the academy development program and its importance in raising the quality of technical work within clubs and enhancing the process of preparing and developing players, while Philip Sandros, high performance specialist and talent development planner at the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA), spoke about the importance of academy development programs in building sustainable talent systems, and the role of the International Federation in supporting initiatives and programs related to football development.

The project aims to set unified standards for the work of academies, and help each club determine its priorities and develop its methodology, ensuring the preparation of a generation of distinguished players, and enhancing the path of talent transfer from academies to the first team and national teams.

The Saudi Football Association is implementing the project with Double Pass, a Belgian company specialized in developing academies, which has worked with a number of international federations, most notably the English, Italian, Japanese, Turkish and German federations. The project is based on international reference comparisons and an assessment of the current situation of the academies while defining unified standards for them, in addition to conducting comprehensive evaluations of the currently established academies and reflecting the evaluation on development plans customized for each club.

The project also includes a comprehensive evaluation of the academies in a number of key areas, including discovery and development, a mechanism to advance them to the first team, the sports environment, infrastructure, competencies and learning, digital analysis, investment and governance, which allows building an integrated picture of the reality of each academy and identifying aspects of its development.

The project will be implemented through 3 evaluation cycles until 2030, each cycle combining comprehensive evaluation and interim evaluation, with the first cycle starting in the 2026-2027 season and including all 68 academies, followed by the implementation of customized development plans and capacity-building programmes, while the second and third cycles focus on monitoring progress, re-evaluating and measuring the progress achieved in order to reach the project goals.

The project works on incentives for clubs linked to the level of work quality and productivity, in addition to benefits related to player transfers, which enhances the return on investment in talent development, and raises the technical and market value of players developed within clubs.

Al-Hilal’s victory over Al-Gharafa of Qatar represented a strong starting point for Al-Zaeem in the elite AFC Champions League competitions. It also coincided with the end of the first phase of a busy season in which Al-Zaeem played 9 matches in one month, winning 8 of them, and losing one match to NEOM.

Al Hilal has entered a break from playing matches that will extend for a period of 25 days, until its expected confrontation with Al-Ittihad in El Clasico on October 10, due to the international break, leaving the blue team, its Italian coach Simone Inzaghi, with some time to rearrange the details, before returning to a long race in which Al Hilal has a lot to wait for.

Against Al-Gharafa of Qatar, Al-Hilal emerged victorious from the “Kingdom Arena” with a score of 2-1, in the opening of its campaign in the AFC Champions League for the elite, in a match in which the home team imposed its advantage for most of the periods, but it lost the services of its Dutch star Summerville in the next match, after he received a well-deserved red card, after a quarrel and fistfight between him and one of the players of the guest team.

In addition to the three points, Inzaghi came away with an additional gain with the return of young Frenchman Simon Bouabry to play after recovering from injury. It seemed as if he wanted to take advantage of the opportunity given to him by the Italian coach, as he stood out with his movements between the lines, his boldness in handling the ball, and his ability to create space, making him one of the elements that gave Al Hilal’s midfield a different dimension, sending his coach Inzaghi a clear signal that the competition for the midfield positions would not be limited to the big names, and even his exit from the match was not for technical reasons, according to what Inzaghi explained after the match in the press conference, as he indicated that Bouabry felt a slight tension that prompted him to... He replaced him, while praising the player's abilities and performance.

Al Hilal, which played its matches at the beginning of the season at a high pace, needs to transform the abundance in its roster into a more stable system, and Inzaghi has an opportunity to work on the details that the calendar of successive matches did not allow for. From stabilizing the roles, to increasing the harmony between the lines, the file of balance between the new names and the previous pillars may be one of the most prominent files, because the team has multiple options in the midfield and attack, but the abundance of options does not necessarily mean clarity of the roles, and what appeared against Al-Gharafa may give Inzaghi an additional reason to reconsider some of his calculations, especially with the brilliance of Bouabry and his ability to give the midfield a different vitality.

During the international break, Inzaghi needs to hone a team that has many tools, as the next stage will be more crowded, and Al Hilal will begin a long journey between local and continental competitions, and at the time when the team’s players leave for their national teams, Inzaghi will have to work with the available group, review what the team presented in its previous matches, and identify elements that can give the team additional solutions.

The pause period will also contribute to the team recovering its stars who were injured in the recent period. It is expected that Salem Al-Dosari, the team captain, who did not play any minutes this season due to injury, will be ready to participate in the matches again, along with the French duo Theo Hernandez and Ali Lagami, who were absent from their team due to injury from facing Al-Ahly, until the match against Al-Gharafa, which means the Blues’ ranks will be complete, armed with all their tools after the break.