Abdominal pain caused player Mohammed Al-Qahtani to be absent from the training session for the Saudi national team, in preparation for the match against Oman on Saturday in the second round of the group stage of the 27th Gulf Cup.
The medical team is also awaiting the results of the medical examinations conducted by player Nawaf Al-Aqidi on Thursday, after the injury he suffered in the match against the Kuwaiti national team.
The Green players conducted their training session on the training fields at King Abdullah Sports City in Jeddah, under the supervision of Coach Denis, during which the players were divided into two groups; The first group included the players who mainly participated in the match against the Kuwait national team, where they performed recovery exercises, while the other group conducted a training session that began with a warm-up, followed by a passing practice, then mini-exercises, before the players applied offensive tactical exercises.
On Friday, Al-Akhdar will continue his preparations with a training session at seven in the evening at the training fields at King Abdullah Sports City, and it will be available to the media during the first quarter of an hour.
The Saudi national team duo, the “twins,” Saleh and Mohammed Abu Al-Shamat, caught the attention at Al-Enmaa Stadium in Jeddah, by appearing together in the starting lineup against Kuwait in the 27th Gulf Cup tournament.
Although this matter constitutes a historical precedent for the birth of the two brothers’ partnership from the first minute on the field, the path that preceded it was full of stations, in which their names intersected on the national team list, without meeting together in the green rectangle at the same time.
The story of the field intersection between the two brothers began in the Arab Cup in Qatar, specifically against Morocco in the group stage, and that day witnessed a rare substitution when Saleh Abu Al-Shamat left the floor of Lusail Stadium in the sixty-first minute and his brother Muhammad entered in the same minute in a double substitution, as if alternating in representing Al-Akhdar had become their destiny that night. The same scenario was repeated in a more strange way in the semi-final of the same tournament against Jordan at Al Bayt Stadium, as the ninety-second minute witnessed the entry of Muhammad Abu Al-Shamat in place of Nawaf Bushel, while Saleh had left the field early at the beginning of the second half at the forty-sixth minute, separating their presence on the field by a time difference that prevented them from meeting side by side under the eyes of the audience.
The story of this succession did not stop at official competitions, but rather extended to international friendly confrontations. In the friendly match between Saudi Arabia and Ecuador in the American city of Harrison, Muhammad Abu Al-Shamat replaced Sultan Mandash in the sixty-second minute, before Saleh entered 11 minutes later in place of Musab Al-Jawir in the sixty-seventh minute, so that the two brothers shared the minutes of the final match as substitutes on the field in that friendly match.
The night of Al-Akhdar’s confrontation against Kuwait in the Gulf Cup was the incubator of the complete scene, as the main roster was decorated for the first time with the names “Mohammed Abu Al-Shamat” and “Saleh Abu Al-Shamat” together in the coach’s plan without the need to wait for a substitution or succession, so that Saudi football recorded a rare football season with the presence of twins who form a basic pillar in one field battle in the national team’s shirt.
The Saudi women's U-17 team launched its preparatory camp in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, in preparation for participating in the Asian Cup qualifiers, scheduled to be held in Singapore. The camp comes within the “Green” preparatory phase, where the technical staff continues to prepare the players and raise their technical and physical readiness, before heading to Singapore to compete in the qualifying competitions.
The technical staff had summoned 24 players to join the camp, including three female goalkeepers, seven defensive line players, eight midfield players, and six attacking players, namely Dana Al-Binali, Talia Katbi, Maryam Al-Tayyar, Joan Al-Nassar, Diala Srouji, Rital Hakami, Hawraa Jalal, Joud Al-Amoudi, Arwa Al-Rasheed, Remas Ahmed, Heba Abdul Rahman, Sarah Al-Madani, Dima Ahmed, and Hala. Al-Shadoukhi, Rima Abdel Aziz, Ghala Saleh, Ghadi Al-Otaibi, Siwar Amr, Kenzi Alaa, Hour Al-Farid, Dana Al-Dahyan, Sadeem Al-Suhaimi, Saadia Muhammad, and Zainab Reda.
The “Green Junior Girls” are scheduled to open their qualifying campaign on October 5 against Singapore, and will meet the Indonesian national team on October 8, before concluding their matches against the Bahrain national team on October 11.
For her part, Alia Al-Rasheed, Director of the Women’s Football Department, said: “We are happy to arrive in Malaysia and begin the final stage of our preparations, and we look forward to benefiting from the camp and raising our readiness before competing in the qualifiers. Representing the national team is a great responsibility, and we seek to provide a level that reflects the development of women’s football in the Kingdom, and, God willing, we will live up to expectations.”
