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Oman beat Saudis in shootout to lift Gulf Cup
Hosts make history after winning showcase on penalties as Al Jasem misses decisive strike.
- By Yasir Abbasher, Senior Reporter
- Published: 22:09 January 17, 2009
- Oman were by far the better team and they avenged their defeat in the 17th version of the tournament, when they lost to Qatar in 2004 in sudden death.
- Image Credit: Gulf News Archive
Muscat: Hosts Oman made history on Saturday after beating Saudi Arabia 6-5 in a penalty shootout to win the 19th Gulf Cup for the first time, following a goalless tie in 120 minutes of play.
Oman were by far the better team and they avenged their defeat in the 17th version of the tournament, when they lost to Qatar in 2004 in sudden death.
Khalifa Ayel, Esmail Al Ajmi, Hassan Muzaffar, Hashim Saleh, Fawzi Basheer and Mohammad Rabie scored from the spot for Oman, while Taiseer Al Jasem, one of Saudi Arabia's best players in the tournament, failed to find the back of the net in the sixth shootout.
That was enough for the hosts to win their first ever big football tournament.
Oman began the match pressing for a goal to reduce the huge pressure upon them and almost controlled the action, with Emad Al Hosani sending the first warning when his shot from 20 metres just missed the goal. He then repeated his attempt nine minutes later, with a rocket that shaved the upright.
The Saudis were content with closing their own field and trying to build their famous fast counter-attacking moves, but the midfield was closed by the home team and no spaces were given. It took the Saudis 23 minutes to build their first attacking - Abdullah Al Dosary moving in fron the left flank - but it did not bear fruit.
Fawzi Basheer, Oman's dynamic midfielder, tried his luck with a telling grounder from 20 metres but Waleed Abdullah, the Saudi goalkeeper, saved in the 27th minute.
Claude Le Roy, Oman's head coach, was forced to make a substitution replacing injured Badr Al Maymani with Ahmad Hadid in the 30th minute.
Play was mostly limited to midfield in the last 15 minutes of the half, until Esmail Al Ajmi gave the Saudis a big scare when his fierce shot from just outside the box hit the goalkeeper's hands and rebounded from the bar in the last minute. It was the same story in the second half with Oman pressing for a goal and the Saudis defending.
Once again the goalpost saved the Saudis from losing the result, when Al Hosani's header in the 63rd minute found the bar.
Before that, Abdullah saved brilliantly a first-time shot from Al Hosani while Al Ajmi had two long-range attempts that barely missed the goal.
The only Saudi attempt was from their captain Yasir Al Qahtani in the 59th minute, when he snatched the ball from midfield and advanced, before lashing a tremendous shot that grazed the upright.
The tournament's top scorer, Hassan Rabie, tried his luck with a strong shot, but that also missed the goal, only for the two teams to resort to extra-time.
The two teams failed to break the tie in the 30 minutes of extra-time with both goalkeepers, Ali Al Habsi of Oman and Abdullah of Saudi Arabia breaking the record of former Kuwaiti goalkeeper Ahmad Al Trabulsi, who kept a clean shhet for five matches in the 3rd Gulf Cup, as they both kept a clean sheet for five matches and 30 minutes of extra time.
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