Tunisia v Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia's last World Cup highlight was a critical goal against Belgium in 1994 to make the second round, Tunisia's was their draw with Belgium in the last World Cup. So I started this game hoping they'd both lose, since I'm prone to that sort of irrational grudge.

I thought this game might be pretty dull, but it turned out a lot better than I expected. This was generally seen as a must-win game, with a team taking 3 points having a shot at displacing Spain or the Ukraine in the second round. Tunisia would have been my favorite, since they were African champions in 2004 (no clue who won this year, actually), African qualifying is a lot tougher, and I applied the "How many of their players have I heard of" rule, in conjunction with the "what clubs do they play for" rule and Hatem Trabelsi playing for Ajax, with the rest of the squad scattered all over France and big clubs from small leagues like Rangers and Rosenborg trumps a whole bunch of guys I never heard of playing in the Saudi league. It's all very scientific.

There was a non-call in the penalty box that could have made a big difference for Tunisia if they'd been awarded the penalty, but they controlled the first half, scoring on a defensive error on a set piece. The Saudi defender playing the ball tried to head it clear but knocked it down, and Ziad Jaziri played the bounce in this funky cartwheel to get his foot over the top of the ball, which looked really cool (to me anyways). Tunisia was up 1-0 and in control, which they seemed to figure was good enough.

In the second half, the Saudis came out guns blazing, much better organized and aggressive, and took back control of the game, tying things up with a nicely executed goal by Yasser Al-Qahtani, finishing off a cross into the box by Mohammad Nour by squeezing it past the keeper into the upper corner. Close to the end of the game, Sami Al-Jaber, who came out of retirement to help Saudi Arabia get through qualification, put the Saudis ahead on the end of another textbook shot coming at the end of a nice string of passes. The Saudis were going nuts, and this was a nice change of pace from the brutal thumping they took in 2002 (Germany alone put 8 goals past them).

But, in injury time, Jaziri took a ball bouncing around in the box and not properly cleared, settled it down by the end line, and had way too much time to settle and lob it across the goal to Radhi Jaidi who put the perfect header down on at the keeper's feet for the equalizer. Soccer is a low scoring game, which means when you're leading... you're not leading by much. Things turn around in an instant. (Which is why it was so irritating to see players give up in the US-Czech game.)

Tunisia 2-2 Saudi Arabia
Jaziri '23
Al Kahtani '57
Al Jaber '84
Jaidi '93