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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Saudis eye return to top table at 2018 World Cup

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KUALA LUMPUR: For more than a decade, Saudi Arabia’s footballers have been forced to sit on the sidelines of the World Cup, waiting to add to one of the strongest legacies in the Asian game.


Four consecutive appearances at the finals came to an end with a whimper in Germany in 2006, where they finished bottom of their group after being served a 4-0 thrashing by Ukraine.


Since then, the Saudis have rarely looked capable of mounting a serious challenge for a berth at the World Cup finals, or even of fighting it out for the continental titles that were once commonplace.


That, though, could be set to change thanks to a revival being led by Bert van Marwijk, a coach who is no stranger to World Cup success.


On Thursday, the Saudi team the Dutchman has led since 2015 could take a significant step towards ending the Gulf state’s absence from the game’s greatest showpiece.


Victory over Australia, the current Asian champions, will put Saudi Arabia on the cusp of qualifying for next year’s tournament in Russia.


“For such a long time, we didn’t have a really strong group of players like what we have now,” former Saudi Arabia striker Sami al Jaber, who represented the country at every World Cup from 1994 to 2006, said.


“This time the players we have, they have taken more responsibility than before. They know what it means to play for the national team and what it means to the country to go to the World Cup. That’s the first thing.


“And secondly, I think what van Marwijk has done is an amazing job. In football it’s about a chain.


“It’s not just about players and their technical ability or motivation, or about the plan that we put in place two years ago, it’s also about van Marwijk. He understands the situation in Saudi Arabia.”


In 2010, while the Saudis were at home ruing the first of two straight World Cup misses, van Marwijk was leading his native Netherlands into the final against Spain on a bitterly cold night in Johannesburg’s Soccer City Stadium.


Dealing with the notorious factionalism of the Dutch squad is one thing but Saudi Arabia offers quite a different challenge.


SIGNIFICANT PRESSURE


The country’s football landscape is heavily influenced by the ruling family, with wealthy princes often controlling the course taken by coaches and players alike. — Reuters


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