A spoiled Egyptian solution by Salem Al-Dosari. How did the Saudi Arabian team survive the Spanish Revolution?

The “Greens” will face a difficult confrontation against the European champion

A difficult task awaits the coach of the Saudi Arabian national team, Greek Giorgos Donis, in the second match of the 2026 World Cup against the Spanish national team.

The Saudi Arabian national team will meet its Spanish partner in the second round of the 2026 World Cup group stage next Sunday at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in the American city of Atlanta.

Spanish Revolution

There is no doubt that it will be a difficult match for Saudi Arabia, who are ranked 60th in the world, while Spain are in third place, two years after winning the European Cup of Nations (Euro 2024).

However, for Al-Akhdar, things are made more difficult by the fact that the Spanish national team drew with Cape Verde in the first match of the World Cup, which will put them in a revolution to achieve a victory that guarantees their passage to the next round.

Spain coach De La Fuente will work on creating new solutions, because in the last game all the solutions failed to capture the goal of Cape Verde goalkeeper Focinha, which Donis should pay attention to.

Visible suffering

From the game in Cape Verde and the friendlies in Egypt and Iraq before that, Donis can take inspiration from how he can nullify the magic of the Spanish team, the magic that defeated the giants of Europe but was disrupted by the Arabs and Africans.

It was clear that the Spanish team suffered greatly against teams that played in front of them with low pressure, blocking the depth of the field, not giving them spaces through which they could create a threat in the opponent’s goal.

The biggest problem facing Matador in this situation is that he has to resort to cross balls, which do not help him much, especially in the absence of strikers capable of turning them into the net.

The striker who seems to be the closest to playing against Saudi Arabia is Mikel Oyarzabal, who is an unconventional striker. He stands out not by heading crosses into the net, but more by participating in the game, which may be impossible for him from the start.

Uruguay revenge

This could mean that the Saudi national team will have to repeat the second half of the 1-1 draw against Uruguay in the early hours of last Tuesday in the first round of the World Cup, but better.

After taking a clean sheet lead in the first half, the Saudi team left the ball completely to their Uruguayan counterpart while completely shutting down deep, prompting the Latin side to rely heavily on passing.

For the Spanish national team, this task will seem difficult, especially since their right back Marcos Llorente is not the best in this matter, in addition to the lack of a traditional striker, as mentioned above.

Therefore, the crosses of the Spanish national team will not present the same danger as the crosses of Uruguay, especially since Donis will try to correct the mistakes made by the Saudi defense when facing those crosses.

Yamal’s dilemma…an Egyptian solution

Perhaps the biggest concern for Saudi fans is Barcelona and Spain star Lamine Yamal, who is expected to return to the starting line-up in the next game after coming off as a substitute against Cape Verde.

According to De La Fuente’s statements, Yamal will not participate in the entire match, as he can play between 45 and 60 minutes in the light of not being fully ready, which is a positive for the Saudi Arabian team.

Stopping Yamal is certainly difficult, but the Egyptian national team managed to do it about 3 months ago, in a friendly match that ended in a goalless draw last March.

Egypt coach Hossam Hassan relied on increased control over Yamal, making winger Islam Issa his first tackle before moving on to left-back Ahmed Fatouh.

This method greatly limited the threat of Yamal, who lacked full-back and midfield help, largely isolating him in the right lane and making him less dangerous in the most impactful areas.

The problem of Salem Al-Dosari

However, this solution will not be possible for the Saudi team, given Salem Al-Dosari’s reliance as a left winger, and he is by no means adept at defensive tasks, especially at the moment given his advanced age.

This issue may require a difficult intervention by Donis, keeping Salem Al-Dossari on the bench at the start of the game and bringing him on after the expected exit of Yamal to use him in the Spanish defense on counter-attacks.

The Greek coach could turn to another solution, which is to keep Salem Al-Dossari in the starting line-up, strip him of defensive duties and play in a left-leaning midfield, with Nasser Al-Dossari at left-back, marking Yamal.

But this solution will require striker Firas Al-Brykan to take on bigger defensive tasks, dropping back to fill the gap that Nasser Al-Dossari will leave in the center of the pitch and helping the other midfielders to prevent that gap from being exploited.

This addition could be in the center of defense instead of midfield, relying on 3 defenders, one of them leaning to the left, let it be Abdul-Ilah Al-Omari, to be the second line of defense in front of Yamal behind the left back.

In any case, Donis will have a lot to do, theoretically and practically, to reduce the threat of the Spanish team, to stop the weapons and at least one point out of the Saudi Arabian team to qualify for the next round of the World Cup.

Source link