As The First Half of the Tournament Comes to an End After Crushing Last Year’s Champion 2-0 Al-Ahli Halfway To A Championship Title [Archives:1999/10/Sports]
March 8 1999
In the last match of the first half of the Excellent Football Tournament, Al-Ahli of Sanaa was able to defeat last year’s (1997-1998) champion Al-Wahda of Sanaa 2/0. Although spectators were expecting a tense and exiting match, it turned out to be a disappointment. “An easy win. Al-Ahli seemed untouchable!” is what one Ahli supporter said. Spectators, who had hoped to see a strong match, left disappointed after watching an Ahli walkover.
However, for Al-Ahli, a win is a win and 3 points are all it needed. After 13 weeks of hard work, it is ahead after the first half of the tournament with a 6-point lead over Al-Shaab of Ibb. Having 34 points, and scoring 25 goals to only 4 scored against them, Al-Ahli seems to be ready and motivated to begin the second half of the tournament in mid-March with strong hopes of obtaining the championship title. After the first half of the tournament Al-Ahli has proved that not only is it the strongest team on the attack, it has also proved to be the toughest on defense.
On the other hand, Al-Shaab of Ibb is still in second place with 28 points after defeating Al-Majd in the 13th week. Like Al-Wahda of Sanaa, Al-Shaab of Ibb was also defeated by Al-Ahli in the 12th week. But because it was able to defeat Al-Wahda of Sanaa in the 11th week, it managed to hold tight to its second position. However, the 6-point gap between them and Al-Ahli puts Al-Shaab in a must-win situation for most of the next half of the tournament if it wants to maintain its championship hopes. Al-Wahda of Sanaa is witnessing a sharp decline in its performance. No one would have imagined that last year’s champion would go through such difficult times. Because of the many defeats it has recently sustained, Al-Wahda is now in danger of losing its third position to its closest rival, Al-Wahda of Aden. Many sports analyzers and experts think that if the current team administration continues, the team will further decline, and will lose much of its support among its spectators.
Having mentioned Al-Wahda of Aden, if there is one team that can be called the surprise team of the tournament, they are it. Indeed, after resolving all of its administrative problems, Al-Wahda of Aden is now witnessing one of its most competitive seasons of tournament play. It astonished football fans by winning two consecutive games; one with Al-Ittihad of Ibb in the 13th week, and the other against Al-Majd in the 12th week. Having gained a victory against Al-Ittihad of Ibb (the team that defeated the second ranked Al-Shaab of Ibb), one can appreciate how powerful Al-Wahda of Aden has become. This raises the possibility of Al-Wahda of Aden overtaking Al-Wahda of Sanaa in its position at third and becoming eligible to challenge for the 1998-1999 Excellent Football Tournament championship title.
For fifth spot holder, Al-Ittihad of Ibb the story is quite different. Its game with Al-Zuhra was supposed to be played in the same stadium in Sanaa where Al-Wahda of Sanaa and Al-Ahli were playing. However, because of the huge number of supporters of Al-Wahda and Al-Ahli and because of time limitations, the Yemeni Football Federation decided to postpone the match to the eight of March.
The representative of Abyan governorate, team Hassan was able to defeat Al-Hilal 2/0 in Hassan’s field in Abyan. With this win, Hassan was able to take over the sixth place ranking of Shaab Al-Mukalla, and gain an overall 21 points in the rankings. On the other hand Shaab Al-Mukalla’s loss drops it 2 spots in the rankings to the 8th position with 20 points. Al-Shula team was able to climb to the seventh spot on goal difference, with 20 points after its win over Al-Saqr of Taiz 4/0 in the 13th week of the tournament.
Al-Tilal team, which is currently suffering from disastrous administrative turmoil, was barely able to pull out a 1/0 victory over Taliya of Taiz. With this difficult win, Al-Tilal maintains its 9th position with 18 points.
All sports analyzers and reporters have admitted that Al-Ahli deserves its standings and lead. It is seen as the most powerful team in the tournament this year, and is expected to win the championship title. But yet again, anything can happen in a game, and there are still a lot of teams left in this one.
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