In the Excellent League of Football Tournament The Chase Continue [Archives:1999/09/Sports]

As the 11th week of the tournament comes to an end, Al-Ahli of Sanaa seems to be steadily moving in the right direction, and has no significant obstacles in its path. In its last match, Al-Ahli managed to easily defeat Al-Shihr of Hadhramaut after Al-Shihr’s defenders committed two unforgivable mistakes leading the way to Al-Ahli’s two goals. Although both goals were in the first half, the second half was also interesting. Al-Shihr worked hard to score in the second half , but Al-Ahli’s defense was too strong for them to get through. 
In the 10th week of the tournament, Al-Ahli also managed to win an exciting game with Al-Ittihad of Ibb, which, although it is a strong team, could not match Al-Ahli and lost the game 2/0. With these two wins, Al-Ahli boosts its points to 28, giving it a 3-point lead on its closest opponent, Al-Shaab of Ibb. 
Al-Shaab of Ibb, which is in second place, was also to able to defeat its opponents in the 10th and 11th weeks. In the 10th week, Al-Shaab defeated Shaab of Al-Mukalla 2 to 1 in an exciting match. In the 11th week, Al-Shaab managed to crush last year’s league champion Al-Wahdah of Sanaa in a 2/0 win. Al-Wahdah is beginning to lose ground with their loss. 
Al-Wahdah of Sanaa on the other hand, is living in its most critical days since the start of the tournament. Although Al-Wahda was able to win a close match with the weak team Hassan in the 10th week, its loss to Al-Shaab of Ibb didn’t make matters any better. In fact, this loss widened the margin between it and Al-Shaab, who successfully defended their position at second place in the rankings. Not only is Al-Wahda beginning to lose hope of defending its championship title, it is even beginning to lose hope of achieving second place. For the time being, having 22 points and in third, it must win all its upcoming matches just to defend its position in third place. 
Although it had lost its 10th week game against the tournament leader Al-Ahli of Sanaa, Al-Ittihad was able to rise to the challenge and defeat Al-Majd 3/0 to rise from 5th to 4th in the rankings. 
Other surprises in the 11th week were Al-Wahda of Aden’s win over Taliya of Taiz 2/0 to jump from the 7th to 5th place in the standings. Al-Shula also was able to improve its position from the 8th to the 6th position after winning against Hassan 3/0 in the 11th week. Al-Zuhra’s team was also able to win its match over Al-Hilal 1/0, while Al-Saqr and Al-Tilal could only manage to play to a scoreless draw.
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