The second tourney of Arab Champions Sha’ab Ibb loses twice to Jeddah Union [Archives:2004/789/Sports]

By Adel Al-Khawlani
Yemen Times Staff
Sha'ab Ibb was defeated in the second tourney of Arab Champions.
In the opener held in Jeddah, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Sha'ab Ibb club was callously hit 10-0 by the Saudi Jeddah Union in a tragic-comic scenario. After having two players sent off, one of whom is the goalkeeper, the morale of the players accordingly collapsed.
The Kuwaiti referee initiated the disappointment in the 23th minute of the game time by sending off the Sha'ab goalkeeper Faisal Al-Haj over obstructing Saudi striker Hamza Edris to open through a penalty kick the series of goals.
Another red card was issued on the face of the Yemeni defender Eihab Al-Nuzaili in minute 33 of the game time by the referee who kept running the match as a true enemy. This undoubtedly affirmed the collapse of Yemenis to stand up against the offensives repeatedly raged by the opponent.
Ibrahim Soyyed scored the second goal for his side in minute two of first half's compensation time which was counted four minutes. Striker Hamza Edris scored twice in the fourth minute of the compensation time and in minute 8 of the second half to raise his team's advantage to four goals. The fifth goal was put by the Croatian professional, Maryo Saryo Ftich and sixth goal by Mohammad Eisi in minute 29 of the second half.
Ibrahim Soyyed scored three times one in minute 38, another one just one minute after and a third in the last minute of the main game time and striker Hamza Edris concluded the series of goals by scoring the tenth to push higher his side advantage to 10 goals.
The game proved itself to be played by the one side since the Sha'ab goalkeeper was sent off along with the defender Ehab Al-Nuzaili and the sack of Abdulsalam Al-Ghurbani for being fatally injured.
Sheikh Abdulwahid Salah President of Sa'ab Ibb Club and Sheikh Al-Balawi President of Saudi Union Club attended the game which was run by the Kuwaiti referee Mansour Abil and monitored by Mohammad Yaseen from Djibouti.
The second meeting was just two days after the opener. Sha'b Ibb was beaten 2-0 by hosts Saudi Jeddah Union, which is thought of as a lighter defeat since the former played with reserve members.
The Yemeni Football Federation ( YFF), as a result, holds the view that Sha'ab Ibb Club will no longer be allowed to participate in external tournaments. It has been discovered late that the players of Sha'ab Ibb Club and its coaching staff agreed to play the away and home games in the KSA, after receiving extra money for having the plays held in Saudi Arabia.
However, according to the FIFA's regulations, one of the games should be staged with the team members being hosts while the other with the team being guests.
Jeddah Union entered the game with the reserve players as they ensured qualification for the second round (16th round) of the championship.
Coach of Jeddah Union changed the format of its team to grant a well-earned break to the main players, as they are preparing for the finals, an encounter of the Asian champions.
Players of Sha'ab Ibb entered the match with degraded morale after suffering a heavy loss in the previous one. The players appeared a bit better than they did earlier, but could not approach the untouched net of the opponent.
The first half came to an end with Saudi Jeddah Union one-goal lead over Sha'ab Ibb. The goal came through a strong shot by striker Mannan Abu Shafeer after the ball mistakenly hit off the back of the Sha'ab defender Mohammad Ali to change direction towards the net in minute 10.
The second goal was scored in the second half through a corner kick by player Gahwaji and put in the net off by Al-Tariqi's head.
Numerous offensives for Jeddah Union were lost after strikers Yami and Gahwaji raced to score them, but all attempts had gone in awry.
A few minutes prior to the game, player of Jeddah Union Mush'al al-Sa'eed affirmed to television that the play would be incontestable.
Former Egyptian referee Jamal Ghandour stated, half an hour before the match started, that there would be no remarkable equivalence between both the teams.
One day following the event, Abdulahid Salah, President of Sha'ab Ibb called for a press conference to gather the different media means for the sake of unveiling the secret behind the shameful achievement of his club.
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[archive-e:789-v:13-y:2004-d:2004-11-11-p:sports]