JEDDAH: Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz will attend the final match and hand over the trophy to the winner of the King's Cup football tournament Thursday night at King Abdullah Sports City stadium in Jeddah.
The match is set for 8:30 p.m. with Riyadh-based Al-Hilal aiming to win back-to-back titles against Al-Ahli of Jeddah having defeated Al-Nasr, another Riyadh-based club, in last year's final.
The championship that started in 1957 included only teams of the Western Region clubs and was won by Makkah’s team Al-Wehda.
The tournament format then was points system, where teams that had the most points qualified for a three-group league. The three leading teams, in addition to a team qualifying by draw, play knockout last-four matches. Central region teams started participating in the championship in 1961 with one of them, Al-Hilal, winning the cup. Two years after that, Eastern Province teams joined the competition, with Al-Ettifaq being the first of the region to win the trophy in 1968.
In 1976, the championship format was changed to knock-out, which is being followed to date. Since 2013, the tournament has been expanded to include all 153 clubs in the Kingdom.
Ahli and Jeddah's Al-Ittihad are the top two teams with the most number of cups won at 12 and 8 respectively, followed by Hilal at 7, Nasr at 6 and Al-Shabab at 3. Ettifaq and Wehda each have two titles.
King Salman to attend King's Cup final
King Salman to attend King's Cup final
Messi bags 899th goal as Miami down DC United
- The Argentine superstar’s 80th goal for Miami takes his career tally to 899, leaving him just one away from reaching the 900-goal milestone
WASHINGTON, United States: Lionel Messi moved to the brink of another goalscoring milestone as Inter Miami bagged their second win of the Major League Soccer season with a 2-1 victory over DC United on Saturday.
Messi, who scored twice in Miami’s Florida derby win over Orlando last week, bagged his third goal of the season with a deft chipped finish in the 27th minute at Baltimore’s M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore.
The Argentine superstar’s 80th goal for Miami takes his career tally to 899, leaving him just one away from reaching the 900-goal milestone.
The eight-time Ballon D’Or winner, who turns 39 in June, scored 672 goals for Barcelona earlier in his career and 32 at Paris Saint-Germain, with a further 115 international goals for Argentina.
Saturday’s win moved the reigning MLS champions up the Eastern Conference standings into third place with six points from three games.
Miami, who on Thursday were guests of President Donald Trump at a White House reception, took the lead in the 17th minute with a superb curling shot from the edge of the area by Messi’s Argentina team-mate Rodrigo De Paul.
Messi then doubled Miami’s lead 10 minutes later, latching on to a sublime through ball from Mateo Silvetti and dinking a first-time finish over the advancing DC United goalkeeper Sean Johnson.
United rallied after half-time, and were given hope when Israeli forward Tai Baribo pulled a goal back in the 75th minute.
Miami though were able to hold off United in the closing stages to seal victory.
