DUBAI: Fresh from scoring his first goal for his country in more than seven years, Muhannad Assiri hopes he has fired himself into Juan Antonio Pizzi’s World Cup plans.
Assiri came off the bench at King Abdullah Sport City Stadium in Jeddah on Monday night and took just seven minutes to make his mark, scoring the third in the 3-0 win over Moldova. It was his first goal in national team colors since the one against Yemen at the 2010 Gulf Cup and it could just book him a seat on the plane to Russia.
“I was given the chance, and I am happy to take it,” said Assiri. “Now, I just have to work hard and show my worth. The World Cup is every player’s dream, and my objective is to be in the team in Russia. I am hopeful that I can represent Saudi Arabia in the best possible way in the World Cup.”
The Al-Ahli striker has only played 10 times for his country and six of those appearances came way back in 2010. He played only three minutes of the World Cup qualification matches and he must have thought his chances of appearing in Russia had disappeared.
But he was recalled out of the blue by Edguardo Bauza for matches in November against Portugal and Bulgaria and then made a dream start to life under Pizzi by scoring against Moldova on Monday night.
Pizzi has spoken about the need to add more firepower to his squad and Assiri showed in a nine-minute appearance off the bench that he could be a very handy option to have at the finals.
Pizzi, meanwhile, feels the Green Falcons are in good shape as they approach the end of the second phase of their World Cup preparations.
The squad has been in Jeddah for the past week in the second of five scheduled training camps and rounded things off with victory over a Moldova side ranked more than a 100 places below them in the FIFA world rankings.
Goals from Omar Hawsawi and Taisir Al-Jassim had put Saudi Arabia in the driving seat by the hour mark, before a late strike from substitute Assiri sealed victory for Pizzi in what was his first game in charge since replacing Bauza.
“We achieved our objectives in playing with organization and coherence in addition to getting a good result against Moldova,” said Pizzi. “The training camp delivered great technical benefits which will serve us further along the road, and the performance against Moldova was a testament to that.”
Pizzi fielded his best available side, and in the absence of injured Nawaf Al-Abed and trio Fahad Al-Muwallad, Salem Al-Dawsari and Yahya Al-Shehri, who are all tied up with their respective clubs in Spain, Pizzi handed international debuts to winger Mohammed Al-Kuwaikbi and playmaker Abdulwahab Jaafar who both came off the bench at half time.
Al-Kuwaikbi marked his debut with an assist, supplying a sublime through pass for Assiri’s goal, Saudi’s third of the evening.