MARBELLA: Juan Antonio Pizzi hailed his Saudi Arabia side’s “heart” after watching them rally from being a goal down to claim a hard-fought draw against Ukraine on Friday in what was essentially his first official match in charge of the Green Falcons.
A 3-0 win over Moldova in Jeddah last month was largely dismissed as a training game, while a 4-1 defeat to Iraq a few days later featured an experimental side shorn of first-team players. Friday night’s clash with a team FIFA ranks as the 35th best in the world was thus billed as Pizzi’s side’s first real test. They passed, if not with flying colors then at least with positivity and promise going into Tuesday’s glamor friendly with Belgium in Brussels.
Ukraine had started stronger in a rain-hit Marbella, coming close on various occasions before Artem Kravets opened the scoring with a free header after 32 minutes. Yet Saudi stayed calm, grew into the tie and after Fahad Al-Muwallad struck his side’s response to draw level before the break, Pizzi’s team were the better side in the second half and could even have snatched a win through Salem Al-Dawsari.
“We are happy with this test,” Pizzi said. “A competitive exercise against a team of a similar calibre to us. The first half was difficult, but I think we improved in the second period and had control of the game. Now we are able to go away and form some opinions. We are very happy with the strength and the competitive spirit that the players have demonstrated.”
It is less than three months until Saudi will open the World Cup at Luzhniki Stadium against hosts Russia on June 14. With Ukraine sharing similar characteristics with their Eastern European neighbors, Pizzi had hoped to glean some insight into how his lithe players will cope and compete against a more physically aggressive side.
“We trust that what we lack physically we will compensate for with our attitude, with our heart and with the motivation of what it means to play for this team, like we showed here,” he said. “I am pleased with what I saw and it convinces me we are improving and advancing in the direction that we want.”
Much has been made of the Saudi Arabian Football Federation’s decision in January to send several of the team’s elite players to Spain in order to gain experience at the likes of Villarreal and Leganes. In theory, the project makes perfect sense, but deployed midway through the season and with the Spanish teams seemingly having little say about which players they received, the project has raised questions.
None of the three Spain-based players that featured against Ukraine — Al-Dawsari, Al-Muwallad and Yahia Al-Shehri — have played a competitive minute since January. Yet Pizzi insisted he is happy with the arrangement, noting an improvement in mentality, and suggesting the reason they are not playing for their clubs is more about “competitive favoritism” rather than any perceived lack of quality.
“I am happy with the players who play here in Spain,” he said. “They were all fully fit coming into this training camp and I could immediately see that they have worked hard at their respective clubs. Their competitiveness and form were good, so that is why I started all three of them.”
Asked by Arab News whether the three players’ fitness levels were enough to enable them to feature against Belgium on Tuesday, Pizzi said it was too early to say, but insisted whatever team he selects to face the likes of Eden Hazard, Kevin De Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku will be ready.
“We have only four days so, first, we need to see how the players recover and then we will make decisions as the days go by,” he said.