The drought in Saudi Arabia, Argentina’s first rival in Qatar 2022: draw with the United States and have not scored in 385 minutes

In the bunker of the Argentine national team around Miami and New York, it is a question of leaving nothing to chance 56 days before the start of his participation in the Qatar 2022 World Cup, as reported in recent days by Clarín. One of the themes, beyond its own, are also the rivals of group C and specifically one of which, perhaps, little or nothing is known Saudi Arabia. And this Tuesday, with the 0-0 draw against the United States in Murciathe Asian group has widened a worrying drought because it has accumulated 385 minutes without converting goals.

The Selection trained by the French Hervé Renard qualified for the 2022 Qatar World Cup after a great performance in the Qualifiers, where he managed to finish as absolute leader of group B obtain 23 pointsone more than Japan already eight of Australiawho went to the playoffs. But the reality is that Saudi Arabia He doesn’t have a great performance from his game.

Renard, who in 2012 managed to win the African Cup with the Zambian national team for the first time and also won it in 2015 with the Ivory Coast, could not stamp it his idea of ​​playing to a team that is suffering from serious problems from football, mainly in defensive. The green hawks They are with a simple 4-3-3 scheme, which sometimes tries to field three defenders in the back, but not being consolidated in the game system, the team provides many spaces facilitating the attacks of rivals.

And the deep steps will likely be a key break with the defense of those led by Renard. With balls for fast strikers like Ángel Di María or Lautaro Martínez’s diagonal, Argentina can find profit in this type of play thanks to the neglects Asians suffer. Probably, if you fail to correct those mistakes in the game, they will cost you dearly.

Another deficit is aerial play. Despite the height of its center markers it likes it Abdulelah Al-Amri (1.83) and Ali Al-Boleahi (1.78), Argentina’s debut rival team suffers from air shipments due to poor organization and neglect of the defense they intend to score online. Beyond the set pieces, Saudi Arabia tends to give space and allows rivals to reach the area without making great efforts.

From the game it provides little. The restarts from the bottom are not clear and during the ninety minutes ends up forcing shots from distance for the attackers. This benefits rivals’ advances, which can lead to superiority attacks. If he can control the ball, the team he lacks creativity and the ball doesn’t last long at his feet.

In several games, the dangerous plays in favor of a country that will play its sixth World Cup in history, came due to carelessness on the part of the rival. product of the lack of mobility of his players makes it difficult for him to generate opportunities and the few he has fails to be effective.

In recent matches, the standout figure has been his 30-year-old goalkeeper Mohammed Al-Owais who showed off with great parades. To him, in fact, the 0-0 in the friendly against Ecuador, that the Argentines train Gustavo AlfaroThe last Friday.

The Saudi team have not scored a goal in the four friendlies played so far. On 5 June they fell 1-0 against Colombia and four days later they lost again against Venezuela, with the same score. The last celebration was on March 29 in the 1-0 win over Australia, for the final qualifying date.

The team led by Frenchman Hervé Renard will have three more friendlies before their World Cup debut against Argentina: Albanian (October 26); Honduras (October 30); Y Croatia (November 16).

Saudi Arabia, number 53 in the FIFA ranking, cannot finish putting the pieces together in the last stage 56 days from the end of the first match of the Qatar 2022 World Cup, will have a difficult stage in the group stage where they will share with Argentina , Poland and Mexico.