The Story of “The Green" Saudi Arabia in World Cup 1994

The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the fifteenth FIFA World Cup tournament held in the United States of America. The host country was announced on July 4, 1988, in the Swiss city of Zurich, where the United States of America was able to win the honor of organizing, after a competition with Morocco, Brazil, and Chile.

The Saudi national team qualified for the first time in its history for the World Cup competitions and was able to present an honorable level during which it qualified for the round of 16, but was eliminated after losing 3-1 to Sweden, making the Saudi team the second Arab team to qualify for the round of 16, in the history of participation Arabia in the World Cup competitions.

Saudi Arabia was placed in Group F along with the Netherlands, Belgium, and Morocco.

Saudi Arabia opened its first-round matches on June 20 at Robert Kennedy Stadium in Washington, DC, against the Netherlands.

The Saudi national team represented the following squad in that match:

Goalkeeper: Mohamed Al-Deayea

Defenders: Abdullah Al-Dosari, Muhammad Al-Khelaiwi, Ahmed Madani, Muhammad Abdul-Gawad

Midfielders: Fouad Amin, Fahd Al-Bishi, Khaled Al-Mawlid, Talal Jibreen

Forwards: Majed Abdullah, Saeed Al-Owairan

At 7:30 local time in Washington, Spanish international referee Manuel Diaz blew his whistle, announcing the start of the match.

In the 18th minute, Fouad Amin opened the scoring for the Saudi team, but the Saudi team could not keep the result, as the Dutch scored two goals, the first in the 50th minute through Wim Yunk, and the second in the 86th minute through Gaston Taument.

Thus, Saudi Arabia lost its first match with a score of 1-2.

In the second match, Saudi Arabia faced Morocco, on June 25, at Giants Stadium in New Jersey, in front of more than 70,000 spectators who filled the stands.

The Saudi team managed to win that match 2-1, as Sami Al-Jaber scored from a penalty kick in the 7th minute, before equalizing the result to Morocco by Mohammed Al-Shawsh in the 26th minute.

In the 45th minute, midfielder Fouad Amin scored the winning goal for Saudi Arabia, scoring his second personal goal in the tournament.

In the third match, the Saudi team had to win over its Belgian counterpart, in order to able to qualify for the second round.

Before this match, Belgium had six points from two victories over Morocco and the Netherlands.

The Netherlands has three points and is expected to reach six points when it faces Morocco at the same time as the Saudi Arabia match.

At Robert Kennedy Stadium in Washington, the Saudi team beat Belgium with a superb goal scored by Saeed Al-Owairan, as he ran from half the field and dribbled past three defenders before hitting the net.

Thus, Saudi Arabia qualified for the first time in their history to the second round of the World Cup, and in the first participation. Hence, this participation remained the best in the history of Saudi participation in the World Cup so far.

In the second round, Saudi Arabia's journey in the World Cup ended after losing 3-1 to Sweden.