Money Can’t Buy A Winning National Team

Somehow Saudi Arabia took down Argentina last year in the group stages and everyone lost their minds. You might have heard the Saudis say “where’s Messi?” And other things like that. But that was the past and now they got to show up again. In WCQ they went 8-4-6. Saudi scored 22 goals and conceded 13. Firas Al Buraikab scored 5 of those 22 goals. I hate to say it but this Saudi team kinda fell off since last World Cup. Jorden out qualified them, no disrespect to Jorden but the Saudi team last year would never let that happen. Georgios Donis is the Saudi Arabians manager. He took over in April of 2026 so he has little experience with this national squad. He is very experienced in football though and very tactical. His teams plays a 4-3-3 and likes to score on break outs. They play a very high and fast press trying to cause as much chaos as possible. They lack strong defense and holding on to the ball for long periods of time. I’m not going to go over all the defenders and key players because they’re names give me a headache. Fight me. Saudi held a 50 player training camp in March. With the lack of quality and depth I think this was a way of trying to throw everything together fast and hope it sticks. Al-Dawsari will be the captain and leading goal scorer. He will be looking for chances up high and pressing out of his mind. In group H they will have to put up with Spain, Uruguay, and Cape Verde. Thats a rough group. Being 100% there is almost no chance they survive this group. But we did say that about them beating Argentina last Cup. I don’t really like this team. I see to many problems. They probably should have prepared better. Overall this team seems like a mess. Good luck Saudi!