Hilal continued increasing its lead at the top of the Saudi Zain Professional League after defeating its host Al-Fateh 4-0 in a round-17 match at Prince Abdullah Bin Jalawi Sports City Stadium Wednesday. In other matches, Al-Ra'id shared two goals with its guest and league runner-up Al-Shabab at King Abdullah Sports City Stadium in Buraidah While Al-Ahli defeated its guest Al-Qadisiyah 3-2 at Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Stadium. Brazilian midfielder Thiago Neves scored twice for Hilal, Swedish midfielder Christian Wilhelmsson increased the score and Romanian midfielder Meriel Radoi completed the tally. Neves headed in a cross from Wilhelmsson in the 32nd minute. His header hit the bar before entering the goal. Hilal dominated the first half. Hilal coach Erick Gerets replaced ineffective midfielder Mohammed Al-Shalhoub with striker Eissa Al-Muhayani. Soon after, in the 60th minute, Wilhelmsson and Neves repeated the same scenario, but with a bit stronger header by Neves. Fateh players now started attacking through Emanuel, Rabea Al-Sofiyani and Ahmed Bou-Obaid. Six minutes later, Yasser Al-Qahtani passed the ball into the box to an advancing Wilhelmsson. The latter tried to get past keeper Shareefi, but the goalkeeper brought him down. The Swedish midfielder scored from the spot after Shareefi was shown the yellow card. Hilal coach Erick Gerets replaced Wilhelmsson with midfielder Nawaf Al-Abed. In the 81st minute, Radoi surprised the followers with a strong kick from about 25 yards. The ball landed in the right corner of Shareefi. Hilal is on top of the standings with 44 points while Al-Fateh is seventh with 18 points. Al-Ra'id scored first against Al-Shabab through Brazilian striker Luis Bruno who applied finishing touches to Majed Al-Muallad's cross in the 13th minute. Naji Majrashi of Shabab scored from the spot in the 66th minute after Ra'id defender Hamad Al-Sagour brought down Shabab striker Faisal Al-Sultan. Al-Shabab is still second with 36 points while Al-Ra'id remains 11th with eight points. In Jeddah, Al-Ahli defeated Al-Qadisiyah 3-2. The match witnessed three red cards. Two were against Al-Qadisiyah players – Peruvian midfielder Juan Cominges (63rd minute) and defender Zakariya Al-Haddaf (second yellow card in the 90th minute). Al-Ahli's new Tunisian defender Saifuddine Ghazal was sent off in his first match in the 60th minute after the second yellow. Cominges put Qadisiyah in the lead when he scored from the spot in the seventh minute. Malik Mo'adh leveled the score in the 36th minute before Abdurraheem Al-Jaizawi increased the score for Ahli a minute before the break. However, Cominges succeeded to score again from the spot in the 63rd minute before skipper Mohammed Musa'ad sealed the win for Al-Ahli in the 83rd minute. Al-Ahli is sixth with 23 points with a nine-goal difference behind Al-Wehdah. The team still has one match in hand. Al-Qadisiyah is tenth with 11 points. Ittihad sacks Calderon The Disciplinary Committee of the Saudi Arabian Football Federation (SAFF) Wednesday suspended Al-Ittihad defender Osama Al-Muallad to an unspecified date. The decision came for the player's aggressive tackle against Al-Nasr striker Mohammed Al-Sahlawi, in the last minute of the encounter that ended 2-1 for Nasr. The suspension would be effective from the day of the match. However, it added that the suitable punishment will be discussed in the committee's next meeting Saturday. Following the defeat, Ittihad administration announced Tuesday that its members had unanimously decided to end the services of the team's coach Gabriel Calderon. It also said that it would pay Calderon $400,000 for the cancellation of his contract. Saudi coach Hasan Khalifa to manage the team. The decisions followed the poor performance which the team has been showing since it lost the Asian Champions League. The 49-year-old Argentinian has earlier coached the Saudi national team. In June 2008 he was hired by Al-Ittihad and eventually won the title of the Saudi League. However, Calderon reached the final match of the AFC championship, but lost 2
