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Real Madrid legend, and current Al-Sadd captain, Raul Gonzales scored a goal but could not help his side to a win as Al-Sadd went down 1-2 to Al-Rayyan in the final of the 2013 Emir Cup, Qatar’s premier cup tournament. Al-Sadd had earlier lost in the Heir Apparent Cup final to Lekhwiya and came into Saturday’s match with hopes to make amends. All those hopes were crushed when the Rayyan brigade scored two goals in the first ten minutes itself.
The match had only just started when Al-Sadd’s Iraqi striker went off celebrating after landing a powerful volley in the net. However, the effort was ruled out for offside. In the sixth minute, a seemingly dangerless cross into the box by Rayyan captain Fabio Cesar was allowed to pass through by Al-Sadd’s defender Kasola. Ex-Brazil striker Nilmar ghosted in and pounced on the ball, putting it past keeper Al-Sheeb, making it 1-0 for the Lions. Three minutes later, Al-Sadd paid for another defensive error. Al-Sadd’s starlet Khalfan Ibrahim played a backpass – straight to Rayyan’s Nilmar. He was immediately brought down with a careless tackle by Abdel Karim Hassan and the referee pointed to the spot. Fabio stepped up and cleverly watched the keeper dive to his left before burying the ball in the net. Al-Sadd were two goals down and everyone in their camp was stunned. Raul couldn’t really believe it. Al-Rayyan fans went into delirium, waving flags and banners madly and celebrating, regardless of the fact that over 80 minutes were still left to be played.
After that double setback, Al-Sadd had most of the posession but no real chances came up in attack except for a Khalfan lob, that went slightly wide of the Rayyan goal, and a Hassan al-Hydos piledriver, that made Rayyan keeper Barry stertch well to put out. A defensive header by Rayyan dropped the ball to Algerian World Cupper Nadir Belhadj, who shot wide. In the 55th minute, Raul charged on with the ball and then fed Kasola on the right who did well to get into the box. The Rayyan defence attempted Kasola’s cross but it went wrong, with the ball falling to Raul who promptly put it past Barry. Al-Sadd grew in confidence after the goal and the Rayyan flags stayed down. Good linkup play resulted in Khalfan playing a good ball to Belhadj, who was charging in from the left. Belhadj’s low cross flew past the goal; no one got a touch.
As the match progressed past the hour mark, the game slowly settled into a monotonous routine of countless long balls into the Rayyan box, all of which were lapped up by the Rayyan defence. Although Al-Sadd kept the ball, they posed no real threat and Al-Rayyan happy to sit back. Sadd grew frustrated as Rayyan seemingly adopted time wasting tactics. There was a flurry of fouls and yellow cards in the final few minutes but Al-Rayyan held on to win their sixth Emir Cup. Al-Sadd, on the other hand, had to digest a repeat of last season, when they lost both cup finals.
