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Asia and Oceania Cup group stage halftime!

Written by Gebhard_Oberle

Halftime break! Five out of ten group stage games are played and we take a look back on what happened over the last 2 1/2 weeks.

26.08.opening match of the 2022 Asia and Oceania Cup and the road to qualify for the next world cup. I guess it is fair enough if we call ourselve "underdog" based on the rating points of our oponents in group A.

Hong Kong (Rating points): 255
China (Rating points): 240
Sakartvelo (Rating points): 225
Việt Nam (Rating points): 225
Saudi Arabia (Rating points): 165
Guam (Rating points): 0

Anyway, this is it, the big stage. A tournament to show the Hattrick world what this great nation of Saudi Arabia is capable of. Always an exciting moment if you set up tactis for a game which is basically unpredictable and on top is an aways game. First oponent which was waiting to play us was Việt Nam.

Việt Nam - Saudi Arabia (26747598) = 1:2
Pic, pic, pic! There aren't many possibilites to play with in the first round. You got to get this team spirit up. Not surprising we playe a counter attack which lead us to, some would say a lucky, first round win. A very important start for us and a solid base for the second game ahead.

Guam lost their first game which wasn't surprising but you have to be aware of oponents you think are easier to play as they might trick you into something and sneak out a point or three.

Saudi Arabia - Guam (26747620) = 3:2
It couldn't start worse. Second minute played and Guam scored their first goal. One strong attacking side and a gracious game engine and we were behind one goal. Though, we were the better team and within 8 minutes the game changed to a confident 3:1. At the end it was enough for todays game. We were able to play another pic and boost the team spirit again with a final game result of 3:2.

Second game, second win. It wasn't that easy anymore for our oponents to predict what this team will play and therefore we had an exciting match coming up against a though China. They lost in a tight second game against Sakartvelo and needed a win to keep up their chances to win this group.

China - Saudi Arabia (26747639) = 0:1
Kick off and the reveal of each teams skills. Wow, what a surprise. Equal in the midfield, a slight advantage in the defense for us but also a draw on one of our attacking side. That was not expected but somehow China managed to play with one extremely weak defensive side. As much as our supporters love the great team of Saudi Arabia, the game engine does as well. In minute 28 we got a chance over our equal attacking side and were able to score for a 0:1 lead. With our tactis "pressing" we were able to avoid a lot of chances being played in this game which was enough to win this one with a 0:1.

Third game, third win and a top game ahead against Sakartvelo! They had also a winning streak of 3 games and it was clear for us they want this to go on. The training update before this game was really disappointing for us and a lot of players dropped in their form why we had to nominate some more players.

Saudi Arabia - Sakartvelo (26747660) = 1:2
Probably the most exciting game so far as with another win we would be leading this group with 3 points ahead of Sakartvelo. Though Sakartvelo put everything on their midfield and managed to be slightly better than us. Not good for us to be honest and a bit disappointing that we played it normal and weren't able to win the midfield. Anyway, we were able to score the first goald and lead the game with 1:0 in the halftime. That was enough for us to adjust our tactis to focus more on our defense and our midfield. It was basically a coinflip game. We managed to equal the midfield ratings and everyone who would get the next chance in this game could have been able to score. Minute 71, Bashir Al-Shaer (442924702) and it felt like the game engine was giving up on us. 8 minutes later and within miniute 79 and 80 Sakartvelo scored to times and turned the game to their advantage 1:2. Their coach set up some tactis to get this lead over the time and we weren't able to change that anymore. Our first loss in this qualification. Felt really bad to be honest.

What to expect from Hong Kong? 3 games lost, 1 win and they played pic through all those games. They had the advantage of a strong midfield especially because we had to play normal in the game before against Sakartvelo. No chance we were able to get even close to their midfield rating.

Hong Kong - Saudi Arabia (26747681) = 1:1
As expected, a high midfield rating and not possible for us to compete with that. We played counter attack in a 4-4-2 to provide a strong defense with at least a decent attack. Obviously not enough but probably enough for the game engine to grant us a goal. Surprisingly for us Hong Kong was playing "long shots" with a magical rating on that. Pretty impressive for a national team. There wasn't anything happening till half time which was good for us because we would have been happy getting one point out of this game and a boost on our team spirit. However, minute 73 one of those long shots was precise enough to score a goal for Hong Kong. Pitty. Minute 73. Another 17 minutes and we would have got this one point. Though we had some tactical changes set up if we would have been behind. Lucky us Darwish Gholoom (431981447) which we subbed in was able to score for us in minute 77. Unbelievable! never expected a come back in this game but somehow we managed it to get his result over time and take home 1 point out of this game.

And that is it so far. 5 games played, halftime. We are currently on a satisfying second place with 10 points out of 5 games. There is a slight advantage for us with 3 home games left. We hope that we can continue this streak and reach our goal to qualify for the upcoming world cup. And who knows.... maybe get to the next round in this cup as well. Thank you to all supporters who are watching the games and interacting with us in the national forum. Don't forget there is still time to compete in the betting game we set up for our games of the Asia and Oceania Cup where you can win prices.

Qualifcation will continue this friday and we are more than excited to see were we will end with this great national team of Saudi Arabia!