Gross Bombs: NFL Props for Week 16
Josh Gross
Saudi Arabia World Cup Team Preview
Saudi Arabia
FIFA Ranking: 51
Manager: Herve Renard
Federation: AFC
Group: Argentina, Mexico, Poland, Saudi Arabia
Odds to win World Cup: +100000, PointsBet
Odds to win Group C: +3200, FanDuel Sportsbook
Odds to advance in Group C: +650, Caesars
How did Saudi Arabia qualify for the World Cup?
Saudi Arabia won 13 of their 18 games of qualifying, which gave them an automatic berth finishing one point ahead of Japan.
Who is Saudi Arabia’s most important player?
Salem Al-Dawsari
FIFA players probably recognize this name as Al-Dawsari has consistently been Saudi Arabia’s highest profile professional over the years. Al-Dawsari is a gifted dribbler with good pace who has had experience playing in domestic leagues with a loan spell in Villarreal.
What are Saudi Arabia’s strengths, weaknesses, style of play and form?
The Saudis are expected to play a 4-5-1 formation. To their credit, they are not known to park the bus against more talented squads, which allows for a more free-flowing game. That said, that leaves them highly susceptible to getting routed against top competition.
Their biggest strength is probably the location of the World Cup. Saudi Arabia is the only nation in the World Cup that shares a border with the host nation, Qatar.
Their biggest weakness is their talent. No matter what, in order to qualify for the World Cup, you have to be a talented team but now that they have qualified, they are unanimously looked at as the worst team to qualify. Every book has them as the biggest longshot to win the World Cup and they are the second lowest ranked FIFA team in the tournament.
Saudi Arabia has actually had some decent results of late, beating Iceland 1-0, North Macedonia 1-0 and drawing the USA and Ecuador 0-0.
What is Saudi Arabia’s World Cup Outlook?
This World Cup will be viewed as a huge success in Saudi Arabia if they are able to take any points in Group C. Even one draw will be a big accomplishment.
Best Saudi Arabia World Cup Bet
There are no markets for it yet, but I will be looking to bet Saudi Arabia Lowest-Scoring team.
Saudi Arabia Projected World Cup Roster
(32-man named options)
GK: Mohammed Al-Owais , Mohammed Al Rubaie, Nawaf Al-Aqidi, Amin Bukhari
DF: Yasser Al-Shahrani, Mohammed Al-Breik, Ali Al-Bulaihi, Sultan Al-Ghanam, Saud Abdulhamid, Abduleah Al-Amri, Hassan Tambakti, Abdullah Madu, Ahmed Bamsaud, Zakaria Hawsawi
MF: Salem Al-Dawsari, Fahad Al-Muwallad, Salman Al-Faraj, Nawaf Al-Abed, Abdullah Otayf, Hattan Bahebri, Mohamed Kanno, Abdulellah Al-Malki, Sami Al-Najei, Ali Al-Hassan, Ayman Yahya, Nasser Al-Dawsari, Riyadh Sharahili, Abdulrahman Al-Aboud
FW: Firas Alburaikan, Abdullah Al-Hamdan, Saleh Al-Shehri, Haitham Asiri, Abdullah Radif
Group A | Ecuador Senegal Netherlands Qatar
Group B | Iran Wales USA England
Group C | Mexico Saudi Arabia Poland Argentina
Group D | Tunisia Denmark Australia France
Group E | Japan Germany Costa Rica Spain
Group F | Croatia Morocco Canada Belgium
