1994 World Cup: Saudi Arabia's Said Al Owairane's legendary solo goal

By Mehdi El Asba

The 1994 World Cup in the United States was the first World Cup I ever watched and I still have fond memories of it. I was nine years old and we were on the eve of the Bosman ruling, so it was the last World Cup where we could see stars from lesser clubs compared to today's behemoths. As a Moroccan, I was inevitably held spellbound by the national team and my star of the time, Ahmed Bahja, the same Bahja who would later make the headlines in Saudi Arabia with his extraordinary technical skills but also his sometimes moody temperament.

Morocco found themselves in Group F and were thus in the same group as Saudi Arabia, which was participating in its first world competition and in which team was the legendary goalkeeper Mohammed Al-Deayea. It was 20 June 1994, and after a good start to their first game of the tournament against the Netherlands, the hard-working Saudis lost 1-2 on a late goal by Taument.

The second game was against my favourite team, Morocco, and this time the Saudis took the game by the scruff of the neck, scoring a goal from the penalty spot in the seventh minute through the then Arab star Sami Al Jaber. But then after a classy move by Ahmed Bahja, he delivered an assist on a plate to Chaouch who scored into the empty net. We are approaching half-time and after a harmless long-range shot from Anwar, the goalkeeper Azmi is completely lost and concedes a goal that has caused and continues to cause a lot of ink to flow in the Cherifian kingdom. The match will remain there and Saudi Arabia only needs to obtain a draw against Belgium to ensure its qualification, because it should be remembered that we witnessed the last World Cup which had 24 participants and where the best third places were qualified.

Screenshot of the FIFA video on YouTube (accessed on 18 February 2023).

 

It was in this third and final group match that the Al Owairane myth was written. In the fifth minute of the game, an otherworldly illumination from the player who had made a name for himself that day, made the rounds of the football world. After a 69-metre dribble across the pitch past four players, the 'Saudi Maradona' as he was known, scored one of the most legendary goals in World Cup history! A goal that continues to be included in the compilations of the most beautiful goals on YouTube, Instagram and other social media. It is fair to say that the local Al-Shabab star had his moment of glory on that day, reaching the pinnacle of a global popularity.

Saudi Arabia won thanks to the masterpiece described above and thus qualified third in their group with six points! It is worth noting that the 1994 World Cup was the first time that the three-point system was introduced. The opponent in the Round of 16 was Sweden, which won the match by three goals to one and went on to create the sensation of the tournament by finishing third, thanks in particular to phenomena such as goalkeeper Thomas Ravelli and Henrik Larsson, who would become the country's mascot. Nevertheless, history will remember that a small but great nation in terms of size and history, for its first participation in a World Cup, shook the football world if only for a certain number of matches.

Translation from French: Shafick Osman.