\n
\nLUSAIL, Qatar: Overjoyed fans erupted in celebration around the Arab world Tuesday after Saudi Arabia\u2019s shocking World Cup win over Argentina.<\/p>\n
\nFrom Syria and Jordan to Gaza and Qatar \u2014 host of this year\u2019s World Cup \u2014 fans basked in Saudi Arabia\u2019s achievement, one of the biggest upsets in the tournament\u2019s history.<\/p>\n
\nImmediately after their team\u2019s 2-1 come-from-behind victory, Saudi fans who witnessed the match in person flooded the streets outside Lusail Stadium waving their country\u2019s green and white flags while chanting and singing \u2014 and even hugging distraught Argentina fans.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI\u2019m speechless,\u201d Saudi Arabia fan Sultan Alharthi said. \u201cI can\u2019t even explain how much happy I am, because I didn\u2019t expect we will win.<\/p>\n
\nQatar\u2019s ruling emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, attended the match, and at one point wrapped a Saudi flag over his shoulders. The moment, captured in online video and widely shared, would have been unthinkable nearly two years ago when Saudi Arabia and three other Arab nations boycotted Qatar over a political dispute.<\/p>\n
\nIn northwestern Syria, the war-torn country\u2019s rebel stronghold, residents gathered at cafes cheered and celebrated after the final whistle. It was a pleasant change for the enclave, where millions suffer from frequent airstrikes and poverty.<\/p>\n
\nIn the city of Idlib, Ahmad Al-Absi said Saudi Arabia\u2019s victory was a much needed morale boost for Syrians and Arabs across the Middle East, even if it meant seeing his favorite soccer team lose.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cIt shows that we have talented people who can achieve things on a global stage,\u201d Al-Absi, an Argentina fan, told The Associated Press. \u201cWe\u2019re dreaming of better futures as Arabs, and this morale boosts reminds us that nothing is impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nIn the streets of Amman, Jordan, dozens of Saudi nationals and Jordanians celebrated in the streets, carrying Saudi flags or placing them on their cars and blaring their horns.<\/p>\n
\nAnd in Gaza, Palestinian residents rejoiced, saying they stood with Saudi Arabia in its moment of soccer glory. \u201cThey stand with us politically and socially, so these celebrations are sort of reciprocation,\u201d said Gaza resident Abu Khalil.<\/p>\n
\nIn Saudi Arabia, King Salman announced a snap public holiday for all workers and students in the kingdom in celebration of the win.<\/p>\n
\nPeople watching the match at a fan zone in the capital, Riyadh, jumped with joy and cheered as the game ended. Drivers honked their horns in celebration. Saudi authorities also allowed free entry to a state-sponsored sports and entertainment festival.<\/p>\n
\nThe gravity of the victory will eventually sink in. Saudi Arabia is a team that had only ever won three World Cup matches in its history prior to Tuesday\u2019s game. Argentina, which won the World Cup in 1978 and 1986, is \u2014 or was \u2014 one of the favorites this year.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cOne for the books,\u201d Saudi Arabia coach Herv\u00e9 Renard said. \u201cSometimes things are completely crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nSaudi goalkeeper Mohammed Alowais, who made two key saves late in the game, was almost subdued at the end, perhaps not grasping the magnitude of the upset.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI am very happy about this result that we have been able to obtain against this very storied team,\u201d Alowais said solemnly. \u201cWe have prepared ourselves. We were 100 percent ready and hopefully we will have better results in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nDespite trailing 1-0 at halftime after a 10th-minute goal from Lionel Messi, perhaps the greatest soccer player of all time, Saleh Alshehri and Salem Aldawsari managed to score a goal each early in the second half.<\/p>\n
\nThen came more than 50 minutes, including added time at the end of the match at the referee\u2019s discretion, of holding one of the tournament favorites at bay.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cAll the stars aligned for us,\u201d said Renard, who won the African Cup of Nations as coach of Zambia in 2012 and then again with Ivory Coast in 2015.<\/p>\n
\nRenard has has also coached Angola and Morocco, which he guided to the 2018 World Cup in Russia. He took over Saudi Arabia in 2019.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWe made history for Saudi football,\u201d Renard said. \u201cIt will stay forever. This is the most important. But we also need to think about looking forward because we still have two games that are very very difficult for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nRenard said he asked his players to limit the celebration after the game to 20 minutes.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThat\u2019s all,\u201d he said. \u201cBut there are still two games \u2014 or more.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nThey still must face Poland on Saturday and then take on Mexico next Tuesday in Group C. Both are probably still favorites against Saudi Arabia \u2014 despite the upset.<\/p>\n
\nHe also suggested another possible truth: Messi and Argentina probably underestimated Saudi Arabia, which is only No. 51 in the FIFA ranking. Argentina is No. 3.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cBut you know the motivation is not like you are playing Brazil,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LUSAIL, Qatar: Overjoyed fans erupted in celebration around the Arab world Tuesday after Saudi Arabia\u2019s shocking…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sport"],"yoast_head":"\n
Tiger Woods wins $15m in PGA Tour\u2019s Player Impact Program - Gulf Times | News by the minute<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Gulf Times: Latest news across the GCC from UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/2204526\/sport\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tiger Woods wins $15m in PGA Tour\u2019s Player Impact Program\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gulf News| UAE's Largest News aggregator site\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/2204526\/sport\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gulf Times | News by the minute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/100084981843786\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-11-23T02:40:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/gulftimesuae-logo.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"452\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"111\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"gulftimes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Gulftimesuae\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Gulftimesuae\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"gulftimes\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Tiger Woods wins $15m in PGA Tour\u2019s Player Impact Program - Gulf Times | News by the minute","description":"Gulf Times: Latest news across the GCC from UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/2204526\/sport","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Tiger Woods wins $15m in PGA Tour\u2019s Player Impact Program","og_description":"Gulf News| UAE's Largest News aggregator site","og_url":"https:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/2204526\/sport","og_site_name":"Gulf Times | News by the minute","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/100084981843786","article_published_time":"2022-11-23T02:40:20+00:00","og_image":[{"width":452,"height":111,"url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/gulftimesuae-logo.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"gulftimes","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Gulftimesuae","twitter_site":"@Gulftimesuae","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"gulftimes","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/2204526\/sport#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=8447"},"author":{"name":"gulftimes","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#\/schema\/person\/4c5b0f90aae48bb43165ee6e39ddc977"},"headline":"Tiger Woods wins $15m in PGA Tour\u2019s Player Impact Program","datePublished":"2022-11-23T02:40:20+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=8447"},"wordCount":810,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Sport"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/2204526\/sport#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=8447","url":"https:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/2204526\/sport","name":"Tiger Woods wins $15m in PGA Tour\u2019s Player Impact Program - Gulf Times | News by the minute","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#website"},"datePublished":"2022-11-23T02:40:20+00:00","description":"Gulf Times: Latest news across the GCC from UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/2204526\/sport#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/2204526\/sport"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/2204526\/sport#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Tiger Woods wins $15m in PGA Tour\u2019s Player Impact Program"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#website","url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/","name":"Gulf Times | News by the minute","description":"Largest News Aggregator in the Gulf","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#organization"},"alternateName":"Gulf News Aggregator","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#organization","name":"Gulf Times","url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"","contentUrl":"","caption":"Gulf Times"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/100084981843786","https:\/\/x.com\/Gulftimesuae"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#\/schema\/person\/4c5b0f90aae48bb43165ee6e39ddc977","name":"gulftimes","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a8f9c2e07a9cd7e7e7c302c8c7ce8d5e0865a0bbcc732793d6e761588fd10b03?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a8f9c2e07a9cd7e7e7c302c8c7ce8d5e0865a0bbcc732793d6e761588fd10b03?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a8f9c2e07a9cd7e7e7c302c8c7ce8d5e0865a0bbcc732793d6e761588fd10b03?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"gulftimes"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/gulftimes.ae"],"url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8447\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}