Successful dribbles: 36. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Two goals and a mark of 8.43 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Lars Veldwijk and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Ahli have kept their man, and Al-Nahda go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohammad Amini was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Al-Ta'ee will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 18 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Nobody at Al-Ta'ee will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Khalid Al-Harbi after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Al-Ta'ee told Abdullah Al-Shammari something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Al-Nahda, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.18 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Lars Veldwijk and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Thabo Nkwana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
0‑3 to Damac, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Al-Nahda can tell you which week it ends in.
Lars Veldwijk was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Fahad Al-Obaid, and the manager let it.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Thabo Nkwana falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Half the programme played, position 10, 14 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Lars Veldwijk was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
1‑3 to Al-Ta'ee, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Al-Nahda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Mjengu is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Saad Al-Sultan after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Thabo Nkwana
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Hussain Al-Zarie’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Al-Nahda needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Lars Veldwijk and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Al-Nahda and Al-Hazem, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Al-Nahda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thabo Nkwana is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Saad Al-Sultan after 0‑8, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Saif Rashad, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.61
A mark of 7.61 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Lars Veldwijk was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Daniel Mjengu falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Marked 8.45 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Al-Shoulla go through and Al-Nahda go home, 1‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Hussain Al-Zarie and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Daniel Mjengu falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
20 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Al-Nahda have done the hard part with Al-Ta'ee, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Lars Veldwijk was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Al-Nahda asked and Al-Diriyah said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Thabo Nkwana falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Al-Ta'ee have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Successful dribbles: 27. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Rakan Al-Shamlan has gone, the accounts have $1.1M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Al-Khaleej paid $1.1M and Al-Ta'ee took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Al-Ta'ee people have started saying his name in the past tense.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.95 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Fateh have kept their man, and Al-Ta'ee go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Add another name to the list: Ohod have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ammar Al-Ammar. The answer from Al-Ta'ee has not changed — yet.