Two goals and a mark of 9.06 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Adryelson wants continental football; whether Al Wasl can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Al Wasl can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Mehdi Taremi 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.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Marked 8.07 — 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Abdullah Ismail could afford to be generous.
Something was said to Salem Al-Azizi and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Position 2, 20 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
A brace, and Mehdi Taremi takes the afternoon — 9.20
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mehdi Taremi provided it, and the 9.20 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Al Wasl hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mehdi Taremi. 3‑1 against Al Ahli, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
At 23 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.
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
A brace, and Mehdi Taremi takes the afternoon — 9.45
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mehdi Taremi provided it, and the 9.45 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al Wasl have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Al Wasl heard it as anything else.
Abdelrahman Saleh 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.
Dibba will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Al Wasl were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
A brace, and Mehdi Taremi takes the afternoon — 9.15
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mehdi Taremi provided it, and the 9.15 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Abdullah Ismail on a 4‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Two goals and a mark of 8.68 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 21 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.
Minute 90, against Al Wahda, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Two goals and a mark of 8.90 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Al Wasl can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Mehdi Taremi 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.
Marked 8.14 — 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Al Wasl are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
4 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
In brief
SquadA place in the month's best eleven for Pedro Malheiro
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.98 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Adryelson 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Abdullah Ismail on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dinko Horkaš trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.