Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Moussa Dembélé scored in the 85th minute, Al-Diriyah had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Al-Ettifaq took the lot.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Ettifaq this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
7 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.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Georginio Wijnaldum provided it, and the 8.18 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Mohau Nkota, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.42
A mark of 8.42 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.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Yasir Al-Shammari reports back to Al-Ettifaq with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
“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-Ettifaq hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Rodrigo Bareiro 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.
9 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Al-Ettifaq and Ohod in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
In brief
SquadWords at Al-Ettifaq training over how hard people work
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Al-Ettifaq can pretend not to have heard.
The deal that would have taken Meshal Sibyani to Al-Shabab has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Al-Ettifaq with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Ettifaq this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The offer from Al-Ittihad for Matija Gluščević was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Al-Ettifaq can pretend not to have heard.
Add another name to the list: Zob Ahan have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Mohau Nkota. The answer from Al-Ettifaq has not changed — yet.
Georginio Wijnaldum 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.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Al-Ettifaq will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Al-Shabab will make the call about Meshal Sibyani this week. Al-Ettifaq have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Al-Fayha defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Al-Saudi Al-Watani will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Al-Ettifaq were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jordan Larsson provided it, and the 8.49 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.04 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“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-Ettifaq, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Ettifaq this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
The offer from Al-Nassr for Mohau Nkota was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.86 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Georginio Wijnaldum 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.
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.
Marked 8.37 — 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 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.
Georginio Wijnaldum 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.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Al-Ettifaq will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Georginio Wijnaldum and Al-Ettifaq agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Ettifaq this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Al-Ettifaq know it, and so does everybody who watches him.