Saudi Arabia's Khalid Abdel Gabar: ''It's anybody’s game right now''

RIYADH (Saudi Arabia) - For a second straight time at the FIBA Asia Cup 2021 Qualifiers, Saudi Arabia rebounded to close out the Window on a high note. Now that there is only one more window left, there are going to have to focus on starting strong and finishing even stronger.

Back inside the Doha bubble last November, Saudi Arabia started off with a tough loss to Iran, 71-64. Saudi Arabia put up a fight down to the final moments, but eventually it wasn’t enough to take down the three-time Asian champions.

However, they didn’t let that tough defeat get to their heads and rebounded for a narrow win over Qatar in the next game, 73-67. In another game that went down to the wire, it was Khalid Abdel Gabar that knocked down the mid-range dagger to seal the win in  overtime for Saudi Arabia.

“You always have to be ready for those moments,” Gabar said  of the shot. “It’s a close game and everybody’s tired. At the end of the day, I wanted the ball in my hand. I wanted to give the team the best opportunity and even though I was tired, I was glad about the outcome and I pushed very hard. I’m just proud of my team, we all fought hard.”

The results of the second window put Saudi Arabia in third place in Group E with a 2-2 record. Nonetheless, it’s a tight race between all four teams in a Group that has proven that anyone can beat anyone on a given gameday.

“Obviously, we wanted to come out of this with both wins but I think we fought really hard and we wanted to get a good outcome going into the third window in February. I think right now we put ourselves in a good position. We still have two important games against Iran and Syria, and now we just have to focus on the next window.”

The importance of the final two qualifiers games for Saudi Arabia cannot be understated. Iran might currently be at the top of the standings, but they do have one loss on their scoresheet. That loss was handed to them by Syria who pulled off the upset right before Saudi Arabia took the court.

“Syria got a big win against Iran so now it makes things more interesting,” Gabar emphasized. It’s going to be a fight for that second and third place. It’s anybody’s game right now, so we just have to focus and pray everything works out in our favor.”

Saudi Arabia will be laser-focused in this upcoming final window. The entire team knows that the stakes are high and that this is the final stretch towards what they’ve been fighting for ever since the Pre-Qualifiers back in 2018.

“We have [a lot on our hands] against Syria and Iran. Syria beat us at home [in Window 1], so we need to beat them [in Window 3]. Also, it was close game against Iran,” added team veteran Mohammed Almarwani. The 31-year-old also mentioned the team missed the presence of Marzouq Almuwallad and Ayoub Alhawsawi and are looking forward to their return in this final window.

“When they come back, we’ll be complete and we’ll do great.”

More importantly than having everyone on board for this last stage, the key to success for Saudi Arabia is to play as a cohesive unit as they have been doing so up to this point.

“We’ve just got to keep the defense intensity up,” Gabar said of what the team needs to do in the final window. “Offensively, we’ve got to find the open guys and keep attacking the basket.”

“We’re going to watch film and we’re going to see exactly where we have to improve on.  Whatever where our strengths and our weaknesses are, whatever coach is going to give us in our game plan, we’re just going to follow and trust the process.”

Following the gameplan has worked out for most of the past so far for Saudi Arabia. It’s only reasonable that they follow through with that approach into this final window in order to clinch a spot at Asia Cup 2021.

FIBA