the local news came that this 22 years old player who scored both goals is a saudi who was discovered by qatar scouts in 2002 (i.e. when he was 14). he is from my city jeddah.
same exact story happened with previous qatar team keeper. a guy from senegal playing in one of the famous “district non-official leagues”.
there were few other stories like that. they got scouts living in saudi.
i found it very smart. a country with less than half million locals but with very good administration know how to exploit talents and where to find them.
in contrary, saudi, rich in population 23 million locals with rich talents and passionate for football. however, worst sport system.
talents are not used, a lot of money spoiling the players and their discipline. also, making them too costly to move to europe.
bad atmosphere for national team (they changed coach 24 times since 1994 WC), last was few days ago. today, saudi was first to exist asian cup.
till 1994 we had fairly okay soccer federation, and this why saudi team did well.
then the new administration took over till now.
unless it changed, world won’t see another nice goal in WC to remember from saudi.