Abdulhamid returns to Saudi training in Doha before South Korea and Uzbekistan friendlies

Saud Abdulhamid took part in Saudi Arabia’s group training in Doha on 10 November after reporting to camp the previous day. Firas Al-Buraikan remained out of the group session with a cold, the Saudi Arabian Football Federation said. The two updates came before the first of two friendlies in Qatar. Saudi Arabia meet South Korea on Friday, 13 November, and Uzbekistan on Tuesday, 17 November. Both games are scheduled for Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium. The federation lists kick-offs at 17:30 and 18:30 Doha time respectively.

The session at Al-Irsal brought Georgios Donis’s players through warm-up work, small possession drills and exercises on pressing high up the pitch, before a full-pitch practice game. The federation scheduled another session at the same training ground for 18:30 on Wednesday, 11 November, closed to the media. The 10 November bulletin reported participation in training. It did not announce a starting team, declare Al-Buraikan unavailable for Friday, or specify how many minutes Abdulhamid might play. Those decisions still belong to the match schedule ahead.

What the two training updates mean

Abdulhamid’s return to the group gives Donis another option on the right side of the defence after a player arriving on a different timetable has had an opportunity to work with teammates. The value of the session lies partly in the work it contained. A wide defender in a high press has to judge when to step towards a receiver and when to stay behind the pressure. If he moves early, he can reduce the opponent’s available passes. If the player ahead of him is late, the same movement can leave a lane behind him. Those decisions depend on coordination across two lines, which a full-pitch practice can rehearse.

Al-Buraikan’s absence from the group is relevant to a different part of the same work. A centre-forward often starts the pressure by deciding which defender to approach and which passing lane to close. That choice affects where the wingers and midfielders move next. The 30-player camp list announced on 4 November included Al-Buraikan, Abdullah Al-Hamdan and Abdullah Al-Salem, giving the coach alternatives in the attacking group. It also included players such as Marwan Al-Sahafi and Turki Al-Ammar, whose positioning around the striker can change how the first line of pressure operates. The published list establishes who was called up. It gives no basis for naming Friday’s starter.

The session sequence offers a way to assess the approach in the friendlies without assuming a formation. In a small possession exercise, players can practise arriving quickly enough to block the closest outlet. The challenge changes when the drill moves to the full pitch. There is more room behind the pressing player, and the defender on the far side may have to decide whether to narrow the line or stay with a wide opponent. For Saudi Arabia, the revealing moments will come when the first challenge is bypassed. That is when the spacing between midfield and defence becomes visible, and when a full-back’s decision to step out or hold his position matters most.

A different setting for the South Korea rematch

The countries’ recent Asian Cup meeting provides a useful point of reference. In the round of 16 of the tournament branded Qatar 2023, played in January 2024, Saudi Arabia led through Abdullah Radif shortly after halftime at Education City Stadium. Cho Gue-sung headed South Korea level nine minutes into added time. The match stayed 1–1 through extra time, and South Korea won the shootout 4–2. The AFC credited goalkeeper Jo Hyeon-woo with the decisive saves. Friday’s friendly will be at a different stadium and has no knockout stakes, but that older match shows how late pressure can turn a game even after a team has protected a lead for most of a half.

South Korea’s November window has a separate purpose of its own. Yonhap reported that temporary head coach Robert Moreno named 26 players for the two matches in Doha, against Saudi Arabia on 13 November and Qatar on 17 November. That makes Friday the first assignment of the trip for both visiting squads. It also gives each staff an incentive to gather evidence it can use four days later. A team might maintain its opening setup for longer to see whether players adapt to pressure, or change the personnel to compare how different combinations solve the same problem. The publicly confirmed squads and dates are clear. The actual adjustments will only be visible once the teams play.

For Donis, the most useful comparison with 2024 concerns what happens after the first press fails or the opponent begins to sustain pressure. A clearance can end one attack but return the ball to the opposition. A controlled outlet can let the defending team move up and make the next attack start farther from its goal. During the 2024 knockout match, the late equaliser came from a header after South Korea kept pushing. A November friendly offers a chance to assess whether Saudi Arabia can use the ball after recovering it, as well as whether it can defend the first cross or pass into the area.

Uzbekistan give the second match its own context

Uzbekistan’s progress through World Cup qualifying puts the second friendly in perspective. FIFA records that a goalless draw with the United Arab Emirates in Abu Dhabi on 5 June 2025 secured Uzbekistan’s first World Cup qualification. It was a result achieved away from home, with a point enough to confirm the team’s place. In the previous World Cup qualifying cycle, Saudi Arabia had won 3–0 in Riyadh to finish ahead of Uzbekistan in their group. Those results belong to different qualification campaigns. The more recent one is a reason to approach the November fixture on the strength of Uzbekistan’s own record, rather than treating an older Saudi win as a guide to the present matchup.

FIFA’s qualifying review records a different route for Saudi Arabia. Uzbekistan and South Korea secured their places in the third round, and the Koreans reached an eleventh successive World Cup. Saudi Arabia went through the fourth round and qualified after a 0–0 draw with Iraq in Jeddah in October 2025. That distinction helps explain the value of bringing the two November opponents into one camp. Both had qualified directly from their third-round groups, while Saudi Arabia had needed the next stage. The Doha fixtures are preparation against recent World Cup opposition without the constraints of a qualifying table.

The Saudi squad will have four days between fixtures at the same venue. That removes a change of match stadium from the comparison, while still leaving a different opponent and the possibility of a different selection. If Donis changes the front line, the match can show whether the midfield supplies the new combinations with the same options for receiving and turning. If he keeps much of the defence intact, the staff can compare how the same group reacts when the next opponent uses different routes out of pressure. Those are questions the second friendly can answer. The schedule alone provides no evidence of how either staff will select its team.

The Gulf Cup win is the starting point for this camp

Saudi Arabia arrive at the November window after winning the Gulf Cup in Jeddah on 6 October. They beat the United Arab Emirates 2–0 in the final at Alinma Stadium. Al-Buraikan scored the second goal, according to the Saudi Pro League’s report. FIFA’s review records group victories against Kuwait, Oman and Iraq, by 1–0, 3–0 and 2–0 respectively. The final ended a 22-year wait for another Gulf Cup title. The run gives Donis recent competitive evidence about how his team operated against regional opponents, and gives context to why the availability of a forward such as Al-Buraikan is worth tracking in Doha.

The final also gives a recent example of how Saudi Arabia protected a lead. Hammam Al-Hammami put the hosts ahead in the 11th minute and Al-Buraikan added the second before halftime. When the UAE looked for a way back after the interval, Mohammed Al-Owais saved from Sultan Adil. The league’s account notes that Saudi Arabia completed the tournament with five consecutive clean sheets and that Al-Owais had helped it through a semifinal shootout against Qatar. He is in the November squad. Those details put the training emphasis on pressure alongside recent evidence of the team’s work nearer its own goal.

There is an additional reason to revisit the Gulf Cup group. Kuwait and Oman will both face Saudi Arabia again in Group A of the 2027 Asian Cup, alongside Palestine. The recent matches give the staff examples it can study before seeing those opponents in a tournament again. The November friendlies extend that work to opponents from elsewhere in the confederation. The two windows therefore offer different kinds of information. Jeddah shows what the team did in a regional tournament it won. Doha offers two chances to observe which parts of that approach carry over against teams outside Saudi Arabia’s January group.

January already has a fixed opening assignment

The Asian Football Confederation says Saudi Arabia will host the men’s Asian Cup for the first time, with the tournament running from 7 January to 5 February 2027. The hosts open against Palestine at King Fahd Sports City Stadium in Riyadh. Uzbekistan are in Group B with Bahrain, North Korea and Jordan. South Korea are in Group E with the United Arab Emirates, Vietnam and Yemen. The top two teams in each group and the four best third-placed sides will advance to the last 16. The two November opponents thus have their own paths through the tournament, while the Saudi staff can use both games to prepare for the demands of a competition at home.

Qatar has already provided Saudi Arabia with contrasting lessons in tournament football. In November 2022 the team beat Argentina 2–1 at Lusail after conceding first, with Saleh Al-Shehri and Salem Al-Dawsari scoring the goals. It later faced Mexico in the same stadium in the final group fixture. Those matches belong to a different squad and competition, but they explain why the archive photograph accompanying this report is from the 2022 World Cup rather than from this week’s work at Al-Irsal. The November camp brings the team back to Qatar under a different coach and for a different purpose.

The next firm markers are Friday’s match, the four-day turnaround and Tuesday’s second fixture. Before then, the clearest evidence from the camp is that Abdulhamid was back with the group, Al-Buraikan missed Tuesday’s collective work, and Donis used part of the session to train high pressing before moving onto the full pitch. The friendlies will show whether the distances between the lines hold when an opponent passes through the first pressure. They will also show which combinations the staff actually turns to when it has two matches in the same city, with the January opener already set.

Sources · Saudi federation training bulletin · Ajel English camp report · Sabq camp report · Saudi federation squad announcement · Saudi federation fixtures · Yonhap on South Korea’s squad · AFC on the 2024 round of 16 · AFC on the earlier Saudi–Uzbek qualifier · FIFA Asian qualifying review · FIFA Gulf Cup review · Saudi Pro League’s Gulf Cup final report · 2027 Asian Cup draw and schedule · AFC on Saudi Arabia’s 2022 opener