Saudi Arabia went to the 1994 World Cup as the side everyone expected to beat. Group filler, in other words. Saeed Al-Owairan had not read that script. Against Belgium the Saudi midfielder picked the ball up in his own half, near the halfway line, and set off. Four Belgian players tried to stop him. None did, and he slotted the ball past the goalkeeper.
It was Saudi Arabia's Maradona moment, and many still rate it the finest goal an Asian player has scored at a World Cup.
Seventy yards on his own
The run covered some 70 yards. Al-Owairan kept the ball close through a crowd of defenders and then finished calmly, as if the hard part were already done. It was the only goal of the game. Saudi Arabia won 1-0, and the result helped carry them into the Round of 16.
The goal earned him a nickname, the Maradona of the Arabs, and it remains the best-known goal scored by a Middle Eastern player at a World Cup. Few people outside the region knew his name before that afternoon. Plenty did afterwards.
What makes it so memorable is the gap between expectation and outcome. A supposed makeweight against Belgium, and a player hardly anyone had heard of, produced a goal Maradona would have been happy with. It changed the way many people looked at Asian football, and it is still the underdog story World Cup fans reach for first.
Tomorrow: number 27.
