Season finale

TONIGHT is the big night as the football season comes to an end. Ittihad from Jeddah will meet Shabab from Riyadh at King Fahad International Stadium in Riyadh for the King's Cup final.

The governor of Riyadh, Prince Khalid bin Bander, will grace us with his presence as the guest of honor. Both teams had quite a tough time reaching the finals. Ittihad had a hard quarterfinals with Hilal, which, on the other hand, performed its weakest this year.

Ittihad had an easier semifinals with league champion Fateh beating them 2-0 in the first leg and 4-0 in the second leg.

Shabab had an easy quarterfinal against Ra'aed and a tough semifinals with Ahli.

Ahli came closest to reaching the final when they won the first leg 1-0 but Shabab beat them in the second leg at Malaz Stadium last Saturday by 2-0, to complete the well-deserved victory.

Shabab is widely considered one of the top teams the past few years and finihed third in the league with the same coach for the second season. I think that they have a more stable management and coach than Ittihad.

For tonight’s match, Ittihad looks the hungrier team than Shabab having failed to join this year's Asian Champions League. They are hoping to make it next year. They also have not had a championship for years.

Hilal, Shabab and Ahli have been dominating the championships for the past four years. Fateh has become a dark horse breaking that chain in this season's league with Ittihad ranking the seventh this year.

Speaking of Ittihad, they encountered some problems this year when they kicked out their all-time most valuable player, Mohammad Noor, and replacd their coach.

Ittihad and Shabab fought twice in the league this season, the first one ended 2-2 and the second 2-1 to Shabab. Surely, it’s going to be a close match. In this sport, anything can happen, no predictions here on who's going to win. Your guess is as good as mine. May the best team wins.