Algerian duo's fuel to foil Hamdallah key to Damac turnaround

Granted, the last thing Damac’s defence needs right now is to come up against the Roshn Saudi League’s second all-time leading scorer.

Having failed to keep a clean sheet in their opening five fixtures of the 2024-25 campaign, Cosmin Contra’s side face a visit on Friday from third-placed Al Shabab as they look to get their season back on track. That means a confrontation with star striker Abderrazak Hamdallah, who sits 14 goals shy of Omar Al Somah's RSL record (144 goals).

While he missed Al Shabab’s 2-1 win against Al Raed in Matchweek 5, keeping Vitor Pereira’s men third in the table and behind only Al Hilal and Al Ittihad, the Moroccan underlined his class with a Man of the Match performance against Al Kholood in the King’s Cup last week.

Starting at the point of the attack, alongside Yannick Carrasco and Giacomo Bonaventura, the 33-year-old wound back the clock with a vintage performance, scoring twice and setting up another for Bonaventura in a 3-1 win that continued Al Shabab’s stellar start to the season. The double helped his team advance to the last 16.

After an interrupted first few weeks of the 2024-25 RSL because of injury, Hamdallah is clearly beginning to click into gear.

The same, though, cannot be said of Damac. Registering one win in their first five top-flight matches, it is only goal difference that currently keeps them off the bottom of the table. Last weekend's 1-0 defeat to newly promoted Al Orobah was preceded by a confidence-shaking 2-0 reverse to second-tier Al Najma in the King’s Cup.

Having finished in the top 10 in all but one of their five seasons back in the RSL since winning promotion for the 2019-20 season, Contra and Co face a tough task to turn around Damac’s fortunes.

While, over that period, they’ve never been the league’s most miserly side, Damac have never been one of the worst either: during the past half a decade, they’ve averaged 46 goals, while the average of those relegated has been 58. Last season, the first RSL campaign with 34 games, the relegated teams conceded an average of 76 goals, or around 2.2 goals per game.

The worry for Contra is how Damac’s defensive record is trending early in the season: they have conceded 10 goals in five games, the equal-third worst record in the league. Continue that trend, of conceding two goals per match, and they would clock in at close to 70, putting them at risk of relegation.

On the flip side, Damac’s attacking record is promising, with seven goals scored - two more, actually, than Al Shabab have managed this season. And, with Georges-Kevin N'Koudou on their books – the Cameroonian scored 15 goals last term in his debut season in Saudi Arabia – their ability to find the back of the net remains strong.

All of this highlights how important it is for Damac to tighten up defensively. If they can manage that, they can conceivably get up and running and look to climb the standings.

Key to a mini renaissance, then, will be Algerian defensive duo Abdelkader Bedrane and Farouk Chafai. The compatriots have been mainstays at the heart of defence; Bedrane for the past two seasons, Chafai for the past five. As defenders, as much as winning is their primary goal, of equal importance is helping keep out the opposition.

Typically, clean sheets form the foundation of any success, but so far this season Damac have come up short, as the backline has been breached in each of their five RSL fixtures thus far. Hence, there is no better time to change that than this weekend, when they make the almost-1000km journey north to Riyadh to face the fast-starting Al Shabab.

Giving Bedrane and Chafai extra motivation, no doubt, will be getting one over their North African compatriot in Moroccan international Hamdallah, who enjoys a strong scoring record against Damac. The former Al Nassr and Al Ittihad hitman has five goals in seven matches against the Khamis Mushait outfit.

The competitive footballing rivalry between Algeria and Morocco is a fiery and fierce one, so that personal battle will not only add an interesting undercurrent to Saturday's encounter, but it could arguably be decisive in deciding the outcome of the match.

It’s a game that feels as if, considering their opening RSL results, Damac cannot afford to lose. And for pride’s sake, you’d imagine, one Bedrane and Chafai cannot either.