Goal-shy Al Okhdood hope to return firing from RSL break

Winning one of their opening six games was not the start to the new Roshn Saudi League season that Al Okhdood would’ve been hoping for.

The club from Najran, located in the far south of the Kingdom along the border with Yemen, only just survived relegation last term; a 2-0 win against Al Tai on the final day saw them avoid the drop by a single point.

For a side with the worst scoring record last season, striking twice when it mattered most came as something of a surprise. To underline the point, it represented Al Okhdood’s second-biggest winning margin all season, behind their 4-0 victory against Abha.

In those two games alone, Al Okhdood scored almost 20 percent of their entire season’s tally of 33, which put their average at less than a goal a game across the season, highlighting just how much of a struggle finding the back of the net was. As does the fact a defender, Romanian Andrei Burca, was their joint-top scorer, along with Nigerian winger Saviour Godwin, with six goals.

Unfortunately for new manager Stjepan Tomas, those same struggles have carried over into the new campaign, with Al Okhdood managing to find the net six times in the six rounds so far this season.

It’s not the worst record in the league - Al Khaleej (three), Al Fateh (four) and Al Fayha (five) all have fewer goals - but without a rapid improvement it will be tough for Al Okhdood to improve their current position of 17th and stave off another tough relegation battle.

While Godwin was retained for the new season, the club looked to fix their goalscoring woes by bringing in a trio of African internationals: Zimbabwe’s Knowledge Musona, Mali’s Ibrahima Kone and Cameroon’s Christian Bassogog.

But to his point they have failed to fire. While Musona has held up his end of the bargain with two of the team’s six goals, Kone and Bassogog have one between them. That was registered by Kone in Al Okhdood’s only win of the season, the 4-2 defeat of Al Fateh at the end of last month.

As the league resumed this week from the October FIFA international window, Tomas will be hoping Al Okhdood return a different side to the one before it, with a game at home against the vastly improved Al Riyadh providing the first test.

Certainly, he will be wishing Bassogog comes back from international duty with Cameroon with renewed confidence having broken his 2024-25 goal drought, netting in Cameroon’s 4-1 win over Kenya in qualifying for the 2025 African Cup of Nations.

It was the 28-year-old forward’s first goal, for club or country, since February this year, when he was playing for Turkish Super Lig side Ankaragucu; a barren spell that had reached 23 games. With that monkey off his back, Bassogog will be hoping to release the shackles and find the back of the net with more regularity.

Because, somewhat surprisingly, for a side that has struggled to find the net, they have not struggled to create chances. Finishing them has been their issue.

Only Al Nassr (115), Al Ahli and Al Hilal (both 93) have taken more shots than Al Okhdood this season, who come in at 85. That’s an average of a little more than 14 per game, with only one of those, again on average, being converted. Improve that conversion rate and things will quickly turn around in their favour.

Backing that up is the fact they are also third in the league, for big chances missed, behind heavyweights Al Ittihad and Al Nassr, with 13 of those across the opening six matchdays.

With so much of the season still to play, there is plenty of time for Tomas and Al Okhdood to reverse those fortunes. And, with Bassogog finally among the goals, that starts this weekend when seventh-placed Al Riyadh make the long trek to Najran.