All the three hosts won their opening King's Cup first-leg matches Sunday. Defending champion Al-Shabab labored to a 1-0 win over Al-Wehdah; Al-Hilal cruised to a 3-1 win over Al-Fateh; and Al-Ittihad displayed its form with a 4-1 victory over Al-Hazm. Kicking off the season's last domestic championship at King Fahd International Stadium in Riyadh, Shabab had Amado Flavio to thank for the win. Shabab skipper Ahmed Otaif made a solo effort to enter the box and hit a cross to the unmarked Angolan striker Flavio to head into the empty goal. Zain Saudi Professional League champion Al-Hilal made Al-Fateh's task in the return leg all the more difficult with a resounding 3-1 win. Mohammed Al-Shalhoub put Hilal in the lead with a goal from the spot in the 26th minute. Defender Hasan Khairat, who was later sin-binned, doubled the score two minutes later. Striker Eissa Al-Muhayani sealed Hilal's win 24 minutes after the break with the third for the Riyadh side. Ahmed Al-Hadhrami scored the consolation goal for the visitors eight minutes before time. Al-Ittihad also scored a confident 4-1 win over visitors Al-Hazm at Prince Faisal Bin Fahd Stadium here. Defender Salih Al-Saqri put Ittihad in the lead in the 20th minute before Algerian striker Abdul-Malik Ziaya doubled the score from the spot eight minutes later. Hazm's Senegalese midfielder Hamad Ji reduced the margin from the spot in the 73rd minute. However, skipper Mohammed Noor helped Ittihad increase the margin two minutes later before his Tunisian teammate Amine Chermiti put the result beyond any doubt with a goal four minutes from the final whistle. – SG Gulf clubs' final put offJEDDAH - The technical committee of the Gulf Clubs Championship has decided to postpone the final of the competition after Saudi club Al-Nasr protested the result of its match against UAE's Al-Wasl. The committee, after four-hour-long deliberations, decided to seek FIFA opinion on the issue. The match, which ended in a 4-3 shootout win for Al-Wasl after a 4-2 full-time score at Al-Wasl Club Stadium, witnessed unruly scenes as a few Wasl supporters jumped into the field before the end of the first half of the extra time. The conferrers disagreed over article 12 of the competition's regulations. Qatar and the UAE said Omani referee Abdullah Al-Hilali had played out the match and thus the result should stand. The Saudi representative, Faisal Abdul-Hadi, was of the opinion that the result should go in favor of Nasr. The Omani representative refused to vote. Article 12 indicates that a 3-0 result must be imposed against the team whose supporters enter the field and stop, delay a match or cause interruption during the match.
