As they prepare to make a third successive trip to the finals, Herve Renard has seen a trio of poor performances from his players.
On Friday, the Ecuadorians held his team in check, as the Green fired only two efforts on target and are now without a victory since defeating Australia 1-0 in their final qualification affair in March.
During their 2022 qualification campaign, Saudi Arabia had 34 goals, the fewest among the six Asian nations that booked their place in Qatar, excluding the World Cup hosts, who did not compete in the third round of qualifying.
That lack of quality in the attacking third has continued to plague the Saudis, who are goalless in three straight matches, all against South American opponents (Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador).
They may be struggling to score, but Saudi Arabia have held their own defensively, conceding a goal or fewer in 11 of their previous 12 contests in all competitions.
Tuesday will be the fourth successive match for the Green at the home of third-tier Spanish side Real Murcia, a surface which they have struggled on, losing twice in their last three games played on that field.
Their form at the moment may be concerning, but these players will have many more opportunities to convince Renard that they are worthy of being selected to the 26-man roster
bound for Qatar, as Tuesday is the first of six international matches to come for the Saudis before they face Argentina in their opening fixture at the World Cup on November 22.
Links >> Stream 1 HD Stream 2 HD Stream 3 HD Stream 4 HD
long layoff of over three months from international football seemed to affect the Americans on Friday as the Samurai Blue came away with a relatively comfortable victory.
The US failed to register a shot on target in Dusseldorf, while conceding eight themselves as they looked to be tactically and technically outclassed by the Japanese.
While they had 58% of the possession at the end of the game, the Americans were careless with the ball in their half of the field through the opening 45 minutes, giving it away countless times, and allowing Japan plenty of scoring opportunities.
Gregg Berhalter has just a few days to fix the problems that plagued them against Japan, as his team rarely threatened and never got into any rhythm in that encounter, partly because they were fouled 16 times on Friday and rarely given a chance to utilize their speed in transition.
