The king of Saudi Arabia declared a public holiday for the country on Wednesday. The holiday was to celebrate their win against Argentina in the World Cup. Saudi Arabia beat Argentina 2-1 on Tuesday.
The victory was great for Saudi Arabia. It was also an important moment for Qatar, the host of the World Cup this year. The country has received a lot of criticism from around the world. The surprise win for Saudi Arabia was positive news.
Fans of Saudi Arabia were excited to beat one of the great teams in soccer. Saudi Arabia is the second lowest-ranked team in the tournament this year. Ghana is the lowest ranked.
Lionel Messi scored the first goal of the game in the 10th minute. Messi is now 35 years old, playing in his fifth and probably final World Cup. At half-time, Argentina was winning 1-0.
In the second half of the game, Saudi Arabia started to attack Argentina. They scored two goals early in the second half and defended for more than 50 minutes.
Saudi goalkeeper Mohammed Alowais stopped many shots to help the team win.
With this match, Saudi Arabia has only won four World Cup games in its history.
The coach of Saudi Arabia, Hervé Renard, said that “sometimes things are completely crazy”. In FIFA rankings, Saudi Arabia is No. 51 and Argentina is No. 3.
Renard asked the players to celebrate for only 20 minutes. The team has to prepare for games against Poland and Mexico.
VOCABULARY
- Declare – to announce or express something clearly and publicly; proclaim; state
- Public holiday – bank holiday; a special day when people do not go to work;
- Celebrate – to mark or remember an important event, especially with enjoyable activities
- Victory – win; success; achievement; triumph
- Moment – a particular time or occasion; point in time; a short period of time
- Host – A person or places that organizes and holds an event for other people
- Criticism – a negative comment or negative opinion about something;
- Surprise – unexpected event; something that causes sudden excitement
- Fan – a person who likes a sport or team; supporter; follower
- Ranking – position, order, or standing within a group of something; grade; rate; place
- Tournament – a contest or competition with only one winner after many games/rounds
- Half-time – a short rest period between the two parts of a sports game
- Attack – to move forward to try to score points, goals, etc.;
- Defend – to protect someone or something against attack; to try to prevent the other team from scoring points, goals, etc.
- Goalkeeper – a player who defends/guards the goal; keeper; goalie
- Coach – manager; the boss of a team
- Completely – totally; fully; utterly; wholly; very
- Prepare – to make something or someone ready to do something; planning for and making ready for something; get ready
Original story from ESPN below:
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