Jordan Henderson was on his haunches. He had given everything. The former Liverpool captain, and new talisman for Al-Ettifaq, had pushed himself to the physical limits in the service of his team. It was the sort of moment that has previously served to build the Henderson legend, except with a small difference: his team were 1-0 down here and there was still an hour to play.
An important qualification should probably be made here: it was 34.6C in the stadium at this point and with a level of humidity high enough to hydrate a pack of instant noodles. It was surely, by far, the hottest football match Henderson had ever played in, but one recovery sprint, and a not entirely full-throttle one at that, had entirely done him in. And the England man was hardly alone.
If you want to see one of the challenges the Saudi Pro League faces in becoming the world’s insurgent football league, look no further than this match. Staged in the eastern coastal city of Dammam, it is notable because it is the home of Aramco, the national petrochemical powerhouse that has posted the highest corporate profits in history as the planet has entered the anthropocene age. It’s hot in Dammam and, right now, a little bit too hot for football.
Dammam has become the British outpost of the Saudi Pro League. Alongside Henderson at Al-Ettifaq there is of course the manager Steven Gerrard, but also the Scottish centre-half Jack Hendry, who arrived in Dammam via Wigan and Celtic and, most recently, Club Brugge. Also in the side is another former Celtic man, French striker Moussa Dembélé.
This match was supposed to be the moment the Brits came up against the big man, as Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr were in town. Ronaldo got injured on Saturday night, however, winning the 31st trophy of his career, the Arab Champions Cup. He didn’t travel with the squad from Riyadh and, in fact, Al-Nassr manager Luis Castro pretty much rotated his entire XI. Of all the big names signed in the summer to accompany Ronaldo only one remained; Henderson’s old mucker, Sadio Mané.
This would surely have come as a disappointment to the extensive camera crews who were in the stadium for this match (much of them on a short loan from Premier League Productions). The stadium was about half full meanwhile and the majority of the fans were there to support Al-Nassr (something entrepreneurial local kids had certainly anticipated, selling only yellow-and-blue merchandise on the streets outside the ground).
Three minutes in and Al-Ettifaq were facing up to a struggle as Mané put the visitors one up. It was a move that began on the edge of Al-Nassr’s own box and, via a series of deflections, ended up being shuffled into the Al-Ettifaq area. There, a smooth overlapping run from Ali Alhassan eluded Henderson and the Saudi international crossed for Mané to tuck home.
The half only degenerated for Al-Ettifaq from that point, with no discernible shape and many in the team, Henderson included, playing at walking pace. That the game was frequently interrupted for injuries, that turned into opportunities for players to take on fluids, only contributed to a lack of cohesion. There were four water breaks in the first half alone.
“When I’m sitting in my house, and I have Sky News on, you see the weather in different countries around the world come up, but you don’t really appreciate that type of heat until you actually come and work in these conditions,” Gerrard said after the match. “The climate has definitely been tough and challenging. So I’m going to have to adapt, and so are some of the signings we’ve made from Europe. We don’t want to leave our energy on the training pitch. There are things we have to change and ... I’m facing the challenges, accepting them. I know what I’ve signed up for.”
Football being football, however, things quickly changed in the second half. It started with not one, but two clangers from Al-Nassr’s reserve keeper Nawaf al-Aqidi. The first came within two minutes of the restart, Aqidi grabbing a Henderson corner but then dropping the ball after a small nudge. Swedish forward Robin Quaison was on hand to poke the ball home. Six minutes later and Aqidi intervened again to bungle a Ali Hazazi cross and this time Dembélé wolfed the opportunity down.
All of a sudden Gerrard’s men seemed restored to life. Yes the interruptions continued and, no, nobody was about to attempt any gegenpressing, but at least Al-Ettifaq arranged themselves in discernible lines on the pitch and were able to shuttle about as a unit, closing down space as Al-Nassr tried to work their way back into the game. Henderson was at the heart of the resistance, doggedly jogging on throughout.
Gerrard admitted he had accepted the job offer from Al-Ettifaq after failing to land jobs at Leeds and Leicester in the Championship. But he was full of praise for his former Liverpool captain. “We know what he brings to the table, I certainly do, more than others,” said Gerrard.
“He played for the sake of the team tonight, he wasn’t necessarily ready, but I think he showed what an elite athlete he is because to play in that heat for that long … was a credit to him.”
