At this point last year, Oday Dabbagh had yet to make his move abroad and was still something of a work in progress in terms of his senior national team status. One year on and much has changed as the Palestinian wunderkind completed his first multi goal performance in the Kuwaiti league.
A year ago, Dabbagh moved to Al-Salmiya on the heels of an impressive WAFF Championship. That was followed by an impressive display as Oday Dabbagh and Palestine beat Uzbekistan 2-0 to open World Cup qualifying.
Although the 21 year old hit the ground running with Al-Salmiya, scoring in the second league match of the season but that positive start would soon be spoiled. First, Dabbagh dislocated his shoulder in October and shortly after he ran into contractual issues with Al-Salmiya over unpaid wages.
That contractual dispute meant that Dabbagh could void his contract under a FIFA statue that allows players to do so should they go two months without pay. In December, the Jerusalemite moved to Kuwaiti powerhouse Al-Qadsia but he struggled to rediscover the form he had before the injury and without the benefit of a preseason.
Fast forward six months and Oday Dabbagh looks like a man on a mission. Perhaps it also helped that the first opponent he faced would be Al-Salmiya or perhaps the time off allowed Dabbagh to get better acclimated with his team and with a new position.
Oday Dabbagh as an out-and-out forward is an experiment that has been dabbled with but rarely committed to as his previous coaches preferred to get him on the ball and in space as often as possible (which meant a role on the wings). With Qadsia playing him as a forward he has been able to get himself into great positions using his blistering pace- in fact the argument could be made that he could have had a hattrick in the first half after opening the scoring with this goal.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="ar" dir="rtl">فيديو ?<a href="http://twitter.com/hashtag/%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%82%D8%A7%D8%AF%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%A9?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#القادسية</a> ✖ السالمية<a href="http://twitter.com/hashtag/%D8%AF%D9%88%D8%B1%D9%8A_STC?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#دوري_STC</a><br><br>• هدف القادسية الأول عن طريق اللاعب عدي الدباغ د12 <a href="http://t.co/3uFRLaxZZs">pic.twitter.com/3uFRLaxZZs</a></p>— نادي القادسية الرياضي (@QadsiaClub) <a href="http://twitter.com/QadsiaClub/status/1296847397990137857?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 21, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
For all his wastefulness in front of goal, Dabbagh did come good in the second half after Al-Salmiya had scored twice to pull Qadsia even on two goals apiece. It wasn’t his prettiest involvement on the night- but the opportunistic finish proved to be important.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="ar" dir="rtl">فيديو ?<a href="http://twitter.com/hashtag/%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%82%D8%A7%D8%AF%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%A9?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#القادسية</a> ✖ السالمية<a href="http://twitter.com/hashtag/%D8%AF%D9%88%D8%B1%D9%8A_STC?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#دوري_STC</a><br><br>• هدف القادسية الثاني عن طريق اللاعب عدي الدباغ د64 <a href="http://t.co/wOIs0LCs7r">pic.twitter.com/wOIs0LCs7r</a></p>— نادي القادسية الرياضي (@QadsiaClub) <a href="http://twitter.com/QadsiaClub/status/1296867438311727104?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 21, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Dabbagh would still have time to cap his Man of the Match performance, this time with an assist for Kuwaiti legend Bader Al-Mutaweh, salvaging a play which he failed to finish off himself.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="ar" dir="rtl">فيديو ?<a href="http://twitter.com/hashtag/%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%82%D8%A7%D8%AF%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%A9?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#القادسية</a> ✖ السالمية<a href="http://twitter.com/hashtag/%D8%AF%D9%88%D8%B1%D9%8A_STC?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#دوري_STC</a><br><br>• هدف القادسية الثالث عن طريق اللاعب بدر المطوع د80 <a href="http://t.co/YGIs4FSmUY">pic.twitter.com/YGIs4FSmUY</a></p>— نادي القادسية الرياضي (@QadsiaClub) <a href="http://twitter.com/QadsiaClub/status/1296870298160173057?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 21, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
In the larger picture, the result means that Qadsia stay within touching distance of their rivals Al-Kuwait who were three points ahead of them entering this match day. For Oday Dabbagh, it is another important step in his development- as he managed to maintain resilience after a first half that featured a ton of wasted chances. A couple of more performances like tonight and he’ll be gracing a far larger stage than that of the Kuwaiti League.
