Al-Hilal Faces Al-Taawoun: Breaking the Curse

Al-Hilal are walking into Buraidah with more than just three points on their minds. They are walking in with a superstition they would rather not awaken.

The Saudi Roshn League leaders face Al-Taawoun on Saturday in the seventh round, still stung by their first defeat of the season, a 2-0 loss to Neom on Monday. One bad night can be dismissed. Two in a row starts to feel like a pattern. In Riyadh, they have another word for it: a curse.

A streak they refuse to relive

Inside the club, memories go straight back to a painful spell nearly five years ago, when Al-Hilal last dropped back-to-back league games. It was December 2021, and the damage came from the most familiar of sources.

First, Al-Nassr struck, winning 2-0 and leaving “The Boss” reeling. Then Al-Fateh twisted the knife in the very next round with a 3-2 victory. Two defeats in succession, title momentum shredded, and a warning etched into the club’s recent history.

Since that double blow, Al-Hilal have treated every league defeat as an alarm bell. They have not lost two in a row in the competition. Whenever they have slipped, the response has been immediate: at worst, a draw in the following match, never another defeat.

That resilience is now on the line in Buraidah.

Top, but under pressure

The table says Al-Hilal are in control. They sit on 15 points, top of the Saudi Roshn League, ahead of Al-Nassr and Al-Qadsiah only on goal difference. The margins are thin. The room for error, even thinner.

A second straight loss would not just reopen that old wound from 2021. It would drag the champions-elect narrative back into a full-blown three-way fight at the summit.

Al-Taawoun, at home, will sense it. Neom have already shown that this version of Al-Hilal can be rattled. The question now is simple and brutal: was that Neom defeat a one-off stumble, or the first crack in the armour?

By the time they leave Buraidah, the league will have its answer.