20th Arabian Gulf Cup

The 20th Arabian Gulf Cup (كأس الخليج العربي) was the twentieth edition of the biannual Gulf Cup competition, and took place in Aden, Yemen, from 22 November to 5 December 2010. The tournament was held in Yemen for the first time in the tournament's history, and this edition celebrated the 40th anniversary of the cup and the 20th anniversary of the tournament.

The opening match was played between the host Yemen and Saudi Arabia at the 22 May Stadium in Aden.

Kuwait won the tournament for the tenth time, against 2-time consecutive runners-up Saudi Arabia, in a 1–0 win in extra time.

Teams
8 teams participated in the tournament.


 * 🇾🇪 yemen (Host)
 * 🇴🇲 oman (Holder)
 * 🇧🇭 bahrain
 * 🇮🇶 iraq
 * 🇰🇼 kuwait
 * 🇶🇦 qatar

Competition mascot
The competition mascot (rather a secondary competition logo) depicts a Yemeni juggling a football in a traditional Yemeni maʿwaz while wearing headgear consisting of colors from the Yemeni flag.

The design has been featured in many advertising campaigns for the competition as well as many talk-shows, and has emerged as a well-known symbol for the competition, even more so than the primary competition logo.

The draw

 * The draw for the tournament was held on 22 August 2010.
 * Eight teams were divided into two groups, Yemen (The host nation) was in group A, Oman (The holder) in group B, while the rest of the teams were placed in a pot based on August 2010's FIFA rankings.

Group stage
All times are Yemen Time – UTC+3

Goalscorers

 * 3 goals
 * 🇮🇶 Alaa Abdul-Zahra
 * Badr Al-Mutawa
 * 2 goals
 * 🇮🇶 Hawar Mulla Mohammed
 * 🇶🇦 Jaralla Al-Marri
 * 1 goal
 * 🇧🇭 Faouzi Mubarak Aaish
 * 🇧🇭 Ismail Abdul-Latif
 * 🇧🇭 Ibrahim Al-Mishkhas
 * 🇧🇭 Abdulla Baba Fatadi
 * Jarah Al Ateeqi
 * Yousef Nasser
 * Fahad Al Enezi
 * Waleed Ali
 * 🇴🇲 Imad Al-Hosni


 * 1 goal (cont.)
 * 🇶🇦 Ibrahim Al-Ghanim
 * Ahmad Abbas
 * Osama Al-Muwallad
 * Mohammad Al-Shalhoub
 * Muhannad Assiri
 * Mishaal Al Saeed
 * Subait Khater
 * Fares Juma Al Saadi
 * Ahmed Juma
 * 🇾🇪 Akram Al-Worafi


 * Own goals
 * 🇶🇦 Hamed Shami Zaher (for Saudi Arabia)

Team statistics
This table shows all team performance.

Total goals by team
7 goals   6 goals   5 goals   4 goal   3 goal   1 goal 
 * 🇮🇶 iraq
 * 🇧🇭 bahrain
 * 🇶🇦 qatar
 * 🇾🇪 yemen
 * 🇾🇪 yemen

Trivia

 * For the first time in the tournament's history all matches were played on artificial grass fields.
 * The broadcasting rights for the tournament was sold for the highest price ever in Gulf Cup history to Abu Dhabi Sports in a deal worth 560 million dollars.
 * For the third consecutive time previous champions of the tournament failed to pass the group stages after 2009 winners, Oman failed to qualify to the final four.
 * Ali Al-Habsi's record for 4 consecutive "Best Tournament Goalkeeper" was broken after Kuwait's Nawaf Al-Khaldi won the award due to Ali's absence in the competition.