Nasr hold off Shabab as Week 4 ends

None of the matches seemed like a shock, but few of us would have predicted it would end with the table in the shape that it is is.

Baniyas and Wasl at the top?

Defending champions Wahda ahead of only three sides?

To be sure, the league is tightly packed, with 18 matches to play. Only four points separate the top nine sides.

And the other three have a battle of their own shaping up -- one to avoid being one of the two sides which will be relegated next springs. Dhafra has three points, Kalba one and Dubai none, and the queer thing about their points -- they got them off of Ahli.

The Nasr-Shabab match was a tale of two halves. Nasr dominated the first 45 minutes, with goals by Carlos Tenorio and a pair from Ismael Bangoura.

But Shabab woke up during half time and answered with goals by Lamine Diarra and Carlos Valenzuela and were a bit unlucky no to snatch a draw.

Big matches next weekend? Ahli at Ain and Baniyas at Al Jazira. Wasl at Sharjah is interesting too.

it is shaping up as a competitive season. The Wahda-Jazira runaway of last season shows no signs of returning, so far.

And the weekend just concluded ... brought us more goals than any so far -- 21, lifting the league scoring average to 3.1 goals per game.