Abdul-Rahim stepped in and missed a crucial penalty when the score was 2-1, much to the frustration of his manager Taha Basri.

Abdul-Rahim, 27, is supposed to be third-choice penalty-taker after Shadi Mohamed and Mohamed Gaber.

Coach Basri, who decided to punish Abdul-Rahim, blamed the absence of some key players for the opening day defeat.

"In addition to the missed penalty, we were without a number of important players," Basri told FilGoal.com.

Ittihad missed Hassan Mohamed, Mohamed Ibrahim, Ibrahim Al-Shayeb and Mohamed Abdullah, in addition to Shadi who was injured during the game.