In his day, this goalkeeper is simply unbeatable. Last week , in Beirut when Lebanon hosted Korea Republic, Abbas Hassan, single handedly stopped the mighty Koreans with at least 10 saves, including several split of a second reflexes. No matter how they tried and how much pressure they exerted on the Lebanese defense , there was simply a great barrier wall called Abbas Hassan who defied the Korean Professionals.
No matter how hard The seasoned and the professional players of the Korea National Football team tried, they just could not put the ball past one Abbas Hassan, the Lebanese goalkeeper who plays for the Swedish side IF Elfsborg . Eventually , deep into added time and on the 97th minute of the match , the Koreans scored from a free kick given away right outside the box. The irony of that goal was that the ball took a deflection thus wrong footing the hero Abbas.
Abbas Hassan is relatively a new face in Lebanese football. The 28 years old has played all his football in his adopted country Sweden. He started his career in his current club IF Elfsborg in 2005 before joining Danish side Aalborg BK (loan) and then in 2010 he joined the Swedish Superettan club IFK Norrköping on a short term contract to replace the injured goalkeeper David Nilsson.
He finally singed for IFK Norrköping and played for them from 2011–2012 before returning to his original club IF Elfsborg .
Abbas Hassan only made his debut in January 2012 against Iraq. His climb to instant fame, though was against none other than Team Melli when the heroics and the reflexes of this keeper prevented the Iranians from scoring and helping his team to register a historic win in the FIFA 2014 World Cup qualifiers. It was Iran’s only defeat to Lebanon.
Abbas was also in the receiving end of the Iranian wrath when he was beaten 5 times and collected the ball from the back of his nets during Iran’s 5-0 victory in Azadi.
What will be a great challenge for Team Melli players, is none other than Abbas Hassan. As proven by both the Korean and the Iranian players, penetrating through the Lebanese defense lines, is not a daunting task, but facing the goalie Abbas Hassan is entirely a different battle. Whether Abbas will be at his best in Azadi is a challenge worthy of watching. The Lebanon goalkeeper could make the difference.