Saeed's first competition with the senior national team was the 1977 Merdeka Cup in Kuala Lumpur. He started in Iraq's first match, against Indonesia, on 17 July 1977, and scored his first goal with Iraq after only 8 minutes from kickoff, scored a goal in Iraq's 5–0 win over Thailand after 6 minutes, and scored Iraq's only goal in their 1–1 draw against South Korea. Iraq finished in 2nd place in the table behind South Korea, meeting them again in the final where Iraq lost 1–0. Saeed played all the 630 minutes of Iraq's 7 matches.