Originally, myself and Dan weren’t going to be here in Doha for the Asia Cup. Like many England fans, we wanted to be in South Africa last year for the World Cup. For Dan, it would have been a second global finals (after 2006), and my third (after 2002 and 2006). However, once we had qualified, prices seemed to go through the roof. Every option was explored, but I can still recall the exact time when our South African dream bit the dust; 3.05pm, on Saturday 5th December 2009, when Dan got an email from our last option. We were at an Essex Senior League between Sawbridgeworth Town and Clapton, and had already seen a goal, when the World Cup disappeared from view with the news that a week at the tournament would set us back the small amount for £3,000. And that didn’t include either spending money or tickets.

So, we started hunting around for a suitable alternative. The Ashes tour of 2010/11 was mentioned, (and how I wish now that we had gone), as well as various other competitions. But the one that started to take on the mantle of favourite was this one, the AFC Asian Cup.

When we booked this trip back in March 2010, people were asking two main questions. The first was “who are you going to see?” Given that we normally do club games overseas or England, this wasn’t an unreasonable question. So the reply that we were going to see games in the Asian Cup was instantly met with the next question; “why?”

This is one of those tournaments that probably don’t appear on most people’s radar, which is possibly why is appealed so much. This was a chance to go to a tournament that most hadn’t heard of, and in a country that most didn’t know, and probably couldn’t even point to on a map. The amount of times that I have been asked where Qatar is over the last few months would appear to back this up.

Of course, since events in early December, this is now not so much of a trip to just watch football, but seems to have become a World Cup scouting trip. Much of the country and the city of Doha will have changed by the time the world descends in either January or June 2022.

Arriving at Gatwick for the flight out to Doha, we had hopes of watching the first game online, but unfortunately Dan’s laptop chose this moment to pack up. However we were undeterred and got updates via the wonders of his blackberry. While not quite experts on the world of Asian football, we both agreed that with the host nation going 0-1 against the might of Uzbekistan, their game against China on Wednesday would be crucial. Of course the good people in the north terminal of Gatwick were then alarmed to see Dan jump up in celebration when the Uzbeks scored a second. This was an important moment, as he had money on them to win, so you could probably understand his elation.

The flight took several hours to Dubai, since we didn’t have a direct journey to Doha. We had to catch a connecting flight in Dubai, and we had about an hour or so to make the connection, which was whittled down to 30 minutes as we were late leaving Gatwick. Dubai airport is huge, and so a brisk walk was required once we had got into the terminal building. The great thing was that neither flight was full, which meant that we could spread out and relax on both sections of the journey. We finally arrived in Doha about 10am local time, and having collected our luggage, spent a whopping £8 on a cab from the airport to our abode for the next few days, the Intercontinental Hotel.

Game 1; Kuwait 0-2 China

Given last night’s result, neither team wanted to lose this one, as it would have meant a lot of work to do to progress. One of the bonuses of staying where we are is that both of these teams, along with Uzbekistan, are currently lodging in our hotel. It’s just unfortunate for us that our knowledge of Chinese, Kuwaiti or Uzbek football could probably be written on the back of a postage stamp.

The venue for the second game of the tournament was the Al-Gharafa Stadium, which is located in the north west of the city. Like many places on the outskirts of the city, it’s only really accessible by the major form of public transport that there is in Doha; taxi’s. There are bus routes, but these are infrequent, and so taxi’s which are quite reasonable price-wise, take most of the strain.

The game kicks off to a three-quarters empty stadium, although the Kuwaiti support is making a fair amount of noise. The opening few minutes are a bit of a surprise; we have expected a cagey start, but both teams are intent on attacking. China have a young side at the competition, and Qu Bo, wearing 11, makes a fine start as does his central midfield partner Deng Zhouxiang.

For Kuwait, they start most of their early attacks down their right hand side with their Ronaldinho look-a-like Farad Al Enzi. In fact their wide players both have good starts to the game, although as the half wears on, most of the play starts to go to the left, leaving Al Enzi on the fringe of the play. There is good play from both sides, but already Dan is predicting a 0-0, as there is what pundits like to call, “no end product”. All that though is blown apart just before half time, when after a scuffle in the corner, Kuwait have Mesaed Al Enzi sent off. It is at the opposite end of the pitch, and we are not quite able to see what the offence is, but clearly the Australian officials have and decide that his game will be over for the day.

The sun has by now dipped below the roof of the only covered stand in the stadium, and the temperature is starting to fall, although it’s clearly not as cold as it has been in England. The half starts like the first, although the one player difference is evident, as Kuwait are not quite so cavalier going forward. The young Chinese side is growing in confidence, with Deng taking an ever increasing hold on the game. Just before the hour, we have the first goal. A corner is not quite cleared properly, and after a clever knock down, Zhang Linpeng takes a shot at goal which gets a touch from a Kuwait defender and goes in off the post. The Chinese are galvanised by this, and you can see the opposite effect on Kuwait. Ten minutes later Deng Zhouxiang gets his deserved goal when his left foot free kick goes in off the post. The Chinese have chances to increase the lead, but a combination of both excellent defending and poor finishing leaves the score at 2-0. The noisy Kuwait fans start to quieten down, and then start to leave before the end of the game, clearly seeing that the game is up and that they won’t be getting anything from this one. The Chinese go to acknowledge their support in the crowd of just under seven and a half thousand, and troop off having got their first win of the tournament.

The crowd starts to leave, and this is where the fun begins. Having been assured by our cab driver on the way to the ground that there would be plenty of taxi’s available after the game, we leave the stadium to find nothing. Well, that’s not quite true, as there is plenty of traffic, but no taxi’s to be seen anywhere. We start to walk, and Dan asks a couple of locals for help; they point vaguely in the direction of Doha, and mutter something about there being some that way. We walk, but find that there is no taxi’s and yet more traffic. We eventually find a bus stop, but the only information we can find is a map of the routes, and no timetable. To be honest, the congestion is such that no bus is able to make it through.

We hang around at the stop for a few minutes, before we decide that we will start walking back towards Doha, and hope that we can hail one on the way in. We eventually get back to the main road around the stadium, and go to our back up plan; we ask a policeman. The first doesn’t speak any English, but the second does, and says that they have radioed their control to get some cabs on the way. These though look like they will take some time to arrive, so the police start putting people into their land cruisers and driving them to the Landmark shopping mall, where they assure us that there will be cabs. There are five of us crammed into the back of the vehicle as the officer pulls away from the temporary car park. Their first drop off point proves to be a no-go, so they head to the Landmark, and we are all turfed out of the car there. A wonder around provides us with the news that we feared; there are no cabs available. The one that does turn up is going off work at that point, so there is by now a small group of us waiting to be driven back to the city.

Eventually one does turn up, and we are finally on our way back (via another part of the city, as we are sharing the cab with a couple of locals), thanks to the kindness of two blokes who let us take the cab as we are visitors to their city. We thank them warmly before getting in. I have never been so happy to see a hotel in my life, and a mere two hours after leaving the game, we are back. After dodging the camera crews in the lobby, we head back to the room to watch Stevenage v Newcastle, and complete our day one report. Let’s just hope day two is slightly less eventful.

More pictures from day one can be found here.