Saturday 13th January 2024 – Jassim Bin Hamed Stadium – Doha

Thankfully, with a metro station close by, it seemed like the journey to the third and final match of the day between Syria and Uzbekistan would be easy.  If only.  I was beginning to realise that there was nothing easy about the logistics for fans during the tournament.  Exiting the Al-Sudan metro station you can’t fail to see the massive floodlights next door.  Except this wasn’t the Jassim Bin Hamad – that would be too simple.

Around most stadiums in Doha you’ll find first class football facilities.  Immaculate pitches, state of the art floodlights, a perfect infrastructure to develop the next generation of world-class players.  But you need the raw talent to start with and that’s the main piece of the puzzle the Qataris haven’t yet cracked.  The training pitches, belonging to Al Saad FC, were the source of the floodlights rather than the club’s main stadium, which was a further 10 minutes walk away.

When finally the stadium came into view it was a thing of beauty.  The official line will speak of four light towers, representing something profound, when actually the best description would be “a smaller version of Köln’s RheinEnergie stadium”.  Everyone understands that, right?  The crowds were out in force, with a heavy and vocal support for the Syrians.  Inside, they outnumbered the Uzbekistan fans in number by 4 or 5 to 1, but in terms of noise it was fairly equal, helped by the drums the Uzbekistan fans had been allowed to bring in – a pair of converse are deemed a dangerous weapon out here but a massive drum and drumsticks to match are perfectly acceptable.

The stadium had an English look and feel with a single tier steep stand that wrapped around on three sides, with a walkway along the back, providing an excellent pathway to take some atmospheric pictures and get in among the noisiest fans.  As with some of the other teams playing in the tournament, it’s hard to forget the political situation back home, especially as the majority of the fans following the team have to do so from a distance.

I sat next to a Syrian family who explained they left their homeland five years ago and now lived “just up the road” in Bahrain where it was a safe environment to raise their children.  They had made a weekend of it and it was the first time they’d ever seen their country play.  

The Syrian squad were coached by Argentine Héctor Cúper, and unsurprisingly, only had a handful of domestically based players. Star of the show was Omar Khriban, who was now playing at Al-Wahda in the United Arab Emirates, with 21 goals in his 55 international appearances. The rest were true global travellers, playing at clubs from Argentina to Sweden and various places in between, whilst the 68th seed Uzbekistan team was packed with experience, if not talent.

It was Uzbekistan who started the stronger and had a shot blocked, then the rebound flying just wide in the first sixty seconds.  Cúper raced to the edge of the biggest technical area in football to berate his side for the poor start.  The game ebbed and flowed with interest rather than excitement.  The passion of the fans certainly added to the occasion but failed to lift either side as the first half ended goal less despite the Uzbekistan dominance.

Being more adventurous with my half-time food options, I went with your traditional football fare of a Qatari take on a pot noodle.  Interesting choice on the official AFC list of refreshments in that you have to wait three minutes for the boiling water to “invigorate” the noodles before you actually got your hands on it.  The plastic fork provided was useless, so you ended up drinking rather than eating it.  Tasty but zero marks for the place on the menu at football.

The second half saw a lot of fans milling around at the top of the stands, posing for pictures or doing video calls with their family and friends.  There was a lessening interest in the game and the Syrian vocal support started to wane.  There appeared only one possible winner in the game, but despite the samba beat soundtrack from the stands, 65% of possession and 14 shots to Syria’s 7, it finished goal less, meaning it had now been over 400 minutes since I last saw a goal.

Day two, three game and just two goals.  Surely it couldn’t get any worse tomorrow, could it?