Ecuadorians sang into the night as Valencia provided the goals to silence the local supporters
Qatar is adamantly a football nation, but in their first World Cup game, on home soil, curiously only a few hundred seemed to be enjoying themselves, and that looked highly choreographed, in comparison to the rhythmic South Americans.
On the hour mark, as the game settled into irrelevancy, the Ecuadorians launched a Mexican wave but the sheikhs refused to play ball. The preamble to this World Cup has been like covering a golf Major. Almost everything happens inside the spacious Convention Centre, west of the capital. Press conferences galore, this secure environment comes with a helping hand at every turn, so an excursion to Al Bayt was a genuine adventure.
“The Arab Cup was here last year,” said Mohamed, my Tunisian colleague, “wait until you see the inside of this place”. “I don’t understand what is happening,” said Mohamed, my companion, who took to Facebook for answers.An opening-night hiccup is understandable as, technologically speaking, the tournament exists deep in the 21st century, even if the opinion of an earlier Uber driver, from Pakistan, showed how divergent the cultural differences remain between western society and the Middle East.
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