What World Cup opening loss means to Qatar, citizens

Qatar became the first home team to lose their opening World Cup match as Ecuador cruised to a 2-0 victory over the hosts, with Enner Valencia scoring twice in the tournament curtain-raiser on Sunday.

Asian champions, Qatar, enjoyed the backing of the majority of the crowd at the 60,000-capacity Al Bayt Stadium, but could not follow a glitzy opening ceremony with a statement performance.

The loss crushed Qatar’s project to build a team for the World Cup, as well as construct a nation around the tournament.

The bold attempt has been expansive and expensive, too: state-of-the-art facilities at home, a network of academies abroad, a European club team to provide national team prospects with experience.

It has all been done with this World Cup in mind. With this game, in fact, this moment in the spotlight, this chance to showcase to the world what Qatar can do with a little time and a lot of resources. And, at that very moment, it froze.

Qatar, a team built at great expense over a decade to carry the nation’s colors and its pride in this tournament, offered little resistance.

Thousands of Qatari fans had left their seats by the middle of the second half of Sunday’s World Cup opener, heading for the exits even as their team was struggling to find a way to overturn a 2-0 halftime deficit.

Outside the stadium, Ahmed al Moslemani and his friend Abdulaziz Al Ashgar were among those who called it a night early; they had headed toward their car before the referee restarted the second half.

“We are exhausted,” said Al Moslemani, explaining that he had to leave his home extra early so he could arrive at the Al Bayt stadium ahead of the afternoon opening ceremony, which began at 5.30pm local time. Besides, he said, he was hungry and the food and beverage offerings inside the arena were thin.

Al Ashgar said he was disappointed with Qatar’s performance, too. “It was terrible, not enough,” he said. “Just terrible from our team.”

With Africa Cup of Nations champions Senegal and three-time finalists the Netherlands to come, this looked like Qatar’s easiest game on paper but they were totally outplayed.