Qatar's loss to Ecuador still serves as distraction from controversy as men's World Cup begins
Pomp of ceremony gives way to subdued home crowds at Al Bayt Stadium
Chris Jones is in Qatar covering the men's World Cup for CBC Sports.
Qatar's controversial World Cup finally kicked off Sunday night, pausing the ongoing debate over whether the desert kingdom should be hosting the tournament in the first place. For a little while, at least, the game became the focus.
But after the Qataris lost 2-0 to Ecuador and their audience evaporated around them, a brief spell of celebration ended, making way for a new round of concern.
The night started brightly enough. The match took place at Al Bayt Stadium, designed to look like a massive Bedouin tent, rising out of the desert an hour's drive north of Doha. What it lacks in adornment on the outside, it makes up for with a gorgeous interior, including a traditional striped pattern on the soaring roof.
Rows of camels were waiting outside when thousands of fans began streaming toward the entrances on a warm, windy evening. The vast majority were Qatari, many dressed in traditional Arab thawbs, white and pristine. A few thousand Ecuadorians, wearing bright yellow, offered an impressive counter, especially considering how outnumbered they were, and how far from home.
The opening ceremony began with actor Morgan Freeman walking out to provide narrative gravitas to the proceedings, which, pointedly, were about valuing difference. (The specifics of said differences went unnamed.)
"So we gather here in one big tribe," Freeman said. "And Earth is the tent we all live in."
Moments later, this year's mascot was unveiled: La'eeb, a keffiyeh with eyes and a mouth. He hovered over the pitch like a ghost over smaller, inflatable versions of mascots past. It was all a little disquieting if you thought about it too much.
Luckily, happily, thankfully, next came the soccer, the world's most reliable distraction. And for the first half or so, it served its noble purpose.
Ecuador's Enner Valencia needed only two minutes and 40 seconds to score what appeared to be the tournament's opening goal. It was soon disallowed for an extremely narrow offside, but in the 16th minute Qatari keeper Saad Al Sheeb fouled Valencia in the box, and Ecuador was awarded a penalty.
Valencia slotted the ball safely into the net. He scored a spectacular open-play goal 15 minutes later, heading home a beautiful cross to put the game plainly out of reach.
The Qataris might have money, but the one thing they haven't been able to buy is a decent soccer team. They opened the game playing five men back, never an indicator of optimistic outcomes. It got worse from there. Generously ranked 50th in the world by FIFA, Qatar was totally dismantled by Ecuador, ranked 44th. The defeat was the first for a host in an opener in men's World Cup history.
It was a loss by present measures, too. At halftime, thousands of Qatar's newly minted supporters began making their way back to Doha. Of those who remained, only an obviously paid group of bussed-in ringers behind one of the goals made any noise, drowned out by the delirious, jet-lagged Ecuadorians, dancing and singing in their still-packed section at the opposite end.
Soccer life won't get any easier for the Qataris, who have games against the Netherlands and Senegal remaining. They will no doubt be three-and-out. There must now be questions about how gracious they will be to their guests when the tournament continues without them.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino made headlines around the world with his strangely defensive press conference on Saturday, claiming that we were in store for the best World Cup ever. "The magic of football, as soon as the ball rolls, people will concentrate on that," Infantino had said.
He must have felt sick as Sunday's crowd vanished around him. There are tickets available to many games, and matchups between smaller countries risk being unnervingly quiet — Canada's opener against Belgium on Nov. 23, for instance.
Despite FIFA's corruption, despite soccer's ugly politics, the World Cup has always won in the end because it's always been played in countries that love the game. We're about to see what happens when it takes place in a country that doesn't.
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