AFC action - Oman to face down Kuwait on March 3rd

In the Asian Cup, Oman must now face Kuwait at home (in the Sultan Qaboos sports complex) on March 3rd at 7:30pm.

The last time the two teams battled each other, Oman gave the Kuwaitis a slap on their own turf and secured victory. This time Oman's playing them at home, so things should be even better for the local lads, right?

A few snaps of their last encounter

Well, maybe not.

The Oman Football Association has decided to start charging for the tickets to see the game. The price? A rather digestible RO 1.000 per ticket (which will be available at the gate). Except, apparently, there is a lot of outcry in the local Arabic papers about this proposed charge.

Furthermore, the Kuwaitis have said that they don't care if the tickets are RO 200 each, they're sending hoards and hoards of supporters to the game. And in the last game, I'm told that some Kuwaiti fans are suspected of having thrown rocks at the Omani players. Given the little spat (someone threw a firecracker) that happened in the SQ complex when Oman was playing Australia in the AFC qualifying game last year, it should make for some pretty entertaining action post-game between the supporting fans. I'm sure the ROP are just super pleased!

The winner of this match qualifies for the Asian cup in Qatar 2011, and what is an asian cup without the gulf cup champs?

So, the first obvious head-scratcher is - why wont the locals pay RO 1.000 for a football game, but are pretty happy to smoke heavily, buy cinema tickets for RO 3.00 and chat away on their cell phones? It is RO 1.00, not RO 10.000. If you cant afford that to go to a football game, then you've got bigger things to worry about.

The second head-scratcher is this: why on earth were the tickets for free in the first place? Oman is a big country, with a smallish population (yet big in GCC terms), with a pretty fixed income (ok it goes up and down) heavily based on hydrocarbons. Are the people here so blinded by the renaissance that they think there will be a free meal ticket for life? What is going to happen when Oman introduces the VAT (rumoured to be 5%)? Or, income tax, which is an absolute necessity as the countries running costs continue to increase, and oil/gas income declines.

And lets not forget the team's motto during the Gulf Cup.... One Oman, One Pulse. So lets make sure there's lots of support for Oman there.

So anyway. March 3rd, 7:30pm at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex - Oman will take on Kuwait, and hopefully give em a good shoeing. And then hopefully the Kuwaiti supporters will quietly bugger off back where they came from. Hopefully.

le fin.

Australia 2 - Oman 1

Commiserations to the Oman team.

However, to play on the world stage, I believe that accurate feedback is the only way to improve. I've already seen and heard people saying, oh, it was a great effort, only lost by a goal.

Except that doesn't really quite paint the whole story, does it?

To say that Oman had a 1 man advantage for 75 minutes of the game, yet failed to capitalize on that advantage speaks volumes. The only goal Oman scored was a result of that 15th minute penalty which netted them the advantage and a goal from a penalty kick.

Oman's strikers clearly need some practice, they must of had a dozen shots at goal, mostly in the second half, yet failed to score - mind you, goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer pulled off some incredible saves. Whereas Australia, with 1 man down, not only replied to Oman's opening goal, but clinched it with a goal in the 82nd minute.


There was also the incident with some local supporter who clearly threw (thanks anon!) his toys out of the pram and resorted to throwing a firework onto the pitch in a presumed attempt to wound/injure some of the Australian players. The question must be asked - how, exactly, did the firework get into the stadium? Seeing as the stadium security will not even let you bring cigarettes (and quite rightly so) or even water (wtf?). Not only do they not allow you to bring water in, they also do not have water for sale in the stadium. Immensely stupid, especially given the heat here. I remember at the Gulf Cup hearing of people collapsing from dehydration in the stands.

All in all, a bit of an embaressment for Oman really - the strikers should all be reprimanded for their terrible accuracy. I wonder how the local press is going to spin this? :)

Well done Australia!