Qatar wanted to go down in football history.
It is done.
Never since 2006, and the tradition of starting the team of the host country, the latter had lost for its first match.
Sportingly, there really was no match.
Quickly, Ecuador put their foot on the ball and the impact in the duels.
And the beautiful mirage of the desert has disappeared.
It is not enough to naturalize players, align them together in the local championship and offer them exceptional working conditions to form a world-class team.
To hold the pressure when the whole world is watching you, you need an experience that cannot be bought.
It was first goalkeeper Saad Alsheeb who got two holes in three seconds and allowed Valencia to open the scoring (3rd).
But after long palaver, the goal is disallowed for a small sole offside.
In the stands, on the Qatari side, we don't seem to understand the rule and a bewildered silence follows the cancellation of the goal.
A few minutes earlier, there were nevertheless hundreds, behind the goal of Qatar, to perfectly imitate the choreographies of the ultras in Europe: songs, collective movements.
But it all seemed too formulaic and too perfectly aligned to be sincere.
Like these copies of the Mona Lisa, well imitated but which do not have the size of the original: we smile a little embarrassed without believing it for a second.
On the lawn, the Ecuadorians did not care about imitations.
They played their football without genius but effective, enough to make the difference.
And it was Enner Valencia who took care of everything.
First on a penalty obtained and converted by the Fenerbahce striker (0-1, 16th), then a beautiful uncrossed header on the reception of a cross from Preciado (0-2, 31st).
Surprisingly, with an hour to go, a few hundred spectators, dressed in white thobes, could be seen leaving the stadium.
Without anger but jaded under the surprised eyes of the rest of the spectators.
“It doesn't matter, explains one of them leaving the Al-Bayt Stadium, I mainly came to see the opening ceremony.
»
And suddenly, the atmosphere in the stadium died out and cooled.
Surprising side effect of football in a country where you leave everything on and where you need the air conditioning constantly to lower the temperatures.
After this initial failure against the team considered the most takeable for them, Qatar, which must then face Senegal and then the Netherlands, must now consider avoiding zero points.
It's not exactly the local custom to agree to finish last.
In the official gallery, the immense American actor Morgan Freeman who came to participate in the opening ceremony, contemplated the spectacle in silence.
By enlisting him, the Qataris had surely remembered his role in
Clint Eastwood's
Million Dollar Baby .
But, in view of the level of play offered by the local selection for its entry into its World Cup, it is impossible not to remember another of the great successes of the actor:
Le bûcher des Vanités
…