18 Qatar brewing football dream (Qatar national football dream)

With the Netherlands' draw with Ecuador, Qatar, which suffered a two-game losing streak, became the first expenditure team in this World Cup.

As early as before the World Cup, Qatar was labeled as "the weakest host in history" by various media, and it was no accident that the group failed to qualify. However, under the watchful eye of tens of thousands of domestic fans, the Asian champion played quite flustered and made mistakes in most of the two games. Until the second half of last night, he finally found his own state, but there was nothing he could do. The only consolation is to score at least the first goal in history.

Qatar scored the first goal in last night's World Cup.

It is not difficult to see that the identity of the host country has brought heavy psychological pressure to Qatar players. In this regard, Qatar coach Felix Sanchez was blunt after losing to Ecuador in the first game: "Nervousness defeated us. This is our first time to participate in the World Cup. In front of the fans, we failed to play our due level. We need to learn to cope with stress better. "

This pressure not only comes from the expectations of the country and people, but also comes from the idea of "fighting to the end" after long-term preparation. The Qatar team in the World Cup, like a student who has worked hard for the college entrance examination for three years, constantly reminds himself not to drag his feet in the most critical examination room. On the contrary, I am at a loss and can't even play the normal level.

Of course, in reality, Qatar has paid for more than three years. To some extent, they planned 18 years in order to make a blockbuster in the World Cup.

The official population of Qatar is 2.7 million, but in fact the local population is only 300,000. Considering the shortage of football talents, Qatar has started the naturalization policy since the beginning of this century.

When it comes to naturalization, you must remember ... well, Qatar's naturalization strategy did have many similarities with the national football team at first.

In 2004, the Bundesliga Golden Boot and Bremen "Ball Lightning" Elton chose to play for the Qatar national team, for which Qatar paid a signing fee of 2 million pounds. Joining Elton is his Brazilian compatriot, Dortmund's main left-back Dede. However, after the news came out, many countries, led by Germany, strongly protested that this behavior violated the concept of fair competition and would lead to the brain drain of their own countries. FIFA finally stopped the naturalization of Elton and others, and quickly introduced policies to restrict the naturalization of players, such as being related by blood or living in the naturalized country for at least 2 years.

"Spherical Lightning" Elton

Despite this, Qatar has completed the recruitment of some overseas players, including Uruguayan striker Sebastian Soria, who once made the national football team suffer a lot. In 2006, after living in Qatar for two years, Sebastian, who met the naturalization requirements, completed naturalization, and then he played 123 international games for Qatar national team in 10. However, when he first received the invitation from Qatar Football Association, Sebastian didn't even know where Qatar was, so he looked at the map to confirm the location.

Sebastian has a bad memory of China fans.

However, naturalization did not achieve the desired effect of Qataris. In the two Asian Cups in 2004 and 2007, Qatar was eliminated early in the group stage. Coupled with the increasingly strict rules and restrictions of FIFA, they realize that relying on mercenaries is not a long-term solution. So in 2004, the Qatar Elite College, which was in full charge of the Qatar royal family, cost nearly $30 billion and covered an area of 290,000 square meters, was completed in Doha, the capital.

This internationally renowned sports youth training institute is not only about football, but also includes track and field, fencing, table tennis and other projects. Balhim, the first Olympic track and field champion in Qatar history and the gold medal winner of men's high jump in Tokyo Olympic Games, was trained by this college. He and Italian player Tamberi * * * enjoyed the scene of winning the gold medal and wrote an Olympic story.

At the Tokyo Olympics, Balhim and Tamberi won the gold medal.

However, football is undoubtedly the most eye-catching and valued project of Qatar elite college. In terms of hardware, the college has 10 natural lawn courts, 2 artificial lawn courts and/kloc-0 indoor football fields, and has also hired a large number of European high-level youth training experts for material selection guidance.

In addition to recruiting talented local young people, the college has also improved the simple and rude naturalization strategy in the past: selecting outstanding young people from foreign populations, allowing them to naturalize at an early age and conducting long-term training, with the ultimate goal of creating a group of outstanding players who can compete with top teams for the 2022 World Cup. The logic behind this adjustment is easy to understand: compared with mercenaries attracted by money, these children who came to Qatar from an early age naturally have a stronger sense of identity and belonging to the country.

This is the "Aspire Football Dream Plan" that led the rise of Qatar football.

"Football Dream Plan" is just a big concept, and there are many specific and detailed small plans in this big concept. For example, on 20 12, elite colleges launched overseas training programs to let a group of post-1995 players go to the echelons of several professional clubs in Europe to train and compete with their peers in these European professional clubs. In addition, there are six age groups in elite colleges, namely U 13, U 14, U 15, U 16, U 17 and U 18. Each echelon is equipped with 1 1 coach with different functions.

Qatar coach Sanchez

Sanchez, the current coach of the national team, came to Qatar as early as 2006 and coached youth teams of all ages for many years, until he officially took over as coach of the national team in 20 17. Although he failed to lead the team to the 20 18 World Cup in Russia, the Qatar Football Association still chose to believe this Spaniard who almost knows Qatar football best.

Investment in elite universities and trust in Sanchez finally paid off. Qatar, which is dominated by 95-year-old players, won the Asian Cup in 20 19, scored 19 goals in 7 games, and only lost 1 ball. 70% of the players in the lineup are trained by elite colleges.

Qatar 20 19 won the Asian Cup for the first time.

There are as many as 18 players from elite colleges in Qatar's 26-member National People's Congress, including Gemini, Aarmo Ez Ali, 438+09, and Akram Affif, the golden boot of the 2065 Asian Cup. No wonder Sports director, an elite college, and tim cahill, an Australian legend, proudly said, "Without elite colleges, there would be no Qatari national team."

Aarmo Ez Ali was born in Sudan and immigrated to Qatar with his parents when he was young. /kloc-was recruited by elite colleges at the age of 0/0, and made his first appearance for Qatar national team at the age of 0/7. In the 20 19 Asian Cup, he scored 9 goals in a blockbuster, breaking the single Asian Cup goal record in Aried, and was praised by special commentator Mourinho: "He is fully capable of playing abroad. To be honest, he should not stay in the Qatar League. "

Asian Cup Golden Boot Ali

As for Akram Affif, a native of Qatar, he was also trained by elite colleges. The 25-year-old winger played briefly for Villarreal and was the first Qatari player to play in La Liga. He sent a record 65,438+00 assists in the 2065,438+09 Asian Cup and won the Asian Footballer of the Year.

After winning the Asian Cup, Qatar participated in the Copa America in 20 19 and the Copa America in 2020 in order to get a higher level of training for the national team. In the Copa America, they drew Paraguay 2-2, lost to Colombia 0-/kloc-0, and lost to Argentina 0-2, which was remarkable. In the Golden Cup, Qatar reached the semi-finals in one fell swoop, only losing to the final champion-the United States by one goal.

Based on this performance, it is not surprising that Qatar is full of expectations for this World Cup. If Qatar's "Football Dream Plan" can be played brilliantly in the first World Cup, it can almost be regarded as a perfect blueprint for the elite development of football.

Asbair College

However, as the saying goes, too much is too late. The success of "Football Dream Plan" is not only the investment of real money, but also the result of patience and long-term vision. However, in the critical preparation stage before the World Cup, the Qataris, eager for success and overexertion, made a series of obscene operations.

Qatar took the lead in preparing for the World Cup 32. In July this year, Qatar basically confirmed the World Cup entry list. In the next four months, these players have only two tasks, training and playing warm-up matches with various opponents.

During the training period, players are allowed to bring their families to the training camp or visit their homes for a short time, but they are not allowed to participate in club competitions. And their respective clubs can only bear the huge impact of the loss of a large number of players. Among them, 12 people were selected as the traditional giants of the national team, and Sadr was the worst, and they lost half of the team. At present, they are only ranked fourth from the bottom in the league. After September 15, the Qatar League, which started less than two months ago, was simply suspended.

Defending champion Sadr ranked fourth from the bottom after seven rounds.

After the warm-up match with Chile at the end of September, Qatar went to Marbella and began a 40-day closed training. During this period, five warm-up matches were arranged with Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama and Albania. Although they have won five consecutive victories, their opponents are generally not strong. In order to prevent the opponents of the World Cup from spying, no media or fans are allowed to enter these warm-up matches.

In other words, these national team members have not played a real game in the four months before the opening of the World Cup. Qatar Football Association believes that players' personal abilities are at a disadvantage compared with their opponents in the same group, so only through long-term training can we maximize the tacit understanding between players and make a difference in the World Cup.

This idea is obviously absurd. No matter how many warm-up matches you play, it is completely different from the intensity of the World Cup. The first two Qatar teams seem unable to adapt to the high confrontation and fast pace between Ecuador and Senegal. You know, Ecuador only played a warm-up match a week before the opening of the World Cup, while Senegal didn't play a warm-up match at all. Players came to the World Cup directly after playing the club game.

Qatar became the host of the first team in history to be eliminated early.

No matter from the results or the competition process, it is a more scientific method to replace training with competition than closed training that lags behind the times. In fact, as early as July, a person from Qatar League Club pointed out that this almost crazy way of preparing for the World Cup may have a negative impact on Qatar's World Cup prospects: "If you don't play official games for a long time, the players' psychology will easily go wrong. Staying in the training camp for so long will only make them physically and mentally exhausted. "

The host country has worked hard for nearly 20 years and trained a considerable number of football talents, but made a big mistake in the last step and failed to show the best state to the world. This is a great pity.

The 5th 0-0 World Cup! England tied the United States and Puglisi in the World Cup-Qatar 1-3 Senegalese hosts beheaded early and stayed up late tonight to watch Argentina! The final battle against Mexico at 3 am.