The hotly anticipated showdown in Al Ain City between the United Arab Emirates and India never materialized thanks to the horrible officiating of Qatar's Banjar Al Dosari.UAE started strong, but India's defense appeared to be up to the challenge until the match was taken out of their hands. Ali Al Wehaibi went down in the box from minimal contact from behind in minute 19. The referee marked a penalty, but also added to India's misery by sending off defender Roy Debabrata. The penalty was converted. Ismail Al Hammadi decided to flop in minute 23 after feigning a knee to his groin from India goalkeeper Subrata Pal. The referee gave Pal a red card for the phantom foul and awarded a penalty kick to UAE even though Pal had possession of the ball, a clear contradiction to the rules of the game. India was down to nine players. The remaining Indian players nearly walked off the pitch in protest, for which I would not have blamed them, and the match was delayed for a good five minutes during their angry protests. Backup goalkeeper Karanjit Singh could not save the second penalty kick, but he was a miracle worker for 9-man India, preventing the hemorrhaging of goals that would have eliminated India before the second leg.
A third goal eventually came, but only after India had been down two players for over fifty minutes. UAE walked out with the most undeserved 3-0 victory ever witnessed, and the only way to right this wrong is to hope Mr. Al Dosari gets his refereeing license revoked. Perhaps India can overcome a three-goal deficit in Delhi five days from now, but do not expect too much for an understandably rattled and angry team.
Qatar, much maligned after a recent friendly loss to India, welcomed red hot Vietnam into Doha for the first leg of their qualifying series. The hosts were rather unwelcoming to the Vietnamese, however, sending them back to the dressing room at the half facing a 1-0 deficit. Qatar continued their dominance in the second half and pushed across two more goals to crystallize the score as a 3-0 final.
The match seemed routine, and the ability of Qatar to neutralize Le Cong Vinh may prove to be the downfall of Vietnam, who in spite of a raucous home crowd in five days' time is unlikely to overturn the aggregate deficit.
The Philippines visited Kuwait City to face Kuwait, but judging by the amount of Filipinos in the stands, the site could have been Quezon City for all anyone could judge. The pro-Philippines crowd had plenty of reason to get excited in the first half as the Philippines actually attacked more often than Kuwait, but it was Kuwait who scored the only goal of the half, doing so against the run of play.
Kuwait's superiority truly began to shine through during the second half. The hot conditions seemed to wear down the Philippines slowly whereas Kuwait seemed fresh throughout. A goal midway through the period scored on a loose ball scramble at the goal line should have alerted Philippines manager Michael Weiss to the necessity of substituting his players, but Weiss was asleep at the wheel and did not make a change until the ninetieth minute and even then did not use all three substitutions available to him. By that point, a great strike from outside the box from Fahad Al Ebrahim had already made the score a fully deserved 3-0 in Kuwait's favor, and only great goalkeeper from Philippines' Neil Etheridge prevented a mauling.
The second leg takes place on Thursday in Manila. Perhaps Weiss will be awake for that match, though it may be too difficult to ask him to come up with a winning gameplan down 3-0 in the series.
Goals:
United Arab Emirates
Ismail Hamdan 21 PK
Mohamed Al Shehhi 29 PK
Ismail Al Hammadi 82
Qatar
Mohamed Kasoula 6
Meshal Mubarak 51
Yousef Ahmad Ali 68
Kuwait
Yousef Al Suleiman 16
Mesaed Al Enezi 68
Fahad Al Ebrahim 84
Match Reports:
Highlights:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9D87p1Bku0 (United Arab Emirates v. India)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCXPhREgTr4 (Qatar v. Vietnam)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOoU6G8zTvg (Kuwait v. Philippines)
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