I went to my first Asian Games event tonight...the Qatar vs. UAE soccer game. What an experience. The Al-Sadd Stadium is really great...not too big but new and modern looking. There are no assigned seats so we were right by the goal only 4 rows back! The energy was fun and it was non-stop cheering...the 4 or 5 goals they made helped! To top it off the tickets were about $1.25 and food equally as cheap. But to get food you have to fight in line...you'd think they were giving away gold or something. It was pretty disgusting actually. My friend and I got attacked by a young boy...he literally punched and elbowed us to get through. But we stood our ground and didn't let him through. I have never experienced anything like this. The disgusting part is that the man responsible for this boy stood there and egged him on. All the men were encouraging this young boy's terrible behaviour. It wasn't just us he was pushing either, there were other children about the same age trying to protect their even younger sibling. The man responsible should really be ashamed of himself. He's certianly not doing the boy any good by not teaching him manners and respect.
When we finally got our drinks and snacks, the guards stopped us before returning to our seats. They removed the lid from our drink and then let us through. Why do they want us to spill pop everywhere? I'm not quite sure what the rationale behind that was. Are the plastic lids dangerous? I think spilled pop is worse especially when everyone is wearing white thobes.
They also had impressive looking guards all over the stadium...blue camoflage military uniforms w/riot police gear! Also the whole front row was some kind of volunteer security. All normally dressed guys but every time someone scored a goal the front row would stand and face the fans. Very strange.
Oh...one more funny thing...Qatar won a bronze in rapid chess and the women's name is Chen Zhu..strange.
And you've probably read the beach volleyball article on CNN...what a great picture and funny story.
Well, looking forward to seeing some other events...particularly sepaktakraw (volleyball but with your feet!).
Will post more pictures...
-Gen
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