Qatar, a team with whom the Socceroos are getting quite familiar, qualified on the back of impressive performances against everyone but the Australians in the previous round of World Cup qualifiers. Going into the upcoming match, the Socceroos would feel quite confident with their chances against the Qataris after defeating them 3-0 at home and 3-1 at the Al-Sadd Club.

Qatar finished the third round of AFC 2010 World Cup qualifiers in second place behind the Socceroos on goal difference and in the process knocked out Asian Cup champions, Iraq, whom they defeated in both their meetings. The Iraqis felt especially aggrieved, due to the fact that Qatar had fielded an ineligible player, Emerson, in their first clash. Recently the Court of Arbitration ruled in favour of the Qataris. It was highly unlikely that the AFC would rule in Iraq’s favour considering that AFC President is Mohammed Bin Hamman, a Qatari.

Of concern to the Qataris in the lead up to the Socceroos clash, would be the fact that their defensive record against Australia is poor, conceding six goal in their two meetings and the only goals that they let in during the previous round. The Qataris have recently come under the control of Bruno Metsu after previous coach, Jorge Forsatti resigned due to ill health. They started this campaign impressively with a 3-0 thrashing of Uzbekistan but then were restricted to a 1-1 draw against Bahrain despite being having a man advantage for close to a hour.

The national team plays at the Al-Sadd Club in the capital of Qatar, Doha and has a capacity of 50,000. Qatar are yet to qualify for a World Cup or win an Asian Cup despite impressive performances by their youth teams in the past. The Qataris, however have claimed the Gulf Cup twice, in 1994 and 2002. The team now has a number of naturalised foreigners, and gives the sense that they are looking to buy their way into the World Cup.

Players to watch:

Sebastián Soria Quintana

This diminutive striker, caused plenty of problems for the Socceroos in their previous encounter and if it wasn’t for the excellence of Mark Schwarzer, he may have found himself on the score sheet. Quintana is one of swag of foreign-born players now in the Qatari national team having been born in Uruquay. He has represented Qatar at last year’s Asian Cup, where he was their only goal scorer with three goals, and also at the U23 Asian Cup, although there is some dispute to his actual age. He currently plies his trade with Qatar SC, after previous stints with Al-Gharafa and Liverpool of Montevideo. Quintana has managed to find the back of the net nine times for the national squad and the Socceroos will need to keep him in check.

Khalfan Ibrahim

Ibrahim, winner of 2006 Asian Player of the Year, is an attacking midfielder that the Socceroos will have to keep close watch over if they want to keep the Qataris scoreless. The twenty year old, who currently plies his trade for Al Sadd in the Qatari League, has an impressive goal scoring record for both club and country and managed a consolation goal in the two teams previous encounter. Like Quintana, he is diminutive in stature but extremely skillful on the ball and has followed in the footballing footsteps of his father Ibrahim Khalfan, who also represented his country.

Other things to know about Qatar

1.
Qatar is an absolute monarchy. The emir is head of state, appoints the cabinet, and occupies the officer of prime minister. There is also a 30-member advisior council. No elections have been held since 1970.

2.
Expatriates form the majority of Qatar’s residents. The petrochemical industry has attracted people from all around the world. Most of the expatriates come fromSouth Asia and from non-oil-rich Arab states. Because a large percentage of the expatriates are male, Qatar has a heavily skewed sex ratio, with 1.8528 males per female.

3.
Doha, the capital of Qatar is home to television network Al Jazeera, which is the only independent television in the region, and its name quite literally means “the island”.

Neil Zimmerman is the editor of the84thminute and also runs the Victory In Melbourne site. On most weekends Neil can be found at a football match, be it either A-League, Victorian Premier League or a match that he happens to come across whilst walking his dogs. He also has never been to Qatar.