Ecuador’s Enner Valencia celebrates after scoring his aspect’s second aim through the match between Qatar and Ecuador in Al Khor, Qatar, on Sunday.

Hassan Ammar/AP

conceal caption

toggle caption

Hassan Ammar/AP

Ecuador’s Enner Valencia celebrates after scoring his aspect’s second aim through the match between Qatar and Ecuador in Al Khor, Qatar, on Sunday.

Hassan Ammar/AP

AL KHOR, Qatar — Qatar’s first ever World Cup match led to dismay for an overmatched staff and with a spot in undesirable soccer historical past.

The controversy-laced match opened Sunday with Qatar getting outplayed and embarrassed in a 2-0 loss to Ecuador in entrance of 67,372 followers at Al Bayt Stadium.

In 92 years of soccer’s greatest occasion, a number staff had by no means misplaced its opening recreation.

The first World Cup within the Middle East is an opportunity for Qatar, a tiny Arab nation jutting out into the Persian Gulf, to showcase itself to the broader world. Its soccer staff, enjoying at this degree for the primary time by advantage of internet hosting the match, could not dwell up-to-the-minute as Ecuador captain Enner Valencia scored each targets within the first half.

The match passed off after a colourful 30-minute opening ceremony — fronted by Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman and attended by highly effective dignitaries together with Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — that promoted inclusivity and mankind residing “under one tent.”

For many, that might jar with this World Cup being internet hosting by an emirate the place gay acts are unlawful, one which has come below sturdy criticism for the way migrant employees have been handled constructing stadiums and match infrastructure since Qatar gained the scandal-shrouded vote in 2010.

The yearslong scrutiny was by no means going to cease simply because play on the sphere lastly entered the narrative of a match dogged by human rights controversies, but a win for the host nation would have at the very least put a good gentle on Qatar, soccer-wise.

Instead, Qatar’s gamers, contemporary from spending seven months collectively in a pre-tournament coaching camp below Spanish coach Felix Sanchez, froze in entrance of an expectant crowd and a disciplined Ecuador staff that may simply pose a hazard to extra high-profile opponents over the subsequent few weeks.

Valencia thought he had scored within the third minute when he headed in from shut vary following an acrobatic cross from Felix Torres. After a video overview of about two minutes, Ecuadorian celebrations have been minimize brief when the aim was dominated out for what seemed to be a marginal offside.

Ecuador did take the lead, nevertheless, within the sixteenth minute when Valencia was tripped by Saad Alsheeb after rounding the goalkeeper, who was booked for the problem. Valencia was nonchalant as he trotted up and transformed the spot kick into the underside nook.

The 33-year-old striker added his second within the thirty third by heading in a right-wing cross from Angelo Preciado.

With Qatar’s passes usually going astray and its defensive raggedness repeatedly uncovered, Ecuador had no drawback holding onto its lead as Sanchez stood helpless in his technical space and the house followers fell quiet.

There have been a lot of empty seats for a second half that was nearly a damage-limitation train for Qatar on one of many greatest nights within the nation’s historical past.

Leaders from the Middle East and Africa have been current

Camels and Arabian horses lined the doorway to the stadium, a Bedouin tent-inspired venue positioned within the relatively remoted surrounds of the agricultural city of Al Khor, north of Doha.

And the atmospheric, seven-act opening ceremony lived as much as its billing, the spotlight being when Freeman prolonged one yellow-gloved hand to a FIFA World Cup ambassador affected by a uncommon spinal dysfunction in a picture representing inclusion in a rustic going through worldwide criticism over its human-rights file.

Looking on from the posh seats have been FIFA president Gianni Infantino alongside leaders from the Middle East and Africa. Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, drew a thunderous applause in a brief speech delivered in Arabic from the suite, with Infantino and the monarch’s father, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, on both aspect of him.

“I welcome you and good luck to all,” the emir stated in his solely phrases spoken in English.

After this show, Qatar will want extra than simply luck to keep away from becoming a member of South Africa as being the one host nation to fail to get out of the group stage on the World Cup.

The first half was winding down when a chant got here from a big part of vocal, yellow-clad Ecuador followers: “We want beer.” It was a humorous intervention two days after Qatar determined to ban beer gross sales on the stadiums through the World Cup. It was a late change by the conservative Islamic nation the place entry to alcohol is strictly restricted. Only alcohol-free Bud Zero was offered on the recreation.

In what is going to go down as one of many worst shows by a number nation to open a match, Qatar had 5 photographs within the match and none of them have been heading in the right direction. The staff had solely two touches contained in the opposition penalty space.

Qatar will look to bounce again towards Senegal in Group A on Friday, on the identical day Ecuador takes on the Netherlands.