More bad news for the palestinian Arabs, this time from the world of football:
A long and engrossing qualifying journey of 16 games, while dealing with the obstacles of a war, came crashing down in an instant for Oday Dabbagh and his Palestinian team.
Players left the field in tears in the immediate aftermath at the King Abdullah II Stadium in Amman, Jordan, last Thursday after their quest for a first appearance at a World Cup evaporated on a contentious penalty awarded deep in extra time. Fans looked on, stunned.
“It’s very hard,” Dabbagh, the team’s star striker, told The Associated Press. “It was massive for us to get to the next stage — we prepared well, we had a positive atmosphere, and we had the fans with us. We gave everything, but it was gone in a moment.”
Needing to win its last three Group B games to reach the playoffs for the last two of Asia’s automatic spots at the World Cup, the No. 101-ranked team in the world beat Iraq in Basra in March, Kuwait in Kuwait City on June 5. Five days later, it was leading 1-0 against Oman in Jordan in the 97th minute.
The Palestinians had never been in a better position in qualifying for a World Cup. Then Oman was awarded, and scored, a penalty to make it 1-1 in the last real act of the game.
Actually, the penalty was not really contentious. It was as clear as day actually, as you will soon see. But that didn’t stop the Palestine Football Association from complaining:
Not long after the dejected players had picked themselves up, the Palestine Football Association (PFA) made an official complaint to soccer’s world governing body, FIFA, about the penalty. It didn’t change the fact, however, that the long road trip was over.
“We tried to put smiles on the faces of Palestinians amid their great pain,” head coach Ihab Abujazar said. “The heroic players are our pride and glory, a symbol of all that is beautiful in the Palestinian nation.”
And that’s pretty much peak palestinian leadership isn’t it? Lose, refuse to accept the results or take ownership of own actions, and cry foul even when there was clearly no wrongdoing.
I guess many in the world aren’t as careful as FIFA, though, when it comes to falling for their crying wolf.
