Al Sadd and Xavi

So I went to my first Al Sadd football match the other day. I was a bit to finally get a chance to see Al Sadd's latest star player, Spanish-legend Xavi, play a match. He's the man in white in the center of the photo, about to shake hands with the other team.



Al Sadd were playing against Qatar Sports Club. Al Sadd is one of the more popular teams in Qatar so had around 2000 fans show up for the match. There were also a number of school kids in attendance, apparently there was a youth tournament going on at Aspire so hundreds were there to watch the game. Most were cheering for Al Sadd / Xavi as well.

I guess a player named Raul from Al Sadd was retiring because a huge banner was unfurled by the fans to thank him.

I won't go into all of the details of the match but I thought it would be a blow-out when Al-Sadd scored in the first three minutes! Qatar Sports Club settled down though and played better after that. They weren't able to stop a second goal but kept things lively with a late goal. It wasn't enough though and it ended 2-1 for Al Sadd.

Al Sadd Stadium is really great. The air conditioning keeps things comfortable and if you pay for QAR 20 seats they are really nice and padded - quite comfortable. My friend fell asleep a couple of times.