The battle lines have been drawn. The strategies have been laid out. Now it is up to Qatar’s young footballers to step up and claim their spot in history.
All those months of training, all those hours of analysing rivals and plotting their downfall will face a severe examination when the hosts meet continental giants South Korea in the semi-finals of the AFC U23 Championship today at the Al Sadd stadium. One more win and Qatar will qualify for the Rio Olympics later this year, thus ending a 14-year wait.
The last time Qatar qualified for the Olympics was way back in 1992 when they went as far as the quarter-finals in Barcelona, and their brilliant run in the tournament so far has raised expectations from the team who have won all their matches in the group stages and scored more goals than any other team so far (11). Two of their players – captain Abdelkarim Hassan and Ahmed Alaeddin – currently top the goal scoring charts with four goals apiece. Apart from flair, they also have plenty of grit. In two of the group stage matches, they came from a goal down to register victories. In their quarter-final, they emerged victorious in a keenly-contested tussle over North Korea, which needed extra-time to decide the winner.
South Korea, like Qatar, have had a good run, although a draw with Iraq in the group stages somewhat blotted their campaign. But they are the second-best team, in terms of goals scored (9) and  two of their players - Moon Chang Jin and Kwon Changhoon – have scored three goals each. In the quarter-final, they managed to break down the resolutely defensive Jordan side for a one-goal win.
The long and short of it, is that Qatar will have to dig deep and give it their all to help make that entry in the history books. Coach Felix Sanchez, game face on as ever, played down the pressure. “The pressure is the same as in every other game because each game is like a final for us. We are proud to be at this stage of the competition and we will play with all we have. More than the pressure, we are proud to be here and we’re going to try to do a last effort in this final stage,” said Sanchez during his pre-match press conference yesterday.
The right start During the group stages, the hosts were guilty of letting the opponents dominate the proceedings early on, before they wrested back control. In the quarter-finals, however Qatar were out of the blocks early and that helped theme dictate the tempo of the game. In today’s match too, Sanchez will need his boys to be at the highest level of concentration, right from the start.
The former Barcelona youth coach knows that his opponents are a tough bunch. “We are going to face a top team. They showed during the tournament the performance quality of the players and the organisation of the kind of football they are playing. It’s very high quality. We are going to do our best to concentrate to be able to compete tomorrow and to have the opportunity to qualify,” said Sanchez yesterday.
A huge relief for Qatar will be the news that skipper Hassan has been declared fit after having sustained an injury in the earlier match but striker Mohamed Muntari will be suspended for this match. “Abdulkareem Hassan is going to be ok. Muntari is suspended with two yellow cards, he’s an important player for us but we have 22 more and we have the resources to play the match,” said the Spaniard yesterday.
Sanchez’s counterpart Shin Tae-yong is wary of Qatar and their attacking prowess. “Their attack is very good and in all the matches they have been managing the games very well and they will be a very dangerous opponent for us. It will be a good match. I think Qatar is the most impressive team overall,” said the coach yesterday.
If South Korea defeat Qatar, they will qualify for the Olympics for the eighth time in a row, which will be an Asian record. And he believes that concentration is the key to winning this encounter. “I don’t think it will be the matter who scores the first goal but more about the team that maintains full concentration the longest,” he said. “That will be the key of this game.
The coach will be happy with the news that striker Hwang Hee-chan has been declared fit to play the semifinal after recovering from an ankle injury sustained against Jordan.  
Tae-yong is preparing his team to win and one the focus areas will be set pieces. “Football is all about winning so I will prepare in that context with the same strategy and set piece plays. I will try to prepare a strategy that will allow us to win the match tomorrow,” said the South Korea coach.
Qatar coach Sanchez would have surely taken note of that.