Saudi Commuters Descend on Doha for an In-and-Out World Cup

DOHA, Qatar — Planes had been touchdown, from all all over the world, each couple of minutes. They got here from London and Tokyo, Hong Kong and São Paulo. There could be about 300 scheduled passenger flights touchdown at Hamad International Airport on Saturday.

But amongst them had been dozens of planes that had not come far, typically just some hundred miles from the west and after barely reaching cruising altitude. They got here from Saudi Arabia, Qatar’s next-door neighbor, and so they carried excited individuals in inexperienced jerseys and with no luggage to examine.

These World Cup commuters wouldn’t keep lengthy. Kickoff was at 4 p.m. They would get up again residence on Sunday, a piece day, in their very own beds.

They had been soccer followers, and so they carried solely what they wanted: banners, flags and a passport. And they introduced a renewed sense of collective expectation as they arrived to cheer Saudi Arabia, the unlikely darling of the event, if not the whole Middle East.

Beating Argentina will try this. Every sport, now, is greater than the final. After dropping to Poland, 2-0, the following, towards Mexico on Wednesday, will determine if Saudi Arabia reaches the spherical of 16. That hope will generate one other day like this one.

By midmorning, the airport in Doha was spilling out bursts of inexperienced. Among them had been the brothers Faris and Salman al-Hassan, recent off a brief flight from Riyadh and carrying inexperienced jerseys and scarves.

They may have come by automotive, they stated — Doha is about six hours from Riyadh — however Qatar, nervous about automotive site visitors, disincentivized that concept for the World Cup. It created a short lived toll of 5,000 Saudi riyal (about $1,330) for these driving throughout the border throughout the event.

An various was to park on the border and hop on a bus on the Abu Samra, Qatar, checkpoint, as hundreds of others had achieved over the previous week. The no-frills bus experience is little greater than an hour, however the bus is just not the onerous half: Abu Samra is hours from any main Saudi metropolis.

So the selection was made by hundreds: Commute by air.

Get in. Cheer. Get out.

“We will go straight to the stadium and come right back,” Salman al-Hassan stated.

About 20 flights arrived in Doha from Saudi Arabian cities between daybreak and 1 p.m. on Saturday, timed simply for the afternoon kickoff.

At 11:15 a.m., right here got here an Airbus 320 from Riyadh. Another large Airbus departed close by Dammam, made a delicate parabola within the sky and touched down in Doha at 11:30 a.m. In its slipstream was a flight from Medina, then one other from Riyadh, then one from Damman, then one from Jeddah, throughout the Arabian Peninsula alongside the Red Sea.

That was within the area of an hour. Each flight, every large jet, disgorged bright-eyed revelers after which went again to fetch extra.

Into Qatar the followers got here, by way of customs and previous baggage declare — not a vital cease for most — and into the hushed corridor of the gleaming terminal. Some stopped at cubicles for a SIM card or some Qatari money. Some discovered a counter to stash their bag for the day, wishing that they had packed lighter.

Most, it turned out, had by no means been to Doha. It is an rising international capital greater than a regional vacation spot.

This could be a fast fling, a one-day takeover. From the terminal the Saudis caught the metro, acquired off on the Msheireb station within the metropolis heart, walked round and ate, after which acquired again on the metro — the inexperienced line, fittingly — for an eight-stop experience to Education City Stadium.

There, Poland awaited, very a lot the visiting workforce.

Poland took the lead after 39 minutes when Piotr Zielinski turned in a cross from the star striker Robert Lewandowski. But the Saudis had arrived brimming with confidence and, backed by the raucous crowd, rapidly went looking for an equalizer.

Salem al-Dawsari had an opportunity for one simply earlier than halftime, however his penalty kick was pushed apart by Poland’s goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny. The rebound fell to a teammate, however his sharp shot was saved, too. The green-clad followers within the stands groaned, and groaned once more when Lewandowski’s objective within the 82nd minute sealed Saudi Arabia’s defeat.

No matter the end result, all of this had come as a shock. Saudi Arabia’s soccer workforce had arrived in Qatar as a basic underdog, its roster drawn principally from home leagues. It started the event with the longest odds within the subject, 1,000-to-1, and permission from a minimum of the dominion’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to not fear an excessive amount of about wins or losses.

But down by 1-0 to Lionel Messi and Argentina on Tuesday, Saudi striker Saleh al-Shehri turned an on the spot nationwide hero. Free on a breakaway, he despatched a sliding left-footer into Argentina’s objective. Al-Dawsari adopted a couple of minutes later with a thunderbolt into the upper-right nook.

The Saudis led and held to win. It was such an unlikely end result that Wednesday was declared a nationwide vacation. That gave followers extra time, presumably, to stage their in-and-out pilgrimages on Saturday and what shall be a minimum of yet another.

Early on Saturday morning, earlier than 8 a.m., a household awoke of their properties in Riyadh and acquired out the door for the airport. That group, the Abdulilah household — two aunts, their nieces and nephews and a cousin — had purchased tickets months in the past, for 600 riyal ($160 per individual).

They thought of driving to Doha — all however one had by no means been — however the associated fee and the uncertainty about site visitors and parking deterred them.

When extra flights had been added to the schedule a number of weeks in the past, they purchased airplane tickets for 999 riyal, or $266. Some of the ladies within the group admitted that they weren’t huge soccer followers. One, who most popular to provide her identify solely as Halah, had not heard of the now-famous gamers till the final match.

Her cousin, Luluh, stated the match could be her first sporting occasion — a prospect that acquired infinitely extra thrilling with the victory over Argentina.

“I was watching with my son, and he was terrified because of my screaming,” she stated.

Most Saudi followers arrived to the airport as they introduced themselves on the stadium: adorned in inexperienced and typically holding a flag that might be worn as a cape. You may inform those who had flown in simply for the day, a minimum of from Riyadh, as a result of that they had been handed free inexperienced scarves on the airport earlier than departing.

Even these in conventional Saudi gown — a white full-length thobe for males, and a gown-like abaya for ladies — accentuated themselves with inexperienced or selected green-tinted abaya.

At the stadium, although, total rows of males sat in crisp white thobes amongst throngs of followers carrying inexperienced workforce jerseys — a loud sea of inexperienced and white speckled with Polish purple. Every time al-Shehri or al-Dawsari touched the ball with an opening towards the objective, the followers lifted of their seats in anticipation.

The sudden event success of the Saudis has rallied the area, perhaps in sudden methods. The Saudis led a Gulf-region blockade of Qatar in 2017, solely ending it in 2021, and there’s some pure nervousness as Saudis watch tiny Qatar elevate its profile.

But that is the primary World Cup held within the Middle East, and on the opening ceremony, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani of Qatar sat with the Saudi chief, Prince Mohammed.

“Brothers,” a thobe-wearing man named Mohammed stated on the airport, describing the connection between Saudi Arabia and Qatar, even with the blockade. “Same people, different country.”

Now they had been related by an airborne parade. Experts have chimed in on the carbon footprint of this World Cup — scientists will not be impressed by the host’s claims of neutrality — however journey accounts for about half of it, one report discovered. And air site visitors coming out and in of Doha is an enormous a part of that.

Those issues won’t gradual the circulate from the west. And when the match ended, simply previous sunset, the day reversed itself.

The stadium emptied. The metro’s inexperienced line full of Saudi followers. Thousands of soccer commuters crowded the airport once more.

They divided themselves onto planes that introduced them residence in the identical quick arcs — to Riyadh, to Dammam, to Medina, to Jeddah. They returned to the beds that that they had left within the morning. An tour greater than a visit, however one with a sense that can final.

“You never get the chance to have the World Cup next door,” Mohammed stated. “You could almost walk there.”