An unforgettable year for Lebanese football

Earlier this month, Lebanese-Brazilian filmmaker Fouad Sabbagh found himself in the company of the Brazil Fair Play team, whose members include the 1994 World Cup winner Paulo Sergio and former Milan and Real Madrid midfielder Emerson. Sabbagh, who is in the process of making a documentary about Lebanese football, couldn’t resist a cheeky request in the presence of such illustrious company, and soon had the Brazilians, whose country will host the 2014 World Cup, chanting in unison: “Come on Lebanon, we are waiting for you in Brazil.” Barely three months ago, the idea that Lebanon might qualify for Brazil 2014 wouldn’t have crossed the mind of even the most ardent Lebanese supporter. In fact, rather than play happily along for the camera, Emerson and co. might have politely suggested that Sabbagh get his head examined. Certainly, as South Korea notched six goals past a hapless Lebanese defense in early September, no one was thinking that 2011 would turn out to be a vintage year for the Lebanese national team. That walloping, after all, was meted out in the aftermath of similar landslide defeats against UAE and Kuwait a few months earlier. Those two games were notable for moments that were to become viral YouTube hits: a back-heeled penalty by late Emirati player Theyab Awana, and a mass brawl between the Lebanese and Kuwaiti teams that only army bullets could break up. If Lebanese football’s 15 minutes of fame for 2011 was to comprise those two incidents, then few would have been surprised. Yet fast forward to December, and there was that collection of former Brazil stars, cheerfully welcoming the prospect of Lebanon battling it out for World Cup qualification. How did we get from the nadirs of Seoul and the Kuwait punch-up to this stage of fairytale optimism? The story of the Lebanon football team’s remarkable journey from whipping boys of Asian football to potential World Cup gatecrashers is as unlikely as it is romantic. A look through the side’s results since that South Korea thrashing testifies to the Cedars’ recent revival: Sept. 6: Lebanon 3-1 UAE Oct. 11: Lebanon 2-2 Kuwait Nov. 11: Kuwait 0-1 Lebanon Nov. 15: Lebanon 2-1 South Korea Those 10 points out of a possible 12 have seen Lebanon climb into second place in World Cup qualifying Group B, with only a double dose of upsets in February’s final round of fixtures able to stop them from progressing to the next round, where the big guns of Asian football await. Yet as always, results and mathematical permutations can barely begin to tell the whole story. For that we have to return to late August, when German coach Theo Bucker, a “half-Lebanese” with an intimate knowledge of the Middle Eastern game, was appointed national team boss in place of Emile Rustom. Though Bucker oversaw the South Korea defeat in his first match in charge, by then he had had little time to impose his vision on the team. What’s more, as he would later remind us, that game had come right in the middle of Ramadan, meaning that Lebanon’s Muslim players were hardly in peak shape that night. Since then, Bucker has moulded what he had already identified as a supremely talented group of players into a real team. Make no mistake, the coach waved no magic wand over his new charges. But what he did do is get them to believe in their ability and to recognize the value of teamwork, discipline and professionalism. With the coach bringing a positive new mentality and ultra-professional approach, the talent that we all knew was there found space to blossom. There have been many heroes of Lebanon’s glorious run, each finding their best form when the moment required. Against the UAE, captain Roda Antar, the most talented Lebanese player of his generation, announced his return to the national fold in fine style with a classy goal, and has maintained his good form since then. Around him, Hasan Maatouk, a favorite of Diego Maradona since his move to UAE club Ajman, has come of age on the international stage. His first goal against Kuwait in Beirut will go down as one of the greatest witnessed at Beirut’s Cite Sportive stadium. In the return fixture against Kuwait, meanwhile, with Maatouk marked out of the game, Mahmoud al-Ali stepped up to dab home a classy winner, while few will forget the energy and never-say-die commitment of midfielder Haytham Faour’s performance in the victory over South Korea. That man-of-the-match performance embodies the Three Musketeers’ spirit of the new Lebanon. In defense, players who might once have been considered a liability have matured into streetwise, determined professionals. Walid Ismail, Ramez Dayoub, Ali al-Saadi, Ahmad Zreik: These might not be household names, yet all of them have been key to the Lebanese renaissance. Behind them, you would do well to find a braver keeper than Ziad al-Samad, without whom one-goal victories over Kuwait and South Korea could never have been achieved. When South Korea were beaten 2-1 in November in what was perhaps Lebanon’s greatest ever result, the Cedars had to make do without two of their star players, the suspended Maatouk and injured defender Youssef Mohammad, once of German Bundesliga side FC Koln. That their absence was hardly missed says much about the mentality of this Lebanon side. This team, like any successful side, is far greater than the sum of its parts. What greater symbol could there be for a famously divided country than such a football side? The country’s politicians have caught on to this fact, with President Michel Sleiman in attendance for the South Korea win, after which the squad shared an audience with Prime Minister Najib Mikati at the Grand Serail. From YouTube villains to national heroes in the space of four months, Lebanon’s footballers have overnight become totems of a new, idealized Lebanon. More than just a symbol, however, the Lebanese team has demonstrated that footballing success can unite people in a very real way. The fireworks, songs and incessant car horns that greeted the victory over Korea came from all corners of Beirut’s plural society. Joy, manifested in the tears of countless grown men who thought they’d never see the day their country’s footballers would claim so great a scalp, has that unitive capacity. And where to from here? Immediately after the South Korea game, Bucker was quick to urge restraint. You sense that the German is not one for open-bus tours, and with qualification for the next round yet to be secured, no one should get too carried away just yet. Though some have expressed frustration that fans will have to wait until February for the denouement of the group, when Lebanon travel to UAE in search of the win that will guarantee their progression, the winter break may have come at just the right moment for Lebanon’s new stars, with the three-month interlude bound to puncture any misplaced overconfidence. Still, with Kuwait requiring an unlikely win in Seoul to have any chance of leapfrogging the Lebanese, it can be safely assumed that Lebanon will be joining the likes of Australia, Japan, Iran and Saudi Arabia, the traditional powerhouses of Asian football, in the final qualifying stage, opening up a whole new chapter in this fairytale story. All of which brings us back to the words of the Brazil Fair Play team. Do Lebanon really have a chance of qualifying for the World Cup? The head says probably not. It would require a string of upsets that would secure irreversible immortality for Bucker and his players for Lebanon to emerge from the much tougher group that awaits them in the fourth round. But football, thankfully, is a game of the heart as much as the head, and the romantics among us will always leave room for the possibility that the fairytale might happen. Lebanon’s unexpected revival in the autumn of 2011 made that space for dreaming just that little bit bigger. And there is one thing you can be sure of: If next year is anything like 2011 was, then followers of Lebanese football are in for another rollercoaster of excitement, glory and despair. The Daily Star .