AFC Football

So, here goes Saudi Arabia with two defeats and one equal. They came last in their group. UAE too, went home. In Iran's group, Oman gave the Iranian team a very hard time. The Persians got their equalizer only at 93rd minute. Now everything in this group is finalized in the last match.

A few years ago, Iran was in the same group as Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. The fate of the winner team was in the last match, that was held in Bahrain between Bahrain and Iran. If Iran could manage to get just one point, it would go up from this group. If not, Saudi Arabia would go. Iran lost, and the TV showed Bahrain team members carrying Saudi's flag.

To me, it was really bothering. After all, Bahrain was an Iranian state that was just given the independence around 40 years ago. Now they had won a match, allright but waving Saudi's flag and wearing it was a little too much.

At the time, we were living  in Dubai and next day I asked a colleague who is an Egyption about it. He told me that Arabs have a proverb: I against my brother, I & my brother against enemy. So, naturally, they had won the match for their brothers.