A Very Central Asian Football Match in Tweets
Of the countries signed up to the little-known Central Asian Football Association, only Iran has participated in a World Cup. Wikipedia image.
Have you ever wondered what football in Central Asia looks like? Thanks to journalist Peter Leonard, you don't have to travel to the region to find out. Leonard's Wednesday afternoon tweet storm involved two teams slugging it out in Asia's secondary club football tournament, the Asian Football Confederation Cup. The game took place in Osh, Kyrgyzstan, where the Kyrgyz champions Alai took on Istiklol, a club chaired by the son of neighbouring Tajikistan's President Emomali Rakhmon.
In for some quality football today as Kyrgyzstan league leaders FC Alai face Tajik champs Istiqlol in AFC Cup match pic.twitter.com/uhAdfAlKfB
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
Players shake hands pic.twitter.com/1xrgctk0lp
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
Off we go pic.twitter.com/pvh1DL2HQa
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
Quite hard to find seats not covered in bird poop or broken. pic.twitter.com/6tEPgoOeVS
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
A pretty sedate crowd. No particular cheering or singing anticipated pic.twitter.com/OMM5Zoh9CH
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
Five minutes in and Alai have just had their first chance on goal.
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
Another couple of decent chances for Alai pic.twitter.com/3cDykFyAcB
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
Alai's star player is Guinean Alia Sylla, who has scored five goals out four games in this Kyrgyz league season pic.twitter.com/nvAkjuqF2l
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
Favored crowd swear is “ёб твоё бляааа”, a kind of salty Russian gibberish.
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
A bit of ёб твою бля in action pic.twitter.com/0emZmt7lVx
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
And Dzhalilov finally puts one in the back of the net to deafening silence pic.twitter.com/gOjL7LGhzZ
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
Istiqlol 1 – Alai 0
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
Ouch, Istiqlol running the show here as Dzhalilov makes it 2-0 in '38.
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
Maksadbek Alimov misses clear chance to pull one back for Alai at '43. Man behind me calls him a долбоёб.
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
And in dying moments of first half, Alai's best chance so far pic.twitter.com/E2l8D9EfYU
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
First half verdict: Istiqlol vastly more organized, Alai more into thumping ball up field. Dzhalilov a standout
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
This is basically your ultras stand here pic.twitter.com/V2yltcdOQG
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
A couple of seed-chomping cops here, keeping things nice and calm pic.twitter.com/teVNWvoiCN
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
And we're off again pic.twitter.com/HSRgrViTCK
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
Not much going on in the second half. Alai sitting back and punting ball up to African lads
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
Alai with a good chance at '61 but shot taken much too squarely pic.twitter.com/k70AWN8m0v
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
Dzhalilov got subbed a few minutes back. Istiqlol coasting home at this point.
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
Popcorn, popcorn, popcorn, cooooome get your popcorn pic.twitter.com/4ufxPLeJdZ
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
Istiqlol makes it 3-0 from the penalty spot. Scorer is Dilshod Vasiyev pic.twitter.com/rnZivSdyvU
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
Here was the foul pic.twitter.com/b9Cpr4sJpg
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
And it's 4-0!! pic.twitter.com/Mnbl89OEgn
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
Alai salvages some pride as Odilzhon Abdurakhmanov scores to make it 4-1. Crowd erupts. Chants of Alai, Alai, Alai.
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
Aaaand, that's it. 4-1 to a vastly superior Istiqlol. Thank you for joining me today pic.twitter.com/gZ1w2zlVBG
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
As usual for football in this part of the world, cop to fan ratio was about 1:2 pic.twitter.com/MycdrefQgh
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
Cops get post-match pep talk: “Good job lads, you done good. It was a game of two halves etc.” pic.twitter.com/GaMqCDLovJ
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
And some post-match detritus. Discarded seed shells pic.twitter.com/EJBJOZtuyG
— Peter Leonard (@Peter__Leonard) May 3, 2017
