Yemen’s junior football team: They may have not brought a trophy, but they brought us pride [Archives:2002/39/Front Page]

Despite the loss of Yemen’s junior football team to South Korea (5:3) on penalties after ending extra time (1:1) in the match that took place in Abu Dhabi yesterday, Yemenis celebrated the great achievement of the team in qualifying for the FIFA World U-17 Championship to be held next year in Finland.
“This is a moment of joy and celebration, we need not be sad for the loss to Korea because our team is the only Arab team to qualify to the upcoming world cup finals.” said one of the Yemenis who watched the match in a coffee shop in Sana’a yesterday night.
Yemen played a good game and was seen as competitive but could not match the superiority of the professional Koreans in penalties.
Yemen’s appearance in yesterday’s final is their first in any of the AFC’s tournaments, at either junior or senior level.
According to all sports analysts, Yemen’s qualification for the final of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-17 Championship has certainly been the highlight of an exciting 17 days of football in the UAE.
It is expected that Yemen will honor the team after it is back to join Yemen’s celebrations on the 40th anniversary of the 26 September revolution this week.


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