Lewis Hamilton secures pole position for the first Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

Just a few days after the Arab Cup 2021 in Qatar, several fascinating topics of conversation are already surfacing and off the field.

An emotional opening ceremony, first-round achievements, young players to watch out for, and new technology under the watchful eye of the FIFA leadership.

The organizers attempted to showcase the cultures of the 16 participating Arab nations at a 30-minute opening party in front of a large crowd in the Al-Bayt Stadium.

It was a worthy start to the 10th edition of the tournament, which is under the FIFA umbrella for the first time since it was launched in Lebanon in 1963. And for the first time ever as a replacement for the FIFA Confederations Cup, which traditionally takes place a year before the World Cup.

The fact that this Arab Cup is a dress rehearsal for the 2022 World Cup was further emphasized by the presence of FIFA President Gianni Infantino and other great sports leaders in the stands.

And the officials are not only on site for ceremonial reasons, but also to make sure everything is going according to plan, from checking the readiness of the stadiums to keeping a watchful eye on the new VAR technology for the offside that is being tested for implementation will be official at the World Cup next year.

The games will take place in six of the eight stadiums used at the World Cup.

The parade opening between Qatar and Bahrain took place in front of 60,000 spectators at Al-Bayt Stadium, and the tournament will be held at Al-Janoub Stadium, Ras Aboud Stadium (974 Stadium), Al-Thumama Stadium and held in the Ahmed-Bin-Ali Stadium, and Education City Stadium and Al-Ebdaa Stadium.

The new VAR addition, the so-called semi-automatic offside technology based on artificial intelligence, tracks the movements of the players and sends signals 50 times per second at 29 points in their bodies; This will be picked up in the control room and then sent to the official on the field, who will make his decision, said the chairman of the FIFA Referees Committee, Pierluigi Collina.

The technology has already been tested behind closed doors at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester and the Allianz Arena in Munich.

This particular improvement to the VAR system – which aims to make faster, more accurate decisions – is to be welcomed as games continue to suffer from lengthy, confusing offside cases.

The 16 teams consist of 10 Arab nations from the Asian continent and six from Africa, the latter of which stood out in the first round with victories for Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt and Morocco.

Meanwhile, Jordan’s 1-0 win against a young Saudi side was particularly impressive, with Iraq leveling off Oman in the 98th minute, hosts Qatar defeating Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates beating Syria.

With multi-team World Cup qualification still a priority, some have chosen to play with squads made up of only home players, like Egypt, or even a second row like Saudi Arabia.

Herve Renard’s focus is firmly on Qatar 2022 and the Saudi national team has been selected from players born after 1999. In these circumstances they performed well despite their subsequent loss to Jordan.

While assistant Laurent Bonadei led the team, Renard watched from the stands as the older players took a well-deserved break and the younger ones – many of whom played at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics – laid claim to the remainder of the World Cup qualifiers .

It reminded me of what Renard did with the Moroccan national team at the Africa Cup in 2018. You then received the trophy.

Of particular interest to Renard are Al-Ahli goalkeeper Mohammed Al-Rubaie, Al-Shabab left-back Moteb Al-Harbi, the highly rated Al-Hilal striker Abdullah Al-Hamdan and the brilliant Al-Fateh striker Firas Al-Buraikan be.

On the other hand, Carlos Queiroz’s Egyptian side have been criticized for their poor performance against Lebanon despite playing without Mohamed Salah or Mohamed Elneny.

With the start of the second round, things are slowly starting to take shape.

Qatar’s late 2-1 win over the unfortunate Omanis leads them to the top of Group A by six points, while their opponents are third by just one point. Iraq and Bahrain, who drew 0-0, are now second and fourth.

In Group B, the UAE’s 1-0 win over Mauritania took them to the top of the table with maximum two-game points, three points ahead of second-placed Syria who saw an impressive 2-0 win over Tunisia.

It’s too early to draw conclusions from the opening stages of the 2021 Arab Cup, but the second round of group stage games is starting to give an indication of which teams will fight for the title.

Much is at stake in the coming days for both the fans and the watching FIFA officials.