Qatar's only land border is a quiet stretch of desert — and a bustling meet point for Saudi soccer fans fired up by a historic upset of Argentina.
ABU SAMRA, Qatar — Stand at the last roundabout on the southwest edge of Qatar, get yourself a sliver of shade from a kindly road sign in the blinding 88 degrees, notice the Persian Gulf over there, stare out at the vast sands dotted with some rare and rugged vegetation.The only land border Qatar has, a stretch just 54 miles long, has seen ample activity of late, even as the activity has been orderly. There’s a convoy of buses on one side coming to meet an armada of buses on the other .
Fans from Saudi Arabia, population about 35 million in an area slightly more than one-fifth the size of the United States, long had plans to come to Qatar, population about 2.9 million in. The Saudi team long since lost just once in 18 matches of Asian qualifying to reach the World Cup for the sixth time since debuting at United States 1994.
There’s not much bustle at the border that has helped define this World Cup. There’s the Persian Gulf with small, sleek fish darting around its shallow portions, with Saudi Arabia visible on the other side and a scruffy shoreline up to a major Qatari resort a few miles inland. There’s a gas station — Petrol Station #20 — which is fitting given it embodies the means through which the World Cup got here .
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