Last-ranked Bhutan does it again, stunning Sri Lanka
THIMPHU, Bhutan — Inside a monastery high up in the hills that surround Bhutan’s capital city, the players on the country’s national soccer team were consulting the dice.
It was just two hours before they were to host Sri Lanka on Tuesday in the second leg of their 2018 World Cup qualifier, and five days since they had stunned the team, 1-0, in the first leg at Colombo. A victory or a draw on Tuesday would mean a place in the group stage of Asian qualification for the 2018 World Cup — an almost unthinkable achievement for a team that sometimes goes years between official matches.
With their goal tantalizingly close, the players were seeking all the help they could get. Inside the monastery, a monk in orange robes blessed each of the players before they sipped holy water from a brass jug and the dice were produced.
Some Buddhists, including the Dalai Lama, it is said, consult dice to make important decisions. As the team’s captain, Karma Shedrup Tshering, 24, had been assigned to make the throw Tuesday. Even numbers were bad luck, a team official explained. Odd numbers were good.
“I threw three threes, nine,” Tshering explained. “I think it was a good throw. I think.”
Hours later, and moments after a late goal by the hosts sealed the result, the referee blew the full-time whistle. Bhutan had won, 2-1, and its substitutes and coaches rushed the field and embraced. Many were in tears. Supporters climbed down from the stands and tried to get onto the pitch.
Once derided as perennial losers — Bhutan is the world’s lowest-ranked team, according to FIFA, and once lost an international match by 20-0 — the Dragons now await matches against regional powerhouses like Japan, Korea and Australia.
“Maybe we would like to play Japan now,” said Chokey Nima, Bhutan’s 45-year-old coach.
An hour before kickoff, Bhutan’s Changlimithang Stadium had been filled with about 20,000 fans. Entry was free for those who could squeeze in, but thousands more were locked outside. Some of them later gathered on high points around the stadium for a glimpse of the team.
Civil servants had been sent home early so they could watch the match. In a country where TV had been banned until the late 1990s, Bhutan’s national broadcaster now ran wall-to-wall coverage of the team, and soccer officials sold hundreds of team jerseys to fans in the long lines that snaked out of the stadium.
Within five minutes of the kickoff, Bhutan’s progress to the second round looked inevitable. Chencho Gyeltshen, the team’s only professional player, beat Sri Lanka’s goalkeeper to a hopeful long ball and expertly guided it into the back of the net from a tight angle. A deafening noise rose from the crowd, which began to sense victory, but Sri Lanka tied the score just before halftime.
As the temperature dropped, and the effect of the 9,000-foot altitude began to take its toll, the game became more open. At 1-1, Bhutan, by virtue of its goal in Colombo, was in a position to qualify for the next round on aggregate score.
But as the game seesawed from goal mouth to goal mouth, Sri Lanka took the upper hand and surged forward in the 90th minute. A scramble followed, and the 20,000 fans fell silent as their precarious position became apparent: A goal by the visitors would send them through on away goals. But somehow a Sri Lankan shot hit the post, and in the chaos that followed, Bhutan broke free.
Chencho danced around three players and powered the ball home for his second goal. The crowd exploded, and the Sri Lankan players fell to their knees as the inevitability of their defeat settled in.
The final whistle set off a scene of jubilant chaos, but not for the Sri Lankan team, which had taken four flights and spent 24 hours sleeping at various airports just to reach Bhutan. Eliminated from the 2018 World Cup three years before it will kick off, Sri Lanka is unlikely to play more than a handful of competitive matches over the next four years.
“It is hard, we didn’t expect this, and we desperately wanted to reach the group stage,” Sri Lanka’s Serbian coach, Nikola Kavazovic, said as Bhutan’s players celebrated nearby.
“At the end, we met a team that was raised from nowhere,” he said, praising the high quality of Bhutan’s play, which belied its ranking as the worst team in the world.
“I can say, deep in my heart, I will cheer for Bhutan in the group stage,” he added. “Look at the crowd. They deserve this. This country deserves it more.”
Kavazovic’s players left the field with their heads bowed in disappointment while Bhutan’s linked arms and bowed to honor the fans, who had cheered them throughout.
Tshering, the captain who threw the dice, spoke at breakneck speed, the adrenaline of the moment pumping.
“We had so many chances, but had one good play and scored the second,” he said. “We let them hear the roar of the Dragon.”