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AFGHANISTAN said goodbye to the Asian Games football tournament yesterday after their week-long journey was followed by three matches in which they conceded 32 goals on their return to international sport. 

Their 11-0 defeat by Lebanon put them bottom of Group E after similar high-scoring defeats by defending champions and group winners Iran (10-0) and Qatar (11-0).  

But, more importantly, the players made their return to the international sporting arena for the first time since the 1994 Asian Games in Hiroshima and for their maiden tournament since the Taliban regime, who banned sport of any kind, came to power. 

Afghanistan were founding members of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) in the 1950s and were readmitted earlier this year. But they were only invited to take part in the 14th Asiad after Mongolia pulled out in August. 

The Afghanis quickly scraped together a team to send to the Asian Games but they were short of funds for kit and transport so FIFA, world football’s governing body, came up with a contribution of US$40,000 and their journey to Busan began. 

The 19-man squad, who had not trained together after being separated for years, took a one-day bus journey from Kabul to Pakistan, where they had to negotiate entry before finally being allowed to carry on to Islamabad and then by plane to Karachi. 

They slept in airport terminals on stopovers in Southeast and east Asia, including Bangkok, before arriving in South Korea’s capital Seoul and Busan following their five-day odyssey. After one day's training they faced champions Iran. 

At a news conference following his team’s defeat, head coach and former national team player Mir Ali Asghar made his country’s isolation from all international football abundantly clear by protesting that Iran had brought three over-aged players. 

He was apparently unaware that this had been normal practice in international Olympic-style events since the 1990s. 

“We were told to bring all under-23s,” Asghar told the reporters. “Many of our good players are over 23. All we did was abide by the international rules that were told to us.” 

By then, of course, it was too late to bring in any of the country’s over-age from their far away capital. 

The young squad soldiered on but conceded one more goal to Qatar in an 11-0 drubbing, partly due to some awful goalkeeping, followed by the 11-0 defeat to Lebanon yesterday. The players remain undeterred, however, and have high hopes for the future. 

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