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DOHA, Qatar - Its a cold, hard fact of football: Countries with tiny populations dont generally beat big ones with deep wells of talented players.So how embarrassing might the score be when Qatar — smallest host in World Cup history, with just 282,750 citizens — plays the opening game of its 2022 tournament against, for example, titans Brazil or Germany?At best 5-0? At worst 10-0, even 30-0?Impossible, impossible, said Ivan Bravo, the former Real Madrid administrator working to prevent such a loss from party-pooping over the Middle Easts first World Cup.They will be ready to have a very good team, a competitive team.Given Qatars small size and lack of football pedigree, Bravos bravura would sound like folly if not for one game-changer: money. The oil-and-gas rich nation that pokes into the Persian Gulf has mounds of it.Funneled into the state-of-the-art Aspire training academy that Bravo oversees in Doha, Qatars showcase capital, the wealth is helping to make the embryonic nucleus of what will be the 2022 home team more formidable than population numbers would suggest.Its thrilling, Bravo said in an Associated Press interview. Theres always an underdog story, the little guy trying to punch above their weight story, and I think people will get behind it.Qatar qualifies automatically as host. It could be the only Middle East representative if its neighbours stumble in qualifying, as in 2010, when no team from the region went to South Africa. A strong host performance can make a World Cup memorable: French victory at home in 1998 and South Koreas wild ride to the semis of the 2002 tournament it co-hosted with Japan.So pressure is on.The players know what an opportunity this is, Hassan al-Thawadi, Qatars chief World Cup organizer, told the AP. Im sure they wont disappoint.Aspire is a source of such confidence. It trains local kids and others unearthed by a mammoth international scouting program — dubbed Football Dreams — that screens hundreds of thousands of teenagers from 16 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The reach and size of that talent-search and Qatars history of recruiting overseas athletes to represent it internationally led to suspicions it could naturalize foreign footballers in bulk for the World Cup, although Bravo insisted that isnt the plan.He said Qatars ambition for 2022 is not only to field a team of Qataris but to also have seven, eight, nine, 10 Aspire-trained recruits from Football Dreams playing for other nations.Aspires facilities rival those of Europes best clubs. Under a giant dome, it has a full-sized indoor pitch with an exhortation from Pele on one wall: Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.Outside, generously watered grass pitches resist the desert heat. Recordings of birdsong piped in over loudspeakers give the place an Alice in Wonderland feel.Raul has an office here, watching the academys youngsters play and handing out trophies at competitions it organizes with Chelsea, Barcelona and other teams flown over to give Qatars young players the experience and game-time they will need on the world stage in eight years. Bora Milutinovic, who coached the United States, Mexico, Nigeria, Costa Rica and China at World Cups, is often seen around the place, too, working as an adviser.Young Qatari players have been embedded with professional teams in Spain, Monaco, Austria and a club Qatar bought in Belgium to immerse them in a professional football environment 24 hours a day, which is something Doha lacks, because of the league, empty stadiums, Bravo said. The 2016 Rio Olympics and 2018 World Cup in Russia, if Qatar qualifies, will also be opportunities to hone players for 2022.While the pool of native Qataris is tiny — roughly only 4,000 boys are born here each year — Bravo says Aspire scouts see nearly all youngsters so no potential talent slips through. Motivating them, however, can be challenging: Thanks to the nations oil-and-gas wealth, Qataris are the worlds second-richest people per capita and — unlike slum kids in Brazil or Africa — dont need football as an escape.Youre in a country where even attendance to training can be difficult, Bravo said, before adding: Theres a bit of a misperception about everybody in Qatar: Theyre wealthy kids, they are wearing Rolexes and driving SUVs. Its not the case. A lot of our kids come from more humble or medium-income situations.A breakthrough came in October when Qatars under-19 team beat China, Myanmar and finally North Korea to become Asian champions, qualifying them for the under-20s World Cup next year in New Zealand.All the players are Aspire products and, Bravo said, none were naturalized, puncturing what he insisted are mistaken outside perceptions that Qatar is naturalizing guys, left and right and ... shopping around the world for players.There you have the proof of what we are trying to do, he said, which is to do this with the local players, because that is what this country wants.Its amazing, acknowledged Qatars sports minister, Salah bin Ghanem bin Nasser al-Ali, in an AP interview. We are the least populated nation in Asia but we won. We are the champion of the most populated continent. Think about it.Qatars senior team also won the regional Gulf Cup in November, beating host Saudi Arabia — with a population more than 100 times greater — in the final. Such successes are ammunition against critics who argue that World Cup organizer FIFA should not have picked such a football minnow as host.Because its a small country they say, Why is the World Cup here? said Tareq Sulaiman, a midfielder on the championship-winning under-19 team. This is the chance for us to show them that Qatar will do something good.___Rob Harris can be followed at www.twitter.com/RobHarris and John Leicester at www.twitter.com/JohnLeicester Sylvester Williams Jersey . Bryce Harper? He also came into Wednesday without a long ball and hadnt driven in a run. He was hitting .160, had nearly three times as many strikeouts as hits and was dropped to seventh in the batting order. Christian Jones Lions Jersey . The Senators will put the busy off-season and training camp behind them when they open their regular season on the road. They kick things off Friday against the Buffalo Sabres and then head to Toronto to take on the Maple Leafs on Saturday. http://www.shopdetroitlionsnfl.com/lions...s-black-jersey/. Snedekers best result so far this year is a tie for eighth place at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March. He sits 113th in FedEx Cup standings and has dropped to 31st in world rankings — not the results expected from a player ranked fourth in the world only two years ago. Luke Willson Lions Jersey .com) - Matt Beleskey has helped give the Anaheim Ducks some scoring depth and hell look to stay hot on Wednesday night when his club hosts the struggling Philadelphia Flyers. Detroit Lions Jerseys . Although taking two of three from the Baltimore Orioles wasnt nearly as uplifting as winning the World Series, it still felt pretty darn good. Felix Doubront and four relievers combined kept Baltimores potent lineup in check, and David Ortiz had three of Bostons 12 hits off Wei-Yin Chen in a 4-3 victory Thursday night.San Diego, CA (SportsNetwork.com) - Coming off their second loss of the season, the 18th-ranked San Diego State Aztecs try to work their way back into the win column on Wednesday night as they host the Long Beach State 49ers. The Aztecs, who ranked as high as 13th in the AP poll last week, lost for the second time in a span of three games as the team succumbed to a Washington defense that held them to just 36 points on Sunday. For the fourth time this season SDSU held an opponent under 50 points, but still the Huskies picked up the 13-point win on their home floor. The good news is the Aztecs are back at home where they have not only won 18 straight games, the team has also rattled off 44 consecutive victories against opponents from the state of California, the longest active streak in the nation for one program against another states representatives. Meanwhile, the 49ers have yet to win a true road game in 2014-15, although they have won a pair of outings on a neutral floor during early-season tournament action. Most recently, the team was pitted against Stephen F. Austin on the road and came up short in a 74-45 final last Friday. Like the Aztecs, the last offensive effort for LBSU represented the weakest of the season thus far. The Aztecs lead the all-time series by a count of 36-22, winning four straight over LBSU. The most recent meeting took place three years ago with SDSU slipping by at home, 77-73, in overtime. Long Beach State fell behind SFA right out of the gate and never recovered, sinking only seven field goals in the first half and another nine after the break, en route to the lopsided road loss. Branford Jones came off the bench to tally 15 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the floor, followed by David Samuels who came up a rebound shy of a double-double as he posteed 11 points, but was also charged with seven of the teams 19 turnovers.dddddddddddd Despite missing all eight 3-point tries in the last outing, the 49ers are still converting shots from long distance at a 39.3 percent clip, which is considerably better than the opposition at 31.2 percent. Mike Caffey, one of three players to have started every game, checks in with 17.6 ppg to pace the offense, having not only knocked down 46.5 percent beyond the arc but also handing out 38 assists which is close to three times as many as his closest teammate entering play this week. Converting just one of their first 12 field goal attempts at Alaska Airlines Arena on Sunday, the Aztecs dug themselves a huge hole and were never able to regain their footing as they suffering an embarrassing loss at Washington. Even though SDSU made a mere five field goals in the first half, the team still trailed by just six points at the break, 21-15, before the Huskies put some more distance between themselves and the Aztecs. Not surprisingly, there wasnt a single San Diego State player in double figures due to the fact that no one sank more than a pair of field goals. The starting five was limited to a combined 4-of-36 from the field, with guard Trey Kell being held scoreless as he missed all seven shots from the floor. Winston Shepard was the high man with a mere seven points, while Skylar Spencer pulled down a career-high 13 rebounds. Offense has not been a major focus for the Aztecs this season, with the team scoring only 62.6 ppg, but still the squad was not prepared for the manner in which the Huskies treated them. Shepard is the lone double-digit scorer through eight games with his 10.3 ppg, adding 5.4 rpg while dealing with the fact that he has just nine assists against 21 turnovers. 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