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Matchdays are tense. The big build up in preceding days and weeks leading to the most nerve racking hour and a half a person can go through. I’ve always told friends that I’d stop watching Palestine games after I hit 50, itll be bad for my health.

The tension is worse when you have no way of watching the match. Waiting for online scoreboards to refresh is torture. Competing in Asia, the vast and diverse continent it is, we Palestine fans had to experience such situations quite a lot. Here are my misadventures:

Palestine vs Uzbekistan ( 0-3 ) – World Cup 2006 Qualifier: Dubai Sports channel was broadcasting the match, but the UAE was playing at the same time, so we had to settle watching Palestine get hammered from a mini screen that would appear in the corner with every development. Not pleasant.

Chinese Taipei vs Palestine ( 0-1) – World Cup 2006 Qualifier: No channels I had broadcast this match, so the only way to follow it was through the FIFA.com matchcast. Tayseer Amer scored the winner in added time. So in what was to be my last refresh of the page after surrendering to the prospect of a 0-0 tie, I was joyfully surprised.

AFC Challenge Cup 2006 (Bangladesh): The matches were broadcast on ATN Bangla. You needed a special dish to get it here in Riyadh. After trekking into the satellite market and asking around, I was told it would cost me 250 riyals(~$70)..wasn’t gonna happen!

AFC Challenge Cup 2010 Qualifiers (Nepal): Internet streaming was well developed at this point, so where a channel was based wasn’t a problem anymore. But as luck would have it, the Nepalese channels available online weren’t showing the matches. One was broadcasting a traditional Nepali horse festival(called Ghodejatara as we later find out), but at least it had a live scoreboard of the match on display in the corner. Our reaction got the attention of GoalNepal.com. Good times!

Well, whatever your team, we’d love to hear your stories…