BEIRUT: Saturday morning saw a rarity in Lebanon’s newsstands, as Lebanon’s football team, 1-0 victors in Kuwait the previous evening, made it onto the front pages of the national papers for the first time in recent memory.

In a country long starved of any success of note for its football team, the heightened coverage of Lebanese football over the weekend reflects the growing sense of excitement surrounding the Lebanese national side, in the press and among players, coaches and fans. For too long it has been presumed that Lebanese football fans are interested only in the higher-profile European game.

Recent events, beginning with the home victory over the UAE and encompassing the 40,000 strong crowd that turned up for Lebanon’s last home game against Kuwait, have shown that this is not the case. Lebanese fans, like any others, crave a national team that they can be proud of.

They just might be getting one. Friday’s result continued a resurgence in the national team’s fortunes that has been in motion since the return of Theo Booker as coach in August. Suddenly, to much surprise, Lebanon find themselves second in qualifying Group B, leading Kuwait in third by 2 points and trailing South Korea by just 3.

One more win, and Lebanon can be all but assured of qualifying for the next round and the chance to take on the giants of Asian football on a regular basis.

Before we get too carried away, however, there is the small matter of a home game against group leaders South Korea at Cite Sportive Tuesday afternoon. It is a match that will say a lot about how far Lebanon have come in the last two months, for it was only at the beginning of September that the Cedars were thrashed 6-0 in Seoul.

Tuesday’s game is likely to be something of a different story, however, and not just because South Korea, who Friday only just overcame basement side UAE, traditionally struggle when playing in the Middle East and have top scorer and captain Park Chu-Young suspended. From the home team’s perspective, Lebanon are riding a wave of optimism that is unprecedented in the modern era. This is already the country’s best performance in a World Cup qualifying tournament, and the side has been improving game upon game.

What’s more, while smaller teams with fewer resources tend to rely on one or two star individuals to carry the side, the big performances throughout Lebanon’s qualifying campaign have come from a number of different players.

Friday evening, for example, it was Mahmoud al-Ali’s turn to pop up with the classy winning goal, while Hassan Maatouk on the opposite flank, so dangerous in the previous game against Kuwait, was largely kept quiet. Against South Korea, expect star midfielder and captain Roda Antar, the Lebanese player most accustomed to the big occasion, to step up.

With South Korea bound to create chances, goalkeeper Ziad al-Samad will also need to reproduce the form that he showed in the two Kuwait games.

More than all of this, Lebanon can surely rely on another big turnout in the stands. Much has changed since only 8,000 attended the UAE game in September, and, with the Lebanese FA issuing tickets for the match, some supporters may even find themselves disappointed. Almost incredibly, it has been reported that Hashem Haidar, president of the Lebanese FA, has met with Prime Minister Najib Mikati to see if workers in the public sector and schoolchildren could be given time off tomorrow afternoon so that they can watch the much anticipated match. There is surely no better indication of how interest in the national team has been revived.

With football in Lebanon riding so high, South Korea will need to be on their game to ensure the home side don’t take an even bigger scalp Tuesday.