It must be strange to be a citizen — an Emirati — in the UAE. Foreigners outnumber you almost 7-to-1 in your own country. The latest population statistics indicate that only about 1 million of the 8 million people here are citizens.

Thus, being able to gather with your own for important events must be of special significance. A treat.

Which takes us to the big soccer match tonight between the UAE Olympic team and Australia.

This is my new “No. 1 Most Authentic Emirati Experience” since I arrived in the country almost 2.5 years ago.

My former No. 1 was covering the President’s Cup final last year, the UAE equivalent to the FA Cup. The stadium at Zayed Sports City had more than 40,000 people in it, and they were nearly entirely Emiratis.

The crowd tonight at Al Jazira’s stadium was smaller — “only” 28,724 — but what made it a more rousing experience was that everyone in the stadium was pulling for the home team to win. That other game split the crowd into Al Wahda and Al Jazira factions.

The UAE won, 1-0, and now is 90 minutes from securing a berth in the 2012 London Olympics, which would be a very big deal here, given that the senior national team is in a down cycle and that the UAE has never qualified for the Olympics — which is essentially the Under 23 World Cup.

It seemed as if nearly every Emirati adult male knew how important this game was, and the 28,000 probably intended to attend even if the UAE coach had not, the day before the match, announced that “anyone who loves his country” would be in the stadium.

It was quite a sight, about 95 percent of the crowd Emiratis in their kandouras — the long white robes associated with Gulf Arabs.

At least 10,000 were in the stadium an hour before kickoff, and they just kept coming in. Jazira has only about 5,000 parking spots near the stadium, and anyone who arrived after those places were gone had to park on city streets perhaps several blocks away.

The stadium was a cauldron of noise and partisanship. The crowd sang the national anthem a capella a half-hour before the game, and again in the 88th minute as the UAE lads were killing off the game.

They chanted and sang and waved flags and taunted the Australian players, and when their team got a goal in the 23rd minute, the shout of joy seemed to shake the stadium.

We at The National covered the event thoroughly. Some links.

–I did the game story.

–I also did as a commentary on the event, which was based on the UAE coach confessing to feeling nervous about making sure all those fans went home happy, a very interesting concept.

–My colleague Amith Passela was in the mized zone and spoke with the hero of the night, Omar Abdulrahman, a gifted little guy who had been out for most of 10 months after knee surgery.

–He also did a piece on Hamdan Al Kamali, who is on loan to the French club Lyon, the biggest move yet by an Emirati player. He did not play and said he hoped Lyon would not change its mind about releasing him for last game of the qualifying round — since he didn’t play in this one.

–And another colleague, Awad Mustafa, an Arabic-speaker, was out in the crowd and talking to fans, who were giddy from start to finish.

–We also had two photographers at the match, and here is a slide show of some of the best moments. The pictures tell as much as I can hope to here.

A few other thoughts on the match:

–It was one of those events where so much energy is radiating in a stadium that it makes even non-partisans (say, me) edgy. Twitchy. My colleague Amith stood for the entire match, and not just for exercise.

–Emiratis are serious patriots. I didn’t really think otherwise, but at an event where they could root for their own players … and their own coach … and guys from all seven Emirates were hoping for the same result … and the national-anthem thing, and the flag-waving … it was hammered home. These guys are very proud of their country, but the chance to show it in this sort of environment comes up very rarely.

–And they were nearly all guys. I thought we might see a few more women and girls in the crowd, but I’m not sure even 1,000 of the people in the stands were female. Which led me to calculate … that if the country has 500,000 male Emiratis, more than 5 percent of all male Emiratis on the planet were in that stadium.

–Was that one of the wealthiest crowds for a sports match this side of a Super Bowl? Emiratis have a very high per capita income. If the UAE gets to the London Olympics, I have no doubt that thousands of Emiratis will travel to watch them play. They will buy every ticket available.

–“Golden generations” are supremely interesting soccer phenomena. The concept being that smallish countries enjoy a period of a few years where an unusual number of quality soccer players happen to arise. That is what is happening in the UAE. These U23 guys are pretty good. One is already with Lyon. An Englishman who works at the club where the game’s scorer, Omar Abdulrahman, plays suggested he could hold his own in the Premier League. Meantime, the national team has lost all seven matches in 2014 World Cup qualifying (I’m fairly confident the U23s would beat the senior team head up, if they played), and the country’s age-group sides had no particular history of success before these 12-15 guys came along — and has had none in the groups behind them. Shades of Hungary and Puskas.

So, the U23s go to London if they can beat or tie Uzbekistan on March 22, in Tashkent.

Being able to cover an event like this is always a treat, a victory-starved fan base, their team coming through, enabling everyone to act a little crazy for a few hours afterward — and a broadening cultural experience for an outsider.

A memorable experience.