Well, this is a bit awkward. The UAE women’s national team tonight won their second West Asian Football Federation championship, following up on the title they won at the last WAFF tournament, in early 2010.

What we have here is something Americans could recognize: Compared to their rivals, the women’s national soccer team appears to be clearly better than the men’s team.

Here is the list of what the UAE men have won, ever:

1. The 2007 Gulf Cup.

2. Uh, nothing else. That’s it — the 2007 Gulf Cup.

So the women are already one significant championship ahead of the men, and the country didn’t field an 11-woman national team until early 2010.

The men’s team is closely followed here, particularly by the local citizens, the Emiratis.

The women’s team is hardly followed at all. But if the UAE wants a bit of a warm and fuzzy nationalism buzz from a football team … well, it’s the women they should be following.

It gets better. Not only did the UAE win the championship, the women won it over Iran, which is a major, major regional rival, just across the Strait of Hormuz. (The countries are still arguing over two little islands that Iran seized nearly 40 years ago.)

And it gets better yet. The UAE women won by twice coming back from one-goal deficits in the final …  and then surviving the shootout, winning it 6-5. Yeah, pretty exciting.

Here is the game story that appeared in The National.

This was a significant championship, too. Every Muslim nation in the area that fields a women’s team (not yet, for Saudi Arabia and Qatar) was here. Eight teams, total. Jordan, Bahrain, Palestine, Iraq in one group, the UAE, Iran, Lebanon and Syria in the other.

(And eight teams is the size of the Gulf Cup, the event the men have won only once in 20 attempts.)

Iran rolled over the UAE 4-1 in the group game, but the UAE got a rematch in the final, and won before a near-capacity crowd at Sultan bin Zayed Stadium, a cozy little place up on Delma Street in Abu Dhabi.

If you followed the link and saw the photo posted with the story … you see some of the tensions roiling beneath the topic of women in sports.

The UAE woman is wearing a jersey which shows part of her arms, as well as shorts — but she (as did her teammates) has a long white undergarment that covers her legs entirely.

The woman from Iran, as you can see, has a sort of full-body sweatsuit going on, and her hair and neck are covered by a hijab.

Some of the countries close to the Mediterranean Sea, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, ran around in shorts. The UAE had the undergarment, but didn’t require the women’s heads to be covered. And Iran, well, that they could even play in those sweats and hijab on a warm night … that’s impressive.

So, anyway, the unfortunate aspect of this, for the UAE women’s team, is that the country still has no plans to enter qualifying for the World Cup or for the Olympics. Even though they boast one of the best teams in the region. A team that is particularly good on the ball, runs fairly well and would be in better condition if they played more often.

The way this likely will work is … the women who just covered the UAE in glory will disband and may not play another international match for a year or more.

Asia is improving in soccer, as Japan showed in Germany during the summer, winning the FIFA World Cup over the U.S., but with four berths likely available for the 2015 tournament, those who get a jump on the sport are going to have the best chance of going to the big event.

Jordan’s team will attempt to qualify, as will Palestine.

The UAE? Not yet. Though this latest championship perhaps will prompt movers and shakers to consider it.