A closed book, bearing as a country's forgotten gem, retrieved by a group of twenty men who wiped off its dust, opened its worn cover and turned a new page.

This is how The Lions of Khorasan's goal keeper, Hameedullah Yousufzai, described the recent state of football in Afghanistan.

Nearly two weeks have passed since their return from the South Asian Football Federation Cup finals in New Dehli, and still the streets of Afghanistan are rejoicing over their success.

"Every neighborhood we go to, children come up to us, men stop working to greet us, and women and elders kiss our foreheads in joy and thank us," Yosufzai said.

The team took a devastating 4-0 loss against India. The loss was shadowed by Referee Sukhbir Singh from Singapore granting India a penalty kick followed by Yousufzai receiving a red card for protesting the call.

Chief Coach Yosuf Kargar said the unwarranted call, dampened the team's spirit in the second half of the game causing their defeat. Nevertheless, he is still proud of the boys, for they displayed their skills and potential to the world by their performance in the first half.

"I feel amazing, proud and honoured about the overall journey, it was great and although we didn't win the final, we still achieved victory, and made Afghanistan's name memorable, it's a dream that has come true." Belal Arezou, striker for the national team and leading striker of second division of Norwegian club, said.

Yosufzai said, Afghan people had lost faith in Afghan football, particularly in the last decade due to their incessant taste of defeat. Today, that is no longer the case.

"We have changed everything, not only in Afghanistan, but all over the world. The media and people everywhere are talking about Afghan football," he said.

Afghan football was hindered during its three decades of war. First, the sport was disrupted with the Soviet invasion in 1980, then banned under the Taliban regime from 1996 - 2001, and then temporarily disbanded by the Afghan Football Federation in 2004 after players opted out of a training camp in Italy.

The 2011 SAFF cup is the furthest the national team has excelled since it was first founded in 1922. Kargar, who played for the national team himself in the 80's, said the team's recent success could be credited to two factors, unity and recent football advancements in Afghanistan.

Kargar said previous teams were weak because they had no proper training and no fields to practise in. Even with foreign Afghan players on the team, they struggled to unite and succeed.

This year's team had a field to practise in Afghanistan, given to the federation by FIFA, and players had gone through rigorous trainings, he said.

To build a sturdy team, Kargar recruited 12 of the best football players from Afghanistan, and personally travelled to the US and Europe to recruit eight of the best foreign Afghan football players from around the world.

The boys met 10 days before the games in Dubai for a training camp, where they warmed up to each other and worked on becoming familiar with one another's techniques.

Mid-fielder, Mustafa Madar, said his teammates got along well on and off the field.

"At night, we all sat down and talked about Afghanistan, about the war and the violence; they would ask 'How did you guys live there?,' We would tell them we were used to it," Yosufzai said. "We became very close."

Masses witnessed the team's kinship when their war-stricken country's conflict caught up with them.

A day before the team would go up against Bhutan; Madar received a phone call informing him that four of his family members were among the 58 people who were killed in suicide blast at the Abul Fazl shrine in Kabul.

"I was heartbroken and couldn't stop crying," Madar said. "The trainers, coach and my teammates all sympathised with me."

Upon hearing of Madar's loss and seeing the team's devastation, Kargar said he arranged a team meeting before the game the next day.

"Everyone was very emotional at the time. The boys couldn't even eat, their hearts were not with the game at the moment," he said.

As a coach, Kargar said he had to find a way to lead the team to move forward in the tournament.

"We consoled the boys and told them this situation exists in Afghanistan. Today, Mustafa lost his family, we have to do something to uplift him and the people of Afghanistan," Kargar said. "Our job is that we have a game today, a game that we will play for those who passed and for Afghanistan's happiness," he told the team.

The team went on to score eight goals that night against Bhutan, after each score they ran to Madar who sat on the sideline, and celebrated with hugs, empathising with his pain and bring what relief they could.

Their 8-1 victory led to their advancement to the semi finals, where they would play a long grueling game against Nepal. Yosufzai said his team expected it would be a tough match because Nepal was a powerful team that was coached by Graham Roberts, a former football player for
Chelsea and West Bromwich Albion clubs.

"They always beat us by three or four goals every time," he said.

Thus, both Arezou and Yosufzai recalled the moment when Arezou scored his 6th and the game winning goal in the 115th minute, one of the best of their lives.

The team's final match gave their fairy tale story an unfortunate end.
Nevertheless, the boys returned home far from unsatisfied.

"Our team's accomplishments mean a lot for Afghanistan because it's been in more than 30 years of war, which made Afghanistan's invisible among all the south Asian countries. So, by winning or coming so close to winning these matches is reminding all the (other) countries that regardless of the bad situations in Afghanistan, it still exists and has skilful people in it, with lots of passion in their hearts for their beloved country," Arezou said.

Madar said even with the odds set against them; being placed at 178 on FIFA's world rankings, being unfinanced and having to pay out of pocket for their SAFF expenses, and the countries unfaltering track record of previous performances, he never doubted they would not succeed.

"We were hopeful and confident we would be successful in the tournament," he said."We worked hard, we were skilled, and we were united as a team, that along with the prayers of our supporters is what got us this far."

The team hopes for more support in the future from the Afghan government, Olympic committee and successful Afghan businesses to invest in them so they can keep their momentum up and continue to achieve great results, Yosufzai said.

The team have done their part in showing they can be successful, now it is the elders' turn to do their part, he said.

"This time they weren't supportive the way they should have (been)," Arezou said. "The government needs to support players financially and encourage them so they could have something to hang on to, they should have training camps so they could get ready for it and they should have fixed salary on a monthly basis so they could boost up their energy after training."

The team's success only furthers the federation's responsibilities to the Afghan people, as they have raised the bars for expectations, Madar said.

Anything is possible in this game, even when being a part of a generation raised in war one can succeed as long as they have hope and work hard, he said.

"You must have to have hope, no matter what, never be hopeless and always know your people are always behind you," Madar said.

Yosufzai said keeping their hope and confidence was what kept them motivated when they were overlooked by players from opposing teams during their 10 day training in Dubai.

"We sat down when we were in Dubai and we vowed we'd give a performance everyone would remember. We'd show everyone we were lions, and bring Afghan football to life again," he said.