Many soccer countries have a distinctive sound. Their own chants and cheers. Their own national anthem, too, of course.

And we have some of both, thanks to The National’s correspondent at the AFC Asian Cup, in Australia, Ali Khaled, who got two bits of video before kickoff at the UAE’s semifinal match with Australia.

First, a familiar UAE chant, done by a handful of Emirati fans outside the stadium.

Second, the UAE national anthem, played inside the stadium in Newcastle, Australia, just before kickoff.

A couple of thoughts:

The range of Emirati chants/songs is fairly narrow, and you know they are specific to the country when they get around to saying … “em-ir-rah-ti”!

Chants here typically are of a call-and-response, which fans seem to like, and are led by guys with big voices, particularly the nationally famous chubby kid known as “Falooda” — which in Arabic means “ice cream”.

Second, I like the UAE national anthem. A major key, kinda peppy … something you can hum, after the fact. As opposed to dozens of world anthems, many of which sound like the percussion section being tossed down a flight of stairs.

Our correspondent took the video of the national anthem from the vantage point of the press box, so you can’t see the players all singing along — many of them unable to carry a song in a bucket. But they are quite earnest.

Australia won the match 2-0, with both goals coming in the first 15 minutes. So the UAE goes to the third-place game on Friday and Australia to the Asian Cup final against South Korea on Saturday.