TASHKENT, Uzbekistan — Uzbekistan’s White Wolves men’s soccer team entered this World Cup as underdogs. By all appearances, as underdogs they will leave.

On Tuesday, Uzbekistan was soundly thrashed by Portugal 5-0 — significantly reducing the country’s chances to qualify for the next round of play in this World Cup, the first ever for a Central Asian nation.

Yet for many Uzbeks, the White Wolves’ mere presence at the tournament was always a dream come true — and mirrored the country’s wider ambitions, win or lose.

Uzbek fans have reveled in the chance to showcase their country and culture, staying behind long after the matches ended to pose for photos as steppe warriors, give away the country’s ubiquitous embroidered duppy skullcaps, or just joyously dance to drums.

“For the whole nation, to represent our country on the big stage. It’s [a] huge honor,” explains the White Wolves star forward Abbosbek Fayzullaev, who scored Uzbekistan’s first (and, thus far, only) World Cup goal in a 3-1 loss to Colombia on June 17.

Long before the tournament ever began, the country’s president, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, began touting the team as a symbol of “the new Uzbekistan” — one part of what Mirziyoyev says is a “golden generation” of Uzbek youth “destined” to make their mark in sports, culture, and science. Even chess.

That success has been a long time coming for a nation that struggled to emerge from the chaos of the collapse of the USSR — with football playing a role in forging a sense of national identity.

Azamat Abduraimov, a constant member of Uzbek football teams of the 1990s, recalls the thrill of seeing fellow Uzbeks go from securing a rare spot on Team USSR to suddenly fielding their own national squad once Uzbekistan became an independent nation in 1991.

“When we started to play for independent Uzbekistan it was important to us because we realized we could compete on the international stage as — namely — Uzbek footballers,” says Abduraimov.

He notes that the Uzbekistan men’s national squad of which he was a part won the Asian Games gold medal in 1994. “It’s still the only championship for a former Soviet republic,” he says.

“It is really a land of talents … in every direction,” says Ravshan Irmatov, vice president of Uzbekistan’s Football Association, in an interview with NPR in Uzbekistan’s capital Tashkent.

He says Uzbekistan’s World Cup debut — 34 years in the making — is the fruit of years of government investments in wider programs for youth.

“Today’s result is not coming by chance,” says Irmatov. “It’s not just luck, you know? Uzbekistan is doing and investing [a] lot for [the] future.”

Case in point: Several young Uzbek players have emerged as breakout stars in leagues in Europe and the Middle East.

None brighter than Abdukodir Khusanov. The 22-year old Uzbek defender has quickly become a mainstay at Manchester City in the British Premier League — in a “pinch-me” moment for fans back home.

“Imagining that someone from Uzbekistan would be playing in the main squad of that team … was unbelievable,” explains Doniyor Umarxodjaev of Taktika, one of a new crop of Uzbek football bloggers covering the White Wolves’ World Cup run.

Even now, Umarxodjaev says he gets goosebumps thinking about Khusanov’s rise.

“But I can imagine what kind of boost of confidence that gives to younger kids who want to be footballers,” he adds.

That includes girls and women.

Last year, Uzbekistan qualified for the Women’s Asian Cup for the first time in over two decades. Uzbekistan will even host the event in 2029.

Mokhina Akbarova, a forward on the national under-17 squad, says even with that progress, her generation wants more.

“We want to see another level,” says Akbarova, adding her dream is to take her soccer skills to play internationally. 

That would have been unlikely just a few years ago — when laws in this Muslim-majority nation forbade women freedom of travel without permission from husbands or fathers.

Yet Uzbekistan’s football rise has coincided with President Mirziyoyev implementing reforms — opening the country up totravel and investmentfollowing years of isolation and dictatorship underformer President Islam Karimov.

Those changes foreshadowed a wider geopolitical repositioning, as Mirziyoyev’s “new Uzbekistan” and its Central Asian neighbors forged ties beyond Russia, the region’s traditional ally, to pursue closer relations and trade with China, Europe and the U.S.

Earlier this year, President Trump hosted leaders from all five Central Asian nations — Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan — and announced a series of agreements to expand trade in critical minerals, in particular.

Amid all that dealmaking, some argue pro-democratic reforms haven’t kept pace.

Diora Rafieva, a lawyer and occasional government critic based in Samarkand, says, too often Uzbekistan’s liberalization exists more on paper than in reality. She argues the government has eagerly promoted Uzbekistan’s sporting success while ignoring problems with corruption, the judicial system and preserving the country’s heritage from overeager developers.

“This sporting success is a kind of image washing,” explains Rafieva. “They would say, ‘oh the New Uzbekistan.’ Maybe they do live in the new Uzbekistan …”

Her point? Not everyone does. Or wants to.

Yet there’s no question the country is freer today than it was 10 years ago. And younger Uzbeks, in particular, say the country is going in the right direction, with the White Wolves leading the way.

“That’s why I think for next 10 or 20 years, Uzbekistan will change more,” says Farangiz Azamatova, a university student in Tashkent and supporter of the team.

“The World Cup qualification itself made us — the younger generation — very confident,” adds Sirojiddin Toxirov, 21, who is studying to be an English-language translator.

He plans to study and perhaps work abroad when he graduates — aware his Uzbek passport no longer holds him back.

“I can feel the changes,” adds Toxirov.