But during the course of his speech, it became apparent that it wasn't just their desire to show solidarity that made them stand and applaud so many times.
The head-tracking system, which was developed by the Fraunhofer Heinrich-Hertz Institute in Germany, works by calculating how far away a head is, based on its apparent size (the direction is obvious, of course).
Mr Assad senior plucked his son from an ophthalmology course in London and brought him to Syria as heir-apparent on the death of his brother, Basil, in 1994.
Kraft lost his wife to ovarian cancer in the summer, Tuck lost two uncles and a grandfather over the course of the season and the closeness of both teams was apparent all night on this field.