The final score in the Asian Cup is a first ever victory for a nation fractured by invasion, war and terror – and united in sport. To the best of my recollection, the Iraqis have never before made it past the quarter finals of the Asian Cup.
The winners of this quadrennial tournament managed to find a coach – an old Brazilian fox named Jorvan Vieira – who came on board 2 months ago and put together a united team of Sunnis and Shi’a and Kurds who played together, today, like a side that had been together for years.
Thousands of Iraqis have spilled onto the streets to celebrate their football squad’s Asian Cup victory, firing guns into the air despite a government ban.
Iraq beat Saudi Arabia 1-0. Celebratory gunfire was heard in Baghdad, where authorities had banned vehicles and urged fans not to gather. It was feared crowds could be targets for bombers. Some 50 people died in attacks after last week’s semi-final.
Meanwhile at the stadium in Jakarta, the atmosphere was electric. There is huge sympathy and support here for the Iraqi team, for their difficulties in training and the continuing violence at home.
The team said they wanted to give Iraq something to celebrate as a nation – they have done it – and many others in Indonesia are celebrating with them.
Bravo!
Here’s part of an e-mail from Iraq that I found interesting:
“Things are pretty bad over here and I don’t see it getting any better soon. It was litterally raining bullets from celebratory fire throughout Iraq after Iraq won a soccer game. Jubilation turned into panic as several people were struck by the raining bullets; one of my employees was hit in his upper back and the bullet penetrated down and eventually ruptured his kidney. He is now in the Green Zone hospital recovering from the removal of the kidney and awaiting transport home.”
#1, another example of science reigning (cough) over religion.
By now they should know that what goes up must come down.
Half the media is covering the gunfire and doom and gloom….you can guess which half……instead of what an amazing thing has taken place here, over the space of just a couple months.
In our safe, comfy western nations we often look at sports from a jaded perspective. But sports more often than not CAN be a unifing force, sometimes showing the non-sports world the path to harmony among disparte peoples. Even at the height of the cold war, sports teams from both sides would play eachother and become friends….it is a way to allow people to get to know the real people on the other side and not the politicians.
There will be some right wingers claiming this is a sign of the present policies working in Iraq and the left will concentrate on things like the story above of hoppers email to show it means nothing …….but I think it just shows that a group of Iraqi’s from different segments of society, can come together and do something for their **country**, not for their tribe, or religious sect or ethnic group. These people are the majority in Iraq I believe and they want a chance to keep their country whole.
It is Iraq’s first ever win in the Asian cup Eideard………couldn’t have come at a better time.
Congratulations guys….great win.
I think it is a soccer match and not a political statement. It is good that individuals members can put aside differences to compete. This, however, is very common in any sport. The one difference here would be all of Iraq rallying behind them. The problem will be how they learn from defeat (because their team is not very skilled) and it will likely loose the next match. This is the true test of character.
It was a nice victory though, strangely it came only a few days after the Saudis were given a massive armament contract from the United States. Again, I am not trying to start a conspiracy, though th sequence of events sure is odd. Of course anyone can argue that these talks have been going on for months.
This is somewhat like the Cubs winning the World Series… or Boston beating the Yankees after being down so many games…
Way to go IRAQ…
[Duplicate post. – ed.]
Nevermind Iraq… Rangers just beat Chelsea 2-0 in a friendly and here’s a funny pic of Charlie Adam getting hit in the face during the match:
Now I have to go see if DaMarcus Beasley got to play for Rangers.
[edit: I see he got in as a sub]
#9…Eideard….Chelsea is fast becoming the New York Yankee’s of English soccer. They just finished inking a few very large contracts this past couple weeks and immediatly went out and lost 2 matches to teams they should own…..lol 🙂
I forgot…Mourihino just said he had turned over a new leaf and was going to be calmer, nicer, not so outspoken. LOL……bet he and Abramovitch aren’t speaking again……
“Mahmoud will not return to Iraq. He would like to he said, but it’s just not safe. He spoke of the sadness he had for his homeland and asked that America would leave so that he and others could have their country back, no matter the condition it is in.”