Iraq's national football team beat favorites South Korea 1-0 earlier this week to get through to the final of the Asian Games.

The final is against Qatar (within hours).
A 25-year-old Iraqi doctor, Amer al-Harky told the BBC News:
If we win it will be the beginning of a new Iraq. I think Iraq's chance to win it is 50%. They are a good team and have a chance, but Qatar has better opportunities, because it is playing in its own country.(Where in Baghdad did you expect it to be played?) The Iraqis are also without their best player, Younis Mahmoud, who was suspended for time-wasting in the semi-final.

If the team wins, expect a frenzy of celebration - and gunfire across towns and cities, the usual way Iraqis mark big events. The US embassy has been warning employees to be inside once the game starts, because of the risk of being hit by falling rounds.

Coach Yahya Manhel has had to drive his players back and forth to Jordan - along some of Iraq's most dangerous roads. Three of his predecessors have resigned because of death threats. A football federation official was murdered. The coach received death threats.
Several Iraqi professional players have been kidnapped. One was killed by a stray bullet while training. Consequently, many of the players are based abroad. And because of the violence, they did most of their training outside Iraq.
Iraq needs this win!
DO IT IRAQ!!!
ReplyDeleteQatar beats Iraq 1-0 in Asian Games soccer final
ReplyDeleteYou said: "Iraq needs this win". Respectfully, I dissagree. There's nothing more horrible than the herds of fotbol maniacs doing their destructive horrors such as looting, arson, rape and murder. Iraqi fotbol win would have certainly stopped the forward movement of the demogcratic aspirations of her people and consequently diminished the peace and security achievements that the Bush Administration has so cerefully tended to. Even Allah is on my side with this by delivering 1-0 defeat.
ReplyDeleteYeah, recidivist, you can say that again.
ReplyDeleteI was earnestly hoping that Iraq would win. They badly needed a respite.
Alas...