جمهورية العراق 1 – 0 المملكة العربية السعودية

I picked up a copy of World Soccer yesterday waiting for a movie to start, and discovered to my chagrin it was the September issue (meaning it came out in August in the UK), but this reminded me of an game that to my surprise I hadn't commented on when it took place. At the end of July, Iraq won the Asian Cup with a 1-0 win over Saudi Arabia in the final, and this was a remarkable event in several respects.

The first is just the stunning achievement that it represents for such a talented generation of Iraqis to shake off the legacy of Uday Hussein's tenure as minister for sport and win the continental championship, building on their surprise showing at the Athens Olympics. Along the way they had to take on some of the toughest powers in the region, including a couple of Asia's Big 4 that dominate regional competitions (Iran, Saudi Arabia, Japan, and South Korea), and Asian newcomers Australia to boot. The Saudis were looking for a record 4th Asian Cup, and Younis Mahmoud's winning goal was a huge shock to Asian football.

As continental champions, The Iraqis secured a spot in the 2009 Confederations Cup, to be held in South Africa as a World Cup warm-up, along with world champions Italy, American champions Brazil and the United States, and whoever wins next year's Euro'08, African Cup of Nations, and OFC Nations Cup. (I can only hope we don't meet the Iraqis for the nightmare that will be after the sporting press got so worked up about the Iran game in '98.)

There may be a significance to this game beyond the football pitch, because like France's World Cup team in 1998, the Iraqi national team is a unifying symbol: everybody may hate each other, but they all love the national team. This doesn't always work, as in the case of the united Yugoslavian basketball team that was broken up by political pressure and threat of violence, and while the unifying spirit of Zinedine Zidane, Didier Deschamps, and Lilian Thuram winning a World Cup together dealt a body blow to the National Front, racism is very much back in fashion in France. Nevertheless, it is nice to see one non-sectarian, post-Saddam Iraqi institution that is not only functioning but thriving, and hope this promotes the growth of others. And for the rest of us, Iraqi athletes are about the only image the West has of the nation of Iraq as a participant in a larger world culture, so I wish them well.

Iraq 1 -0 Saudi Arabia
'71 Mahmoud