One goal brings joy to weary Iraqis
BAGHDAD – It took a beautiful, arcing corner kick and a textbook-perfect header to bring unadulterated joy to millions of people across this war-ravaged country.
As the soccer ball sailed into the far corner of the net off the head of Younis Mahmoud, the Iraqi national team’s 24-year-old captain, a collective shout rose from every corner of Baghdad.
When the final whistle blew 22 minutes later, signaling a 1-0 win over Saudi Arabia and Iraq’s first-ever Asian Cup championship, the sound swelled again, even louder than before. It was a moment of joy, but also of release – from 51 years of futility on the soccer field and more than four years of war at home.
“This team brought glory to Iraq and ended our suffering for a while,” said Omar Hassan, 29, who danced in the streets waving an Iraqi flag after the televised match, which was played in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Echoing a common theme among the tens of thousands of revelers who poured into Baghdad’s streets, Hassan said the soccer players should be role models because they rose above sectarian divisions. Mahmoud, a Sunni Turkmen, scored the winning goal off an assist from Hawar Mohammed, a Kurd, while Shiite goalkeeper Noor Sabri earned his fourth straight shut-out.
Most people had little reason to believe that 2007 would bring Iraq’s first championship. Entering the tournament, which was held a year early, the team’s odds of winning were listed at 50-1. Three players learned during the two-week event that relatives had been killed by violence back home. Mahmoud, the captain and star striker, nearly missed the team’s first game when he was detained for 12 hours in the Bangkok airport.
The postgame festivities in Baghdad lasted well into the night, with vendors handing out free ice cream and water and young men shooting weapons into the air and hugging strangers. Despite warnings not to engage in celebratory gunfire, shots rang out for more than an hour.
Although several casualties were reported as a result of stray bullets, a security operation in Baghdad prevented a repeat of the violence after the semifinal game. Vehicles were prohibited on all city streets from game time until this morning to minimize the chance of car bomb attacks, which killed 50 people after Iraq won the semifinal game against South Korea on Wednesday.