IRAQ: AG 2006 Gold Medallists Support Thread

[Hadi]

I find it impossible to cheer for any other Asian team than Iran

[Martin-Reza]

Go Iraq.

Iraqi teams always play good and fair football, I like them!

[Redfan]

lol, i love hwo iranians only suport another team out of hate for the other team!

[Sumerian]

Thanks for the support, I really appreciate it.

[Arian]

i don't like qatar man, those grassrolling @#@$@#$#$@$@#$
GO IRAQ! KICK THEIR @$$E$

[ScepticILL]

Awesome thread lol
Iraq Needs To Destroy Qatar!!!
Lets Go Iraq!

[South Iraq]

In Iraq, a soccer team a reason to cheer



BAGHDAD, Iraq — When people heard the young shopkeeper scream, they rushed from the street to help him, fearing the worst. But he was just cheering a dramatic soccer goal.

Passengers cringed as gunshots broke out during their drive through the dangerous Abu Ghraib suburb. Again, it was just the requisite celebratory gunfire for a soccer victory — a shooting spree for the winning spree.

Successive victories by the Iraqi national soccer team have sent gunfire rippling skyward above Sunni and Shiite Muslim districts alike throughout the otherwise divided and fearful capital.

Even amid — perhaps because of — the relentless violence of daily car bombings, massacres and kidnappings, the team has rekindled a patriotism in Iraq that transcends sect.

"We haven't seen any happiness in our lives except the happiness of the soccer team. Moreover, in the team, all the Iraqi factions come together to succeed," said Ammar al-Jabouri, 29, a Sunni taxi company manager whose two brothers have been missing since they were kidnapped two years ago.

On Friday, Iraq plays for the gold medal in the 2006 Asian Games, a quadrennial Olympics-like event that Iraq's soccer team last won in 1982. This year it is taking place in Doha, capital of the Persian Gulf country of Qatar. Qatar is also the other soccer finalist.

After losing 1-0 to China on Nov. 29, Iraq went on a four-game winning streak, giving up only one goal and defeating South Korea on Tuesday.

The integrated team of Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds harkens back to an Iraq undivided by militias and religion. The players, dubbed "heroes" by the media, have become a source of cheer amid the mayhem. Scenes of victory compete on televisions and in newspapers with the images of bloodshed, and Iraqis still grieving lost loved ones rise to support the team.

When player Samer Saeed followed a goal by kissing the Iraqi flag on his jersey and pressing it against a sideline camera, storekeeper Ali Mohan al-Maksusi almost lost control.

"I was so happy and so excited that I almost broke this glass" counter, said the 30-year-old Shiite Muslim, smacking the counter again for illustration. "I started yelling and all these people came to see what had happened to me."

Of course, game-day enthusiasm is muted in the climate of violence. People fear to join large public groups. Al-Maksusi says he prepares for a game by getting a pack of cigarettes and making sure his small private generator is on hand for the inevitable blackout.

Samir Ibrahim al-Jaff, a 36-year-old Kurd, gathered his wife and four children at home around nuts, candies and tea to watch Tuesday's game. The boys, in their mid-teens, got to join in father-son blasts from the family Kalashnikov rifle after the victory.

"There were no helicopters or tanks (around), so we went on the roof and shot," al-Jaff said.

There are stories of Iraqis hurt by the gunplay, but the games finish after dark, when most Iraqis are inside. Western security companies have advised their staff not to be alarmed at the gunfire, which can last as long as 15 minutes.

But more sinister dangers are always near. In at least one neighborhood, a militia used the gunfire to cloak an attack on an apartment building.

The Iraqi team, which also put in a surprising underdog performance in the 2004 Olympics, has well-known obstacles, with equipment and training facilities inferior to that of other teams. It often trains outside the country. Iraqi sports officials have been threatened, kidnapped and killed.

The on-field captain, flashy and outspoken Younis Mahmoud, is a Sunni from karkuk. But he's a nationwide favorite.

"They're all brothers," said restaurant worker Abbas Soral Sayeed, 22, a Shiite. "I don't know what Younis Mahmoud is."

With two yellow-card infractions, Mahmoud, 23, is ineligible for play Friday. But he told a television interviewer he was confident the team will win without him.

"We present these wins to (the) enduring and injured Iraqis," he said.

Video: http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.ph...3091F478AF07F3

[sarbaz]

Go Iraq

Qatar is a piece of garbage who has bought players and AFC to get where they are now.
I am not saying this because they beat us no because we played bad the entire tournment and I knew we were gona loose,I am supporting Iraq because unlike thier
arab cousins they have pride with the least help and money.

Good luck to them

[TMShiiire]

I'd rather show solidarity with OUR team and hopefully cheer them on to victory in the Asian Cup and through this ordeal with IFF. I see no reason to support Iraq.

I copletely agree.
However in this case i rather se Iraq as winners!

[Sumerian]

I've made a compilation of Iraq's journey in the Asian Games: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eB_2NUQDkGo