The Lions of the Two Rivers give Iraqis a reason to celebrate

Earlier this week I blogged about how Iraq's soccer team was demonstrating that Iraqis of all ethnic/religious backgrounds could work together to achieve their potential. Today was the final game in the Asia Cup between 3-time champion Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

With this header, Younis Mahmoud Khalaf clinched a 1-0 victory and Iraq's first ever Asia Cup championship.

While the team celebrated in Jakarta (where the final took place), Iraqis of all stripes ran out into the streets of Iraq to celebrate their country's victory, not as Shiite, or Sunni or Kurd, but as Iraqis.

This picture is priceless because it shows what would be possible if Iraqis worked together instead of against each other. Given daily events in Iraq, including last week's car bombings targeting Iraqis who were celebrating their teams victory in the semi-finals against South Korea, they deserved something to cheer about. The Iraqi team, painfully aware of the violence that is tearing their country apart, wore black armbands to commemorate the victims of last week's car bombs.

In an indication of the mood of Iraqis toward our campaign in Iraq, Khalaf (the goal scorer in today's game) said that he wanted U.S. troops out, "Today, tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow, but out." That of course, is just one player but in Iraq he is now a national hero. As Sabah Shaiyal, a 43-year-old police officer in Baghdad told the Associated Press, "The players have made us proud, not the greedy politicians...Once again, our national team has shown that there is only one, united Iraq." Of course, that also says a lot about the state of Iraqi politics, people don't respect their political leadership and owe it no allegiance.

Iraqis may yet unite and work together for a common future, this of course, is still far from certain. If Brazilian coach Jorvan Viera proved anything, however, it is that with the right leadership, it can be done. CNN reported earlier this week that Viera would be leaving the post after today's game. In that report it noted that Viera was exasperated with the way things were done in Iraq, mainly that they had no existent Iraqi league or bureaucracy to manage the day to day affairs of the team. It was so bad, that he felt as if he was doing everything, while also fighting everyone. As if that were not enough, he also had to contend (at the beginning) with poor facilities, and rifts between the team's Sunnis, Shiites players. Now, however, these players reportedly feel as if they have a special bond, not as part of distinct ethnic groups, but as Iraqis. They demonstrated to Iraqis that working together is possible, and also provided them with a reason to celebrate, even if only temporarily.

Update

Adrian at Politics & Soccer wrote on this same subject, focusing on the example of Yugoslavia and how soccer could not prevent the break-up of that country. He also has a bit of "dark" humor on why Iraq was able to win the Asia Cup.