Iraqi Soccer

James Denselow at HuffPo has a piece on the Iraqi national soccer team, noting that the multi-sectarian/ethnic team has been widely popular, and this month have begun playing home games again for the first time since 2002.

The team includes Sunnis, Shias and Kurds, and winning the Asian cup in 2007 brought thousands on to the streets to celebrate across the country. However, this almost universal reaction to football success was brought to a bloody end by a series of Baghdad bombings that killed 50.

My own memories of the team are very much tied to watching the 2007 Asia cup final between the Ira and Saudi teams in a restraunt in Amman, Jordan. Most of the time, Iraqis in the city tried to keep thier nationality under the radar and out of the conversation, but after the team won, the were cars with Iraqi flags and lots of honking. returning to the area I was living, which was home to many more Saudis in town for the summer, the mood was decidedly less celebatory.