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| Iraq |
| Soccer’s Return to Baghdad Offers 90 Minutes of Escape |
| 2003-05-17 |
| Saturday morning sports page. EFL. In the cramped locker room, young men tugged on uniforms, liniment was heavy in the air, and a restless crowd could be heard rumbling in the bleachers above. Then came the pep talk that gave the impending game its glory and its significance. "This is not a game for you only, but for all of Iraqi sports," Raad Hamoudi, the Iraqi national soccer team's star goalkeeper of the 1980s, told his old team, Police, before it took the field in the first professional match in Iraq since the war ended. "I want you to forget the hatred and any vengeance you may have in your heart. I want you to think about the present and the future." Many Iraqis experienced sport as national therapy as soccer returned today to a parched field in the troubled city of Baghdad. The match — between same-city rivals Police and Zawra, a historic name for Baghdad — suggested a small but symbolic step toward normality and a chance for Iraqis to experience fun outside the shadow of fear. Soccer's hold on the national imagination, at least among Iraqi males, had made it a focus of the former government under Saddam Hussein. The president made his elder son, Uday, a sort of soccer czar, and Uday carried out the task with sinister motivational techniques that haunted many of the players on the field today. Beatings and even torture awaited losing national teams, some of which have been the region's best over the years, and imprisonment was not an uncommon punishment for those who missed important penalty kicks. I'm just betting that Uday was the kid always selected last in pick-up soccer games. But many Iraqis, weary of the slow pace of recovery in their capital, also valued today's match for nothing more than what it was — 90 minutes of escape under a searing sun. Only the U.S. armored personnel carrier standing guard just beyond the high wall detracted from what otherwise appeared to be an ordinary afternoon at the stadium. More than 50 professional soccer clubs play across Iraq, Police and Zawra likely the most prominent among them. The rivalry is akin to a Redskins-Cowboys matchup, but only about 8,000 people filled the scalding concrete benches today in a stadium with a capacity of more than twice that. Abas Rahim, a speedy 24-year-old left wing for Police, is one of Iraq's finest players. After returning home from 1997 Junior World Cup qualifying matches in South Korea, Rahim was jailed for 21 days. He was the team captain, as well as the tournament's most valuable player, and he was punished for the team's failure. Five years later, after trying to quit the team, Rahim missed a crucial penalty kick against the Union Club in Qatar. He was held captive in Hussein's Republican Palace for seven days, he recalled, blindfolded the entire time. Today, he played unafraid. "The best team will win today's match," he said. "But today it doesn't matter." Fans, who for years heard stories about player torture following meaningless games, watched without what some described as shame, frustration and a fear of their own for the men on the field. Hamoudi, who returned from exile in Jordan a month ago after fleeing in 1993 because of what he said were threats on his life from Uday Hussein, is paying the Police players out of his own pocket. He told them today that the reemerging Iraqi national team has been invited to play in Saudi Arabia three months from now in a tournament that will pay the winner $1.5 million. "And, thank God, it will not go into Uday's pocket," Hamoudi told the team. The game started slowly, players shaking off more than a month of forced rest, with three messy fouls occurring in the first minute. Then Police scored with a perfect shot from the right wing — and for a moment nothing else mattered as the crowd rose to its feet. "That," Karim said with a smile, "was a marvelous goal." Police went on to win, 2-1. Pehaps the GI's over there can teach the kids some baseball. That would do a lot of good. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #6 Cricket? Do we want to lose the country!? The war was to remake Iraq in our image, that means it's time for baseball. Case in point, Japan. |
| Posted by: Brian 2003-05-17 20:08:17 |
| #5 OP, excellent idea. You're right, soccer is the official alternate religion in most parts of the world. Youth soccer sponsored by the US/UK forces would be a major PR score. Do it quietly and make it look as though "hey, we like soccer too, we're just trying to help out a little", and local noses won't get out of joint. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2003-05-17 12:15:16 |
| #4 I played soccer with the Panamanians when I was stationed down there in the late 1960's, and with the local Germans when I lived on the economy in Germany in the 1970's - before my back problems forced me to quit. Those people take the game seriously, with a capital "S"! Let a few of the Army units set up a "peewee" soccer league, provide shoes and uniforms, provide a playing field free of mines, and they'll be our friends for life! Baseball and football may be nice, but soccer is an alternate religion! |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2003-05-17 12:06:28 |
| #3 badanov: arm them and put them in the police force. who would be more loyal, given a sense of independance and a steady paycheck with which to support themselves They'd have everything to lose if the Islamofascists won. Their allegance would be to a new democratic, civil-rights based Iraq where women had freedom and the mullahs had nothing but their mosques. |
| Posted by: Anon1 2003-05-17 10:17:39 |
| #2 I was watching Fox last night and they had a feature about this Shiite muslim woman. Tall, dark and beautiful: talking about religion and women's rights. Now I am not feminist, but I hope women like her have a say in the future of Iraq. |
| Posted by: badanov 2003-05-17 07:02:06 |
| #1 Or Cricket. That would certainly help deal with Iraqis who have too much time on their hands. |
| Posted by: Paul Moloney 2003-05-17 01:17:04 |