World Cup Qualifiers: With indomitable spirit, Iraq can upset Socceroos

Coached by legendary Zico, Iraq will look for a win against Australia in their crucial ‘home’ match in 2014 World Cup qualifier in Doha on Tuesday. Level on two points each, Iraq and Australia meet in their fifth FIFA World Cup qualifying meeting, with both anxious to revive their fortunes with a first triumph.

Despite being hammered 0-6 by Brazil in last week’s friendly, the Iraqis remain one of the toughest rivals for the Socceroos on the Asian scene. To the pleasure of coach Zico, a series of key players including midfielder Samer Saeed and forward Mustafa Kareem are back from injury, although Karrar Jassim is sidelined for disciplinary reasons.

The war had a toll on Iraqi football but thanks to their indomitable spirit, the Lions of Mesopotamia bounced back into reckoning as one of the strongest Asian teams. Their triumph in the 2007 Asian Cup bears testimony of their steely resolve to overcome the hardships back home.

Zico

The National League Championship has been suspended for several years now and the national team plays games away from home in Doha. Despite all these drawbacks, Iraqis have been able to produce some gifted players who showed what they were capable of in taking fourth place at the men’s Olympic Football Tournament in Athens, 2004. But their greatest achievement — the Asian Cup — earned them a berth at the FIFA Confederations Cup in South Africa, 2009, where they played a couple of draws against the hosts and New Zealand, before a fighting 1-0 loss to Spain forced the world to sit back and take notice of their talent.

In fact, Iraq has made significant progress in recent years although it still has many obstacles to overcome. Under their former coach, German coach Wolfgang Sidka, the Iraqis saw off regional rivals Yemen 2-0 on aggregate to progress to Asia’s third qualifying stage for 2014 World Cup before Zico took over last year. Now, they are hopeful of ending what would be a 28-year wait for their second appearance in World Cup after their sojourn in Mexico.

Iraq played their first qualifying match in the preliminaries for the 1974 World Cup (Germany) and also took part in the qualifiers for Argentina 1978 and Spain 1982. But they could qualify only six years later in Mexico and have endured successive qualification failures since then, reaching the last round on only two occasions.

Now their football has been revived much due to the emergence of extremely talented footballers who performed well at Athens 2004, among them Younis Mahmoud, Nashat Akram, Hawar Mulla Mohammed, Emad Mohammed, Bassim Abbas, Mahdi Karim, Noor Sabri, Qusay Munir and Razzaq Farhan, most of whom play their club football in the Gulf.

Iraq possess a highly experienced squad with an astonishing total of 925 caps shared between the players selected by Zico.

Among the highly promising generation of younger players who made huge impact are Jassim, Ali Hussein Rhima, Ahmed Abid Ali, Alaa Al-Zahra and Saeed.