Finally, some good news from this troubled Country. Hope this will
bring the Iraqi's together in pursuit of something other than killing.
Thanks for posting this.
Des
"Charles Farley" <CircularErrorZero@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:a12aa624.0405151722.29d5088e@posting.google.com...
The Seattle Times
May 13, 2004
Iraq soccer team earns berth in Olympics
AMMAN, Jordan -- Iraq's soccer team, whose players were brutalized
and
whose stadium was used as a torture chamber under the regime of
Saddam
Hussein, qualified for the Olympics with a victory over Saudi
Arabia.
The 3-1 victory, coupled with a 0-0 draw between Kuwait and Oman,
gave
Iraq a spot at the Athens Games this August. It's the nation's first
Olympic berth in the world's most popular sport.
"Simply stated, this is the biggest moment in Iraqi Olympic
history,"
said Ahmed Al-Samarrai, the president of Iraq's Olympic committee.
Gunfire echoed through Baghdad streets and flares and tracer rounds
lit the sky as Iraqis celebrated the victory, Agence France Presse
reported.
"Our entire country deserves this incredible win," said Hawar Mulla
Mohammed, who scored the winning goal. "When the bus pulled into the
stadium (in Amman) tonight, we refused to think of anything but
winning, and now we are headed to Athens."
Iraq defender Ahmed Alwan added: "It's a crazy joy for us. Despite
all
of the difficulties we faced, we still managed to qualify for
Athens."
The 24-member soccer squad will join at least six other Iraqi
athletes
-- five men and one woman -- in track, boxing, swimming, taekwondo
and
weightlifting who qualified or were invited by the International
Olympic Committee and sports federations. Four Iraqis competed at
the
2000 Olympics in Sydney.
The IOC in February reinstated Iraq's Olympic committee a year after
suspending the agency over allegations that Uday Hussein used the
sports office as a headquarters for torture and corruption.
"The soccer stadium was the scene of torture under Uday Hussein,"
said
David Phillips, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations
in
New York and an expert on Iraq. "The fact that Iraqis can now field
a
soccer team that displays the full mosaic of their population marks
another step in the struggle of Iraq to become a normal country
again."
Uday and his brother, Qusai, died in a gunfight with U.S. soldiers
last July. Saddam Hussein was captured by U.S. forces in December.
Al-Samarrai said four athletes have been selected for the Iraq
Olympic
team: Al'aa Hikmet in the women's 100 and 200 meters, Najah Salman
Ali
in boxing, weightlifter Ali Abdul-Munim Mohammed and Raad Abbas
Rasheed in men's taekwondo.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/sports/2001927605_iraqsoccer13.html
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