Word: soccering
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...entire week, all of Iraq had lived for this moment, bearing the cynical attacks of car-bombs and terrorists, who had slaughtered more than 50 people who had rushed into the streets to celebrate after the country's soccer stars won a berth in the Asian Soccer Cup finals by beating 2006 World Cup semi-finalists South Korea. In Baghdad, people stocked up on gasoline for their generators (most of the capital gets only two hours of electricity per day and no one knows when the lights in their area will go out). Abu Ahmad, a taxi driver, described...
When Baghdad was absolutely certain that Iraq had won the soccer championship against Saudi Arabia in faraway Jakarta, the celebrations began with a sustained blast of AK-47 fire. The happy sound could never be confused with a real gun-battle: few gun-battles, even in Iraq, are that fierce and sustained. Soon the popping of rifle fire was joined by the thudding sound of machine guns - the kind of heavy weapons bolted onto trucks or mounted on rooftops...
Iraq's triumph in the Asia Cup signals a soccer program rising from the ashes, even as the country descends deeper into civil conflict. The resurgence of Iraqi soccer is one of the few untainted pieces of good news to emerge from post-invasion Iraq. A powerhouse in the '60s and '70s, the national team faded in the 1980s as Iraq's young men were killed and maimed by the hundreds of thousands in Saddam Hussein's war with Iran. Saddam's son Uday vented his sadism on soccer players and other athletes, forcing them to kick immovable stones...
KUALA LUMPUR Raucous celebrations of Iraqi soccer victory...
Where is that trust? Who can restore a fan's faith in the glory of sport? Why, the Iraqi national soccer team. Stocked with Sunnis, Shi'ites and Kurds, the Iraqis defeated Vietnam and then South Korea to advance to the finals of the Asian Cup. Iraqis crowded Baghdad streets after the semifinal win, firing celebratory gunshots (which killed one person) and being targeted by car bombs (which killed at least 50). It was, at least, a moment of passion for sport, a feeling that the corporate commissioners in the U.S. will be hard-pressed to safeguard...