United Iraq hope to turn Korean cart

Noor Sabri and his Iraqi teammates watched TV replays of the wild celebrations that their Asian Cup quarter final win over Vietnam provoked in Baghdad on the weekend, and it added to their resolve to go further.

Noor Sabri and his Iraqi teammates watched TV replays of the wild celebrations that their Asian Cup quarter final win over Vietnam provoked in Baghdad on the weekend, and it added to their resolve to go further.

If one thing unites Iraq’s Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds amid factional conflict that dominates their daily lives, it is seeing their national soccer team win. Seeing “all our people in Iraq celebrating victory supports our morale and we hope to do it again,” Sabri said on the eve of Wednesday’s Asian Cup semi-final against South Korea.

“It’s very important for us and for our people in Iraq — all of the people in our country pay great attention to it. Now it is a very critical situation in Iraq … victory in the semi-finals, this will bring great happiness to the people in Iraq.”

Iraq toppled pre-tournament favorite Australia in the group stage and outclassed Vietnam in the first knock-out round to reach the

Asian Cup semi-finals for the first time in three decades, ending a run of three consecutive quarter final defeats in the continental championship. Goalkeeper Sabri, who with striker Younis Mahmoud and midfielder Nashat Akram form the backbone of the team, credited coach Jorvan Vieira with developing a cohesive combination.

“I have nothing but praise for the coach. We had problems before … (but) he managed to bring all together and unify the team.”

Vieira said he had worked out in his 48 days with the national team that the secret to uniting the far-flung collection of Iraqis was simple.

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“Iraq people are like Brazilian people and everyone who loves football,” he said. “This situation is critical and complicated, but from the beginning I tried to keep my players under pressure to do their best for their country, to try to bring more happiness to the Iraq people. “And this they have done until now.”

Iraq has made a recent habit of performing beyond expectations at major events, making the semi-finals at the Athens Olympics in 2004 and the final of the Asian Games in Doha last December.