- Basic introduction
Seeing the successful drainage of neighboring Kuwait in the 1982 World Cup, the country's image and international popularity have greatly increased, and Saddam Hussein, who is bent on becoming the hegemon of the Middle East and is fighting with his sworn enemy Iran, is also determined to increase national investment and strive to show Iraq to the world at the 1986 World Cup.
Iraqis holding aloft Saddam Hussein's image in football
In 1984, Saddam Hussein, saddam's eldest son, Uday Hussein, became Iraq's minister of sport and president of the Iraqi Football Association. As a chaotic demon king who loves football and resolutely defends and implements his father's football policy, Uday has brutally promoted the development of Iraqi football through the management of leather whips and money.
Uday (first from left) and the Iraqi team
In the Asian qualifiers for the 1986 Fifa World Cup, the AFC actually allocated one ticket according to West Asia and East Asia, and the teams that were the favourites to qualify, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and China, were eliminated at the group stage. In July 1985, the Iraqi team, which saw its hopes grow and the situation improved, hired a luxurious coaching team of four Brazilians at a sky-high salary of $20,000 per person per month. Among them, Carlos Alberto Lanceta is responsible for athletic training, Jorge Vieira is the team's head coach, and Eduardo and José Antunes Coimbra are responsible for the team's tactics. Under the careful guidance of the coaching team of the four Brazilians, who were at the level of "Harvard doctoral supervisors" in Asian football at the time, the Iraqi team finally won 3:1 in a two-legged showdown with their sworn enemy Syria (then The ruler of Syria, Assad Sr.), which firmly supported Iran, and advanced to the World Cup in historic lengths. As a national hero, the Iraqi team members were invited to his official residence by Saddam Hussein to celebrate, and Uday rewarded each team member with a car.
Iraq (green) vs Syria (white) matches
Iraq in 1986
- Angered Saddam Hussein
Brazilian Jorge Vieira, who led the Iraqi team to the World Cup, became the top of the global media coverage, and the Brazilian media even praised Vieira as the "caliph of Baghdad", but the global media reported that Saddam Hussein was deliberately ignored. The relevant reports of the Brazilian media were collected and sorted by the staff of the Iraqi Embassy in Brazil and reported to Saddam Hussein in Baghdad. As the "benefactor of the motherland" in Iraq, the father of the Iraqi people and the chief designer of football development, the major foreign media have not mentioned anything about their outstanding contributions, but praised the hero worms they invited. Saddam Hussein, who was offended by his dignity, immediately dismissed the four-member coaching team to vent his dissatisfaction.
Iraq's dictator Saddam Hussein
- Head coaching ability
In early 1986, Saddam Hussein again used his banknote power to select a coach in Brazil. After being rejected by Minelli, Zagallo and Ze Mario (Ze Mario even went to the Iraqi Football Association headquarters and did not sign the contract), the Iraqi Football Association finally chose Evaristo to take over the Coaching Whip of the Iraqi team. Evaristo de Macedo Filho, a Brazilian international and a legend who played for Barcelona and Real Madrid, retired as head coach of the Brazilian youth team and since 1982 as head coach of qatar's youth team and national team. In May 1986, as an alternative to the Iraqi Football Association, Evaristo hastily took over the hot yam of the Iraqi team. In the face of the Iraqi team with various cross-level commanders and cronies in Ude, Evaristo, who looked at the dollar and swallowed his voice, there was basically no room for coaching ability.
Brazilian Evaristo
- Personnel and tactics
This Iraqi team, in order to strengthen the defense, the main formation is close to 5-3-2.
All 22 players were from Iraq's domestic league, and the most powerful players were Hussein Saeed, who wore the number 10 shirt, played in the forward position, made 143 appearances for Iraq and scored 68 goals, and Ahmed Radhi, who was only 22 years old (the youngest on the team), played as a striker and scored the only goal in the World Cup for Iraq.
Iraq team at the 1986 World Cup
Hussein-Said
Ahmed Radi
- Specific journey
In the first match of the group stage, the new World Cup team Iraq took on Paraguay. Two teams of similar strength fought a battle. In the end, the more experienced Paraguay team won 1:0.
Paraguay vs Iraq
In the second game of the group stage, Iraq challenged the European Red Devils Belgium led by Shifford. Iraq, which was significantly weaker, scored two goals in the first half by Belgium, and bassel Gorgis, a no. 14 midfielder with Armenian origin, was sent off for accumulating two yellow cards in the 52nd minute of the second half. The Iraqi team, which refused to give up, scored a goal in the 59th minute by Ahmed Radi and eventually lost 1-2.
Iraq's match against Belgium
Ahmed Radi
Ahmed Radi scored a goal
After the second game of the group stage, Uday, who was deeply dissatisfied with the results, effectively fired Evaristo and put his close confidant, iraqi Akram Ahmad Salman, as head coach.
In the third game of the group stage, Iraq faced hosts Mexico. Although the Iraqi team stubbornly resisted, it was helpless and inferior, and finally lost 0:1.
Iraq's match against Mexico
- The story after that
The moody Uday did not punish Iraq too much for his performance in the World Cup, but only singled out Gergis in prison for 10 days as punishment.
In 1988, Saddam Hussein, who had been pushed back into his own territory by Iran in the Iran-Iraq War, was in a desperate mood to use biological and chemical weapons and indiscriminate attacks on oil tankers in the Persian Gulf to win an armistice between the two countries. Saddam Hussein, whose economy was on the verge of collapse but held the arab world's most powerful military, chose to annex Kuwait in 1989 after unsuccessfully extorting Kuwait of $10 billion.
Saddam Hussein flaunted force to Saudi King Fahd
In the 1989 World Cup qualifiers, Iraq, hoping to save the country's image on the football field, was eliminated in a desperately drawn manner by Qatar, which began to rise, in the final round of the group stage of the World Cup qualifiers. After the game, all Iraqi players were rewarded by Uday with a corporal punishment package of "locking up in a basement, shaving their heads, and being beaten badly by a baseball bat."
The Gulf War in 1990 shattered Saddam Hussein's illusion of becoming an Arab hegemon. In Iraq, which needs to pay a lot of war reparations, the people in Iraq have no livelihood and can only survive through the United Nations", while the Saddam family is still desperate and completely disregards the lives of the people. After the end of the Gulf War in 1991, Gergis fled to Canada, taking advantage of the domestic chaos. And his teammates who were forced to stay in Iraq, under the obscenity of Udai, could only survive by wagging their tails and begging for mercy, and the general life was difficult and the physical and mental injuries were greatly damaged.
The Iraq War of 2003 completely overthrew the rule of the militaristic and unpopular Saddam Family in Iraq, and the country has since become a hell on earth, plunged into endless turmoil and war.
Statue of Saddam Hussein that was pushed down
- Written at the end
After that, Iraqi football, although there was also a brief glory of reaching the final four in the 2004 Olympic Games and winning the 2007 Asian Cup, the domestic political turmoil and the inability of the Football Association to support the Iraqi team were unable to appear in the World Cup again. If there is a stable political situation, a peaceful environment, iraqis who do not lack football talent and excellent physical fitness, at least they will be a strong team in Asian football, rather than just occasionally showing up as they are now. This is probably the regret and sorrow of Iraqi football.
Iraq won the 2007 Asian Cup