Iraqi soccer team giving country hope amid ISIS chaos

The Iraqi soccer team’s overtime win against Qatar, which will send it to the Olympics for the first time in more than a decade, has at least briefly united the fractured country in exultation amid its grinding war against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS.) As on previous occasions, however, the national soccer team has at least briefly allowed Iraq’s Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds to set their disputes aside and revel in the joy of victory.

Similar scenes unfolded in 2007, at the height of the country’s grisly sectarian violence, when a national team including Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish players won the Asia Cup.

That victory was widely hailed as a moment of national unity, but Saturday’s victory marks the first time Iraq has qualified for the Olympics since 2004.

“After 12 years, now the Iraqi football team can come back to take part in the Olympics with pride,” head coach Abdul Ghani Shahad said as he arrived in Baghdad late Saturday.