It all comes down to this for Iraq.
After 40 long years, the Lions of Mesopotamia are on the cusp of a return to the FIFA World Cup, ending decades of heartbreak for their long-suffering fans.
Through the triumphs and tribulations of the past four decades, qualification for the World Cup has always eluded them, but now just 90 minutes separates them from utopia.
But the ongoing War in the Gulf has thrown a spanner into the works, disrupting their preparations and even casting into doubt their ability to be able to participate.
However, with the players and coaching staff all able to make their way to Mexico, the question is whether the disrupted preparation will have any impact on their hopes of ending their 40-year drought?
This was our view as discussed on The Asian Game Podcast last week.
Time is still on their side – Michael Church
(It’s) certainly disruptive. I mean, not just Iraq with these World Cup qualifiers, but also just everything in terms of all of the teams in the region, just being affected by what’s going on with the US, Israel conflict with the Iranians.
Certainly that lack of certainty and stability, that lack of the boring, mundane run of the mill (things), getting everything set up and sorted will have an impact. But I think, yes, maybe they won’t be able to spend as much time together. Maybe there will be the fatigue and everything else that comes from all of the travel that maybe was unnecessarily arduous compared to what it would have been otherwise.
But I think these kinds of situations can also galvanise teams. They can make players, make teams bond together in some level of adversity, and maybe give them that sort of backs-to-the-wall feeling whenever it comes to facing Bolivia or Suriname.
I think they’re also helped by the fact that they’re playing that qualifier on March 31st, so they do have time to get to where they need to get to, acclimatise properly, to get over the issues that they will have had because of the prolonged journey.
But I mean, look, not ideal preparation by any stretch of the imagination. But I think you’ve got the big prize waiting to be won. I think they’ll push that all to one side. It will be 40 years since Iraq last played at the World Cup when we get round to the World Cup this summer, the prospect of turning up again for the first time in 40 years, I think will be something that will be driving the players on, and they’ll push all of us to one side.
Symmetry is written in the stars – Paul Williams
Yeah, that would be a bit of perfect symmetry if they can qualify for their first World Cup in 40 years in Mexico, given it was in Mexico that they played their first and only World Cup to this point.
I tend to agree (with Michael), the 31st is still eight days away [from time of recording], and they’ve already arrived, so they’ve got eight days now to get themselves set, to get themselves acclimatised.
It might not have been ideal up until this point, but eight days in international football is still almost an eternity, really, given you normally get them for two or three days. And if there’s anyone who can drive that backs-to-the-wall narrative in a playoff like this, they’ve got the perfect man for the job in Graham Arnold.
Destiny is in their hands – Scott McIntyre
I think the bigger issue now for Iraq is around the squad, because we saw Jalal Hassan, the 100-cap goalkeeper, is not fit to take place, which is a blow. And then there’s real injury issues surrounding a couple of very, very important players; Ali Al Hamadi has hardly played, Youssef Amyn and Zidane Iqbal as well.
The latter two of those who are really, really important players in the squad have hardly played any minutes as well, they’ve been coming back from long-term injury issues, so whether they even participate is up in the air.
So I think now it’s making sure that you get the players that are there, making sure you get them as fit as possible to play this 90 minutes. And yeah, when I spoke to [Graham Arnold], he said, you know, we’re going all in. There’s no sense that we’re holding back, we’re going to go from minute one to minute ninety and give it all we’ve got to get there.
The massive advantage Iraq have, of course, is that they’re playing four days after the first match in this series. Whereas they were disadvantaged by things that happened in the Fourth Round of Asian Qualifiers over in Saudi Arabia, where things didn’t favour them on that occasion.
They have got the advantage here of not only having the rest, but being able to sit back and tactically watch if there’s any surprises that have come from Bolivia or Suriname in that first match, injuries, suspensions, all the kind of things that those two nations have to go through they don’t have to go through.
So, it’s all really well placed and really well set up and, and you would think that given the circumstance of being able to have the extra three days’ rest that it’s in Iraq’s hands to go out and make sure that they get the job done.
I hope they will, everyone in Asia would obviously love to see another Asian nation there to see a country that’s gone through a lot in recent times, only appearing for the second time at a World Cup ever would be an amazing thing.
Listen to Episode 268 of The Asian Game Podcast
