The Iraqi national team defeated South Korea on penalties today to reach the final of the Asian Cup tournament. (A play-by-play account of the match is found here.) The semifinal match, played in heavy rain in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, ended after extra time in a goalless draw. Iraq then won the penalty-kick contest, 4-3, to advance to the tournament final on Sunday.
Iraq Ahmed Abbas celebrated his winning penalty kick in the shootout against South Korea.(David Longstreath/Associated Press)[UPDATE: Two car bombs exploded among celebrating fans in Baghdad, killing at least 27, according to the Associated Press.]
After Iraq?s victory today, according to the A.P., ?Heavy celebratory gunfire rang out across the Iraqi capital and thousands of fans gathered in the central Baghdad district of Karradah to celebrate by dancing, beating drums and chanting ?Iraq, Iraq.? Elsewhere in the city, traffic snarled as drivers honked their horns ? Iraqi flags flying from their windows ? amid hundreds of fans.?
After the final penalty kick was taken, Agence France Presse reported, ?Iraqi players rushed to their supporters to grab national flags as other players wept with joy when the realisation hit that they had won.?
Iraq coach Jorvan Vieira said: ?This victory is for the people of Iraq because they deserve it. It also also for the boys because they worked very, very hard. ? Korea are a good team and I thought we neutralised them well. We were better than Korea on the fitness side. Is is a game that we will never forget.?
The Guardian Unlimited filed this report on the match, which includes details on the penalty shootout that ended with Korea?s Kim Jung-woo hitting the goalpost. The Agence France Presse report appears here.
Here is an eight-minute-long video of the penalty shootout, taped from the CCTV telecast in China.
The tournament final will be played on Sunday in Jakarta. It will be Iraq?s first-ever trip to the Asian Cup championship game. Iraq?s opponent in the final will be Saudi Arabia, who beat Japan today in the other semifinal match, 3-2, as recounted here. Malek Mouath, a veteran of the Saudi squad in the 2006 World Cup, scored the winning goal in the 57th minute.
In South Korea, the defeat was overshadowed by news of the killing in Afghanistan of a South Korean held hostage by Taliban extremists. In Iraq, recent victories of the national team have been met with spontaneous street celebrations, although a penalty-kick victory in the quarterfinal over Vietnam was marred by the deaths in Baghdad of five Iraqis by stray gunfire, after celebrants fired weapons into the air.
Although today?s result is considered an upset, South Korea had few returning veterans of their World Cup team at Germany 2006. This year?s Asian Cup squad is a younger, transitional side.
Nevertheless, among the hurdles Iraq had to overcome in order to win were botched hotel arrangements that left the team hanging around a hotel lobby for several hours late Monday night after arriving in Kuala Lumpur that afternoon. According to Agence France Presse, Vieira lashed out at the Asian Football Confederation for the logistical problems in a Tuesday press conference.
?For us it is more difficult than for Korea because we left Thailand on Monday at 7am and we arrived here at 5pm in the afternoon and we waited four hours in the lobby of the hotel to get our rooms,? he said.
