What a shock! 4-2 was the final.
It looks that war had no affect on their performance ,even more seems that they became tougher.
On an interesting note about that. From first hand experience, the country has REALLY rallied around their team. Each time they win a ‘big’ match, it seems that anybody with an AK and some extra ammo and a blatant disregard for general safety(which is, in Baghdad, just about everybody) goes outside and fires some (or many) rounds into the air. It reminds me of Bosnia at New Year’s. The first time this soccer match celebration happened, when Iraq had just beat Saudi Arabia, I was leading a dismounted patrol through a fairly unsafe area (relative term) when all of a sudden the whole world seemed to erupt. I was sure that I had just walked in the mother of all ambushes. Thankfully, the people were smart enough to not shoot where my group could see muzzle flashes, and nobody took the opportunity to get a few shots in at us, during the confusion. In fact, my battalion doesn’t run patrols that have any chance of being out the wire around the end of a Nat’l Team match.