The beautiful game of football is healing divisions in country
As Syria’s soccer team stepped onto an Iranian pitch late on Tuesday to take an unprecedented shot at qualifying for its first World Cup tournament, the supporters who packed cafes across the region could have been forgiven for keeping their hopes in check.
Against significant odds, the team moved up to third place in its qualifying group last week after easing past the better-resourced Qatar. An unlikely victory against favoured Iran would guarantee entry to soccer’s greatest competition.
Then Syria scored the goal.
Keeping his eyes fixed on the television screen in the corner of his cellphone shop, Hassan Saleh was apologetic. “Sorry, it looks like you’re my last customer. I need to watch this,” he said.
Syria’s six-year war has pitted a soccer-mad nation against itself. The national team has been hobbled by defections, and international sanctions against the government of President Bashar first Assad have caused funds to dry up. Bound by Fifa security restrictions, the team has also lost the advantage of home turf, bouncing instead between third countries that agree to host matches.
Some Syrians viewed Tuesday’s match as a rare chance to put war to one side and just enjoy a good game. According to Anas Ammo,
In Tehran’s Azadi Stadium, cameras caught a member of the Syrian team’s coaching staff sliding down on his knees and screaming joyfully
a Syrian sportswriter, at least 13 league soccer players are currently missing or in government detention. Almost 50 have been killed by government forces.
The game also featured unusual geopolitical undertones, with Syria facing a team backed by an Iranian state that has bankrolled and militarily supported Assad’s brutal conflict against opposition forces. This prize was a spot in a World Cup championship held in Russia, Assad’s other main backer.
“For me, it’s like seeing Iran’s A team against its B team,” said Ali Haddad, a civil engineer.
As Tuesday’s match wore on and the slicker Iranian team pulled ahead with two goals, fans in the Beirut suburb of Hamra veered between hope and resignation.
“No one expected us to achieve like this. Not even me, but here we are just a match away from the big one,” said Ahmed Mohamed, an English-language student in Beirut.” Not everyone saw the fairy tale. Critics accused Assad of using sports, especially soccer, to boost the government’s legitimacy as his armed forces remain locked in one of the century’s most devastating wars.
Dejection also set in among supporters as the match crossed into stoppage time with Iran ahead 2-1. Syrian state television showed hordes of supporters sitting glumly by a statue of Assad’s late father and longtime president, Hafez Assad. In Beirut, men and women slumped with heads in hands.
And then came Syria’s equaliser, sending the crowds into paroxysms of delight and disbelief. The scorer was 28-year-old Omar Somah, a striker who only recently returned to the team after four years in exile. In Tehran’s Azadi Stadium, cameras caught a member of the Syrian team’s coaching staff sliding down on his knees and screaming joyfully with tears in his eyes.
In Beirut, Majd Sarsar, a student from Damascus, described the final whistle as a moment of unity for a nation sorely lacking in hope. “This wasn’t about politics for me; it was just about sport. But tonight I feel together with my countrymen. I do. And we needed that.” —The Washington Post Louisa Loveluck is a reporter in the Post’s Beirut bureau,
focusing on Syria