The ordinary Iraqi people have a desperately welcome reason for celebration tonight, as their long-suffering national soccer team has pulled off a huge upset victory in the Asian Cup.

The media will focus a lot on people being killed by bullets shot into the sky and falling lethally back to earth — and that is certainly a classically stupid behavior that takes place in that part of the world. But don’t let it overshadow the poignancy of the achievement for the population as a whole. Omar of the blog Iraq the Model was live-blogging the event from his Baghdad home:

Many Iraqis said they will be celebrating their team regardless of the result, so tonight there will be joy no matter what.

6:30 …

No, the joy is not for “no matter what” … . Our team has just won the Asian cup for the first time in our soccer history. The win came through a magnificent goal by the head of our heroic forward Younis Mahmoud at the 71st minute of the match..
Our team ruled the game by all standards; in defense, midfield and attack our players proven that they are the best … they are now the masters of Asian soccer!

Today is definitely the happiest day for Iraqis in years. Tears of joy mixed with prayers for hope on the faces of millions of Iraqis … Words truly fail me and I can’t describe the feeling so please pardon me if the post doesn’t sound coherent; I hear the cheering and music outside although the bullets of celebration keep falling on the ground and roofs here and there. But no one seems to worry about that, the moment is so great that fear has no place in the hearts of the millions of fans, neither from bullets nor from crazy suicide bombers who tried to kill our joy last week.

Our players, tonight our heroes, learned that only with team work they had a chance to win.
May our politicians learn from the players and from the fans who are painting a glorious image of unity and national pride, and let the terrorists know that nothing can kill the spirit of the sons of the immortal Tigris and Euphrates.

The fear is gone, the curfew is ignored, tonight Iraq knows only joy…

Hot Air has video highlights.

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