Iraq Soccer Team
The Iraq national football
team is the national team of Iraq and is controlled by the
Iraqi Football Association. It made one World Cup, in 1994,
but lost all three of its games.
During the reign of Saddam Hussein his son,
Uday Hussein, was in charge of the Iraqi Olympic Committee
and, by extension, its soccer team. Uday routinely tortured
Iraqi soccer players for poor performances.
With the Hussains out of power, the Iraqi team
had a re-surgrance in 2004. Its Under-23 team qualified for
the 2004 Summer Olympics and then represented the country
in the Asian Cup, where they surprisingly made the quarterfinals.
But the surprises didn't end there. At the Olympics, Iraq
upset Portugal, Costa Rica, and Australia on their way to
fourth place in the tournament.
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