For the History Books

It was a beautiful summer evening in Bloudan, Syria. For the few years that we spent in Syria, my family and I would spend most summer time there. My father, my sister and I are the only three that had made it to the sports cafe that evening to watch Germany vs. Argentina in the Quarter Finals of the 2006 World Cup. Argentina had a great team that tournament and even though my grandpa and my dad usually love the German team, they were backing Argentina in this World Cup (besides France and Zidane who we will get to). The argument, pre that game, was that Argentina had a really good squad and could win the whole thing, while Germany’s squad is only okay this time around.

The 2006 World Cup was the first one I had ever watched, and probably my first real engagement with this game called football. I grew up in a family with many opinions and differing approaches to life, but they all agreed on one thing: we love football. Even those who wouldn’t be interested in following the sport week-to-week, when the World Cup came around, everyone tuned in. I remember watching the final between France and Italy in our grandpa’s apartment in Damasus, everyone crammed in the smallest living room imaginable, but somehow all 15 or so of us sat there comfortably. As a seven year old, watching Zinedine Zidane play for France was the height of “representation” on the World’s biggest stage. Zidane lost that final painfully, teaching me early that life doesn’t always go your way. It only took one summer for football to turn that disappointment into one of the most joyous moments I’ve ever had. Iraq, at the 2007 Asian Cup, against all odds, win the whole thing. I had never seen my father shed tears of joy till that moment, that was the moment I knew what football could mean to people, the emotions that it could bring in people, that was the moment I forever fell in love with this game. 

Twenty years later, Iraq and France are playing against each other in a World Cup game. Something that my kid self thought was closer to fiction. But everything is different now. My nuclear family and I were planning to go to Philly, where the game is taking place, to be with and around other Iraqi supporters. For unforeseen circumstances, we had to cancel the trip the day of, and all I felt was… relief. As the Iraqi national anthem echoed around the almost empty New York beer garden, I couldn’t help but be overwhelmed by that moment. That sounds about right, this is how it should be. I will yell at the guy that “joked” about the game turning into a guns shootout by reminding him that Iraq is where the oldest known human civilization existed, I will tell the guy at the bar that his “joke” about Iraqi players getting shot dead if they don’t perform was not funny and shoo him away when he tries to apologize, but when it’s all said and done, I belong here, watching the Iraqi team and supporting from the New York beer garden.  

The Quarter Final clash between Germany and Argentina was heated. The beautiful summer breeze set the tone for a longer evening as the game went all the way to penalties. As the game played on, my sister and I start rooting for Germany, perceiving them to be the underdog (as if lol). Who doesn’t love an underdog? That was probably the only time I ever rooted for Germany. Football will always surprise you, just like Germany won that Quarter Final game against Argentina on penalties, Paraguay, almost exactly 20 years to the day, pull the upset over Germany and beat them on penalties. Everything changes, nothing is guaranteed and no one gets it all. 

Iraq lost the game, and didn’t have a good World Cup, as expected. But witnessing them reach the World Cup finals and play it here in The U.S. was stranger than fiction. Football cycles through just like everything else in life. Germany have had disastrous World Cups in recent memory, Italy fail to qualify on multiple occasions, and Morocco is now a favorite to go far in the World Cup for the second time in a row. Only one thing remains the same: whenever there is a World Cup, the Al-Nimas will be watching.