Iraq

Iraq 2019 Home

Now here’s a beauty! White fadeout across the shoulders (to hide dandruff?) and irregular dark green slashes across the deep green torso. What caused the fearful head shaking to throw around that dandruff and what slashed at the shirt? The really detailed lion in the bottom, of course! The Lions of Mesopotamia (yeah their nickname is awesome too) stand head and shoulders above their competition with this beauty, even having the flag made from a solid but flexible plastic and the Givova logo standing out slightly, rather than being a simple transfer. Quite a lot to this shirt, and none of it bad.

The 2019 WAFF Championship saw the debut of this shirt and sadly they changed afterwards to a similar but slightly worse design (in my opinion). Drawn in the larger group, with Palestine, Yemen, Lebanon and Syria, the Iraqis barely paused. Two 2-1 victories over Yemen and Palestine were added to by a 1-0 win over Lebanon and a 0-0 draw to Syria. This led them directly to the final against Bahrain, where a 1-0 loss proved to be their only real stumble in the tournament.

In West Asia they do tend to amongst the top few nations, with regular top 3 finishes across all their regional tournaments, though their championship wins in the Arab Nations Cup, the Pan Arab Games and the Arabian Gulf Cup were all prior to the 90’s and the Gulf War. A strong defensive side, they tend to do fairly well in AFC Competitive play. They qualified for the 1986 World Cup, taking three narrow losses to Mexico, Paraguay and Belgium, but haven’t been back since, being a little way short in the final stages of AFC qualification. They’ve only once not reached the knockout stages of the Asian Cu, when they’ve competed, all the way back in 1972 and managed the spectacular by winning the 2007 edition amidst a plethora of disadvantageous circumstances that I can’t do justice.

Women’s football has only played a very minor part to date, with them trying to qualify for the 2018 AFC championships, but losing all 5 games relatively heavily. Local tournament performance has been rare and similarly discouraging. Men’s youth football has been very successful, including a number of AFC youth titles at every level, from U23 (2013), U20 (5 times, latest in 2000), U17 (2016) and U14 (2014), local titles and several world competition participations. They took 4^th place at the 2004 Olympics and the 2013 U20 World Cup with multiple qualifications for the Olympics and both youth World Cups. Women’s youth football has only been once, at U17 level, with them finishing 5^th from 6, losing 2-1 to Hong Kong and beating Palestine 1-0 but otherwise losing by at least 3 goals.

Regulars at the AFC Futsal Championship, they’ve rarely escaped the group stages, though they do have a WAFF title and got 4^th place in the 2018 AFC competition, though this was not enough for the World Cup. At an U20 level they reached the 2017 final, losing to rivals Iran, and reached the knockouts in 2019. They’ve never played women’s futsal but have been to every AFC beach soccer championship since 2011, though have never reached the knockout stages, even in 3 team groups. They’ve been to 5 AFC beach Soccer Championships and 1 Asian Beach Games, never quite finishing last but not exactly covering themselves in glory.

Comfortably top of a tricky 2022 qualifying group, they’re expected in the 3^rd round of qualifying. Could this be their year for a return to the global stage?