IT MAY SEEM A SMALL THING to most. A soccer game played half way round the world. So unimportant, it can't be found on American T.V.
But to a country savaged by years of invaders and civil war, there in the ancient land between two rivers where now even the water is putrid with death... this game was the rarest of gifts: ninety minutes of peace.
Rarer still, it was ninety minutes of hope.
'This is a very modest thing we can give to our people,' said the captain before the game.
Added the coach: 'We have to play to be a champion and we hope no one dies. This is what we wish.'
And today the Iraqi people got that hope and that wish, when their team -- made up of Sunni, Shia and Kurd -- won the championship in the Asian Cup Finals... their first championship ever.
The Iraqis finally have their field of dreams... but one watered with a million anguished tears.
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This diary by Spread the Word: Iraq-Nam, a daily blog on Iraq.