By Kokoy Severino
Iraq vs Philippines
World Cup Qualifiers, Second Round Group F
Thursday March 21, 2024
Basra International Stadium, Basra, Iraq
10:00 pm local time
Philippines vs Iraq
World Cup Qualifiers, Second Round Group F
Tuesday March 26, 2024
Rizal Memorial Stadium, Manila
7:00 pm local time
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| Philippines striker Chima Uzoka (9) pressures the Myanmar goalkeeper in the group stage of the 2019 Southeast Asian Games. Uzoka will be suiting up for the Azkals in the World Cup Qualifying series against Iraq this month. (Photo by Kokoy.) |
The Azkals' next opponents in the World Cup Qualifiers hold the dubious distinction of being the only country in history whose sitting football association president was placed on the list of America's most wanted fugitives. By the time American forces had Uday Hussein cornered in a villa in the city of Mosul at the end of the second Gulf War in 2003, he had yet to resign or otherwise be stripped of his government titles; he held on to them until the bitter end. Thus, as American attack helicopters rained rockets on the fortified kitchen he, his brother Qusay, and their bodyguard were holed up in, Uday was still officially president of the Iraq Football Association, a position he had held for 16 years under his father Saddam's dictatorship.
Uday Hussein must surely go down as the most brutal and most barbaric football association president in the history of the game. Al-Jazeera's obituary painted Uday as a feared monstrous figure during Saddam's reign in Iraq. Appointed by his father at the age of 21, Uday oversaw the national football association as well as the Olympic committee, among numerous other government roles, and developed a reputation as the cruelest person in one of the cruelest dictatorships in modern history, so much so that Saddam had him exiled in Switzerland for a couple of years to end his atrocious practices, which were becoming an embarrassment even to Saddam.
Among the many crimes Uday perpetrated against his own people was the torture of football players who he determined did not perform to par. According to player accounts, Uday would call the locker room before a match and threaten players with sadistic punishments should they not produce a win, and he often carried out those threats with impunity. When U.S. forces captured the Iraqi Olympic headquarters, they discovered a horrifying torture chamber on the grounds equipped with medieval devices.
Uday presided over what Iraqis now refer to as the "dark era" of their national football program, when FIFA banned them from international competition from 1990 to 1993 in the wake of Saddam's invasion of Kuwait. This episode makes Iraq the Philippines' second consecutive World Cup Qualifying opponent to have once been banned by FIFA.
In their latest entry in the Council on Foreign Relations' Global Conflict Tracker, the Center for Preventive Action describes post-Saddam Iraq as nothing short of a hot political mess. In the two decades since the 2003 U.S. invasion and the Saddam dictatorship's subsequent collapse, the Iraqi people have had to endure an ongoing competition between heavily armed factions positioning themselves in the power vacuum, a Kurdish independence movement that has drawn the wrath of Turkey, one of the most militarily powerful countries in the region, a long violent ISIS stronghold on Iraqi sovereign territory that took an entire international coalition to defeat, religious conflict often punctuated by assassination and periods of civil upheaval, exacerbated by interference from powers like Iran and the United States supplying arms to their favored side. Instability has worsened since the Israel-Hamas conflict erupted, with Iraq becoming a proxy battleground between forces on opposing sides.
Through all the chaos, there has been no single entity, internal or external, capable of bringing together all elements of a fragmented Iraqi society - except, that is, the Iraqi national football team. Whereas multilateral mediation, political and economic incentives, international pressure all continue to fail in uniting Iraq, the national football team succeeds in doing so by merely taking the field. Football is the one passion all Iraqis share. With every faction throwing their undying support behind the Lions of Mesopotamia, the ethnically, linguistically, and religiously diverse Iraqi national team has become a model of unity and a beacon of hope for a divided country at war with itself.
This fervent support Iraqis bestow upon their national team has fueled a remarkable resilience, and has not gone unrewarded. Iraq is one of the most successful football programs in the Arab world. They have raised at least once the trophy of every regional competition there is, dating back to before Saddam and sons came to power. They have played in eight out of nine West Asian Football Federation tournament semi-finals and four of the finals, winning it in 2002 even under the duress of Uday's purported threats. Iraq is the winningest team in the FIFA Arab Cup, the only country in the competition to accomplish a fourpeat - from 1964 to 1988. They've taken home football gold medals from the Arab Games, the West Asian Games, and the Asian Games. Less than a year after Saddam Hussein's demise, in the midst of complete national disintegration, Iraq reached their highest FIFA ranking of 39th in the world - a leap of 100 places from just eight years prior. They went on to win the 2007 Asian Cup, Iraq's highest achievement, only four years after the U.S. invasion and utter destruction of the country. Last year, they took their fourth Arabian Gulf Cup trophy, their first championship in 17 years, the latest indicator that the Lions of Mesopotamia are recovering from a long slump, determined as ever to bounce back into the World Cup for the first time since 1986. By all indications, they fully intend to run over any country standing in their way.
Since their 2007 triumph, Iraq are one of only six countries to have made the knockout stage of every Asian Cup tournament thereafter. In the most recent edition this past January, Iraq swept their group which included Vietnam, Indonesia, and tournament favorites Japan, the winningest team in the continent.
Seventeen from that Asian Cup roster are returning for the series against the Azkals, featuring prolific striker Aymen Hussein, who finished second in the tournament's golden boot race with six goals, including the one he scored against Jordan in the round of 16 for which his celebrations were controversially deemed excessive and then was sent off with his second yellow.
At 27 years old and 73 caps, Aymen Hussein (no relation to Uday) is Iraq's second-most experienced player and leads the team with 23 goals. Hussein's upbringing represents a microcosm of the Iraqi national experience. He was born in Kirkuk, an ancient diverse city overtaken by ISIS in post-Saddam Iraq. Kirkuk was targeted by coalition bombing for years in the campaign to oust ISIS. Hussein's father was an Iraqi army officer killed in an Al-Qaeda terrorist attack. His brother was kidnapped by ISIS and still has not been found. For Kirkuk residents today, bombings from improvised explosive devices have sadly become a regular occurrence and have displaced many families trying to escape the violence. Aymen Hussein's was one such family as he was growing up.
Undoubtedly, the country's recent history is borne on the conscience of Iraq's national team, united on an 80-by-120-meter perfectly manicured patch of Bermuda grass to exorcise the collective trauma of war. Surely, the fact that every single Iraqi, regardless of political affiliation, ethnic identity, and religious faith is staking their hopes on the national team cannot be lost on 32-year-old captain Jalal Hassan, who has presided from between the sticks over every national team match since January 2023. Against Southeast Asian competition since November, the former Iraqi Player of the Year has posted a one-goal allowed per game average, with Iraq skewering Indonesia and Vietnam in both the Asian Cup and the World Cup Qualifiers.
While Aymen Hussein and Jalal Hassan are right about at the peak of their careers, 23-year-old Mohanad Ali is poised to take up the future mantle of striking duties. Part of the Iraqi forward corps, Ali has become accustomed to hitting the back of the net. His international youth statistics sheet is peppered with top-scorer labels, logging 17 goals in 16 matches for Iraq's national youth squads. It should come as no surprise then that Ali signed his first professional contract at 13 years old, and won his first Iraq Stars League title at 18 with club Al-Shorta. Ali will go into the Philippines match at Basra as Iraq's second-leading scorer behind Hussein with 19 goals in only 44 national team appearances, impressive numbers considering he routinely enters matches as a substitute. Mohanad Ali will pose a particularly dangerous threat that the Azkals will have to be prepared to contend with when he comes in to relieve Hussein.
Also at just 23 years old, current Iraq Player of the Year Ibrahim Bayesh has already carved out his position as midfield general. With club and country, Bayesh has raised a trophy in one competition or other just about every season since 2017, including the 2018 AFC Cup for Iraq Stars League perennial championship contender Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya. Already capped 51 times, Bayesh provides the Lions of Mesopotamia a lethal midfield presence combining experience with youthful speed and quickness.
The Azkals forwards will be facing a backfield anchored by Rebin Sulaka, one of ten players on the Iraqi selection repatriated from Europe. Born in Iraq, Sulaka's family moved to Sweden when he was 10. He signed his first pro contract at 15, bouncing around clubs in Europe and Asia, including Thai giants Buriram United whom he helped win the championships of all three domestic competitions both seasons he was there. Last month, Sulaka was signed by six-time K League 1 champions FC Seoul.
Joining Sulaka in the backfield is defensive midfielder Dhurgham Ismail, Iraq's third most experienced player with 70 caps. In 2015, Ismail established himself as one of the top defenders in the continent during Iraq's fourth-place Asian Cup finish.
Both Ismail and Sulaka have posted recent successful campaigns in the core of Iraq's defense - the former in the Arabian Gulf Cup, the latter in the Asian Cup and World Cup Qualifiers. Iraq's climb back up the FIFA ranks to their current #59 position can be attributed to an unbeaten streak at the top competitive level encompassing all of those tournaments. Until Jordan eliminated Iraq in the Asian Cup's round of 16 on January 29, the Lions of Mesopotamia had not lost an official match for two years, compiling a record of 10 wins and three draws with a +19 goal differential. Four of those wins were against Southeast Asian countries.
Nine wins have come under Spanish head coach Jesus Casas, who took the Iraq position just before the Gulf Cup after four years as an assistant with Spain's national team. Under Casas's tenure, the Iraqi national team has been very busy with five friendlies sandwiched between three international tournaments.
While Casas has kept his Lions busy, new Philippines head coach Saintfiet has inherited an Azkals program that has not played a single match since November 21, not even a friendly. Their last away game was on October 18 in Bahrain.
In addition to the conglomeration of concerns Saintfiet faces, the timing certainly doesn't help. His selection are spread out on clubs in 11 different countries. Of the 22 who are signed on top-division clubs, only 12 have had the opportunity to log quality minutes in the last few months. The Philippine Football League has been on hiatus since June 2023 and the Copa Paulino Alcantara concluded on December 9. Hence, the domestically based players on Sainfiet's roster, like Kaya's Jarvey Gayoso and Jeremy Borlongan of Cebu, have not seen competitive action in over three months. Michael Baldisimo logged precious few game minutes in the San Jose Earthquakes' February 25th Major League Soccer season opener, coming off the bench with nine left in the game. The Canadian Premiere League, where Michael's older brother Matthew is a York United midfielder, ended in October last year and doesn't restart until April 14. Forward Patrick Reichelt of Kuala Lumpur City FC and Perak defender Jesper Nyholm both have not had a chance to hit the club pitch since December when the Malaysian Super League and Malaysia Cup ended.
The Baldisimo brothers are the only two on the Philippine selection who play top division ball outside of Asia. Captain Neil Etheridge rarely sees action for Birmingham City in the second tier of England's system. The Philippines' most promising protege Santiago Rublico remains a stalwart on Atletico Madrid's U19 selection but has yet to see any action at all for their senior squad. The other two Europe-based youngsters, 21-year-olds Paul Tabinas and Sebastian Rasmussen, also play second-division ball in Croatia and Denmark respectively.
Saintfiet must be encouraged, however, by recent Filipino performances in Thai League 1 and Indonesia's Liga 1, which are both more than 20 matches into the current season. Goalkeeper Kevin Ray Mendoza has been a regular starter for Persib Bandung currently sitting second in the Indonesian standings. Patrick Deyto has also been a mainstay in the Chonburi frame. Buriram United, where Jefferson Tabinas anchors the backline, is hanging on to the top spot in Thailand. Fellow defender Amani Aguinaldo has been starting regularly for Trat FC, as well as Simen Lyngbo for Persik Kediri and Christian Rontini at Persita Tangerang. Oskari Kekkonen has been a key defensive figure in the Lamphun Warrior run to the knockout stages of the Thai FA Cup and League Cup, where he might eventually meet Azkals teammate Jesse Curran of Ratchaburi FC. Strikers OJ Porteria of Dewa United and Kenshiro Daniels of RANS Nusantara have been scoring occasional goals, as well as midfielder Mike Ott for PS Barito Putera.
These guys who have been playing extensive quality game minutes regularly over the last several months will have to put up some critical performances against Iraq. The Azkals have consistently been hampered as it is by deficiencies in physical conditioning, and it is exacerbated by their North American run-and-gun style. With a bulk of the Philippine roster still in between club seasons, fitness will be serious issue.
On the other hand, all but two of Iraq's roster are plying their trade in top divisions, and the Iraq Stars League, where roughly half of the Iraqi national team play their club ball, is 19 matches deep into the current season. What this means is Iraq will be hitting the field in generally better shape than most of the Azkals. If Saintfiet can adjust the Philippine playing style to a more suitable pace, their conditioning disadvantage will not be as pronounced later in the game, typically after the 25th minute.
The overwhelming odds against the Azkals in the Iraq series make it so much more important that we heed the 10k-strong call at Rizal Memorial on March 26, regardless of the score. As an aspiring footballing nation, we must come to the understanding that development is a protracted campaign, a long-term investment requiring wise decisions and an unshakable commitment that will produce victories consistently for generations to come.
And it won't take any threats of torture to produce those wins.
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Philippines Men's National Team fixtures, 2026 World Cup Qualifiers Asia Second Round Group F (all kickoff times local at venue):
November 16 – Philippines 0-2 Vietnam @ Rizal Memorial Stadium, Manila
November 21 – Philippines 1-1 Indonesia @ Rizal Memorial Stadium, Manila
March 21 – Iraq vs Philippines @ Basra International Stadium, Basra, Iraq 10:00 pm
March 26 – Philippines vs Iraq @ Rizal Memorial Stadium, Manila 7:00 pm
June 6 – Vietnam vs Philippines @ Vietnam, venue and time TBD
June 11 – Indonesia vs Philippines @ Indonesia, venue and time TBD
#Philippinesfootball #Philippinessoccer #Iraqfootball #Iraqsoccer #IraqversusPhilippines #PhilippinesversusIraq #WorldCupQualifiers #Asianfootball
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| Photo by Dad. |
