BAGHDAD - The Iraqi soccer team's overtime win against Qatar, which will send it to the Olympics for the first time in more than a decade, has at least briefly united the fractured country in ...

Soccer fans attempt to enter the Basra International Stadium to watch the final match of the 25th Arabian Gulf Cup between Iraq and Oman, in Basra, Iraq January 19. Mohammed Aty/Reuters ...

Soccer-mad Iraq celebrates; authorities watch for potential attacks, disorder. July 30, 2007 — -- When the final whistle blew after 90 minutes of breathless, passionate soccer, Younes Mahmoud ...

Iraqi soccer is often called the only big national success story since the U.S. invasion and fall of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Once a major force in Asia, Iraq’s soccer team reached its peak in 1986, qualifying for the World Cup tournament in Mexico. But, with its country ravaged by wars and embargoes, the Iraqi team ...

"The Iraqi soccer team made us happy despite all of our deep sorrow," said Sami Talib, 54, a Shiite and retired teacher living in western Baghdad, to The Associated Press.

Iraq Scores A Rare Victory With Soccer July 29, 2007 / 11:51 AM EDT / CBS/AP Wild celebrations erupted across this war-ravaged nation.

Iraqi flags waved and the Iraqi soccer team was draped with flowers. The crowd didn’t care that an outsider might label Iraq and the Palestinian territories the two most dangerous places to live ...