What’s happening? Cry. Be happy.
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The team going to the World Cup guarantees stable sponsorship deals for the national football governing body.
The middle-eastern side had a chance to qualify automatically with a win against the team who had already qualified and took an early lead but couldn’t hang on till half-time when Iran scored from a corner.
‘The equalizing goal. The equalizing goal.
Pardon me! I’ve lost it!
“I want to thank my team mates, who were heroes as they put in a great performance”. He was immediately mobbed by his teammates on the field and bench.
Kuala Lumpur: Asian Football Confederation (AFC) President Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa has congratulated Korea Republic and Saudi Arabia for securing Asia’s final two direct spots in the FIFA World Cup Russia 2018 on Tuesday.
Back in Syria huge television screens had been set up by the government in at least three squares in the capital Damascus to allow fans to watch the game in public. Thousands of dancing fans filtered on to the streets chanting Syria and waving the country’s flags afterwards, bringing traffic to a complete halt in the city centre. “I hope that peace will prevail across Syria”, said Lara Hanna, 35, who watched the game in a Damascus coffee shop with her husband and their daughter.
Outside, the skies lit up with pyrotechnics, some launching red tracers above the thousands of revelers who filled the streets, leaning out of their vehicle windows or marching in the city centre.
But the match raised the question: Can you support a team representing your country, when your state is at war with you?
“It’s been unbelievable and it’s been magnificent and I’ve been sitting here frustrated for the last two years listening to some of the garbage being thrown around at these players”, he said.
Playing on the bitter irony, Mohammed said that “sport has nothing to do with politics, or even humanity”, while listing sports people he claimed had “died under torture”.
The civil war, which began in 2011, has caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people with the United Nations and Arab League Envoy to Syria saying more than 400,000 had lost their lives in the conflict.
If there is a silver lining, it is that the Socceroos could have faced a far more established opponent than Syria.
A third-place finish would mean having to come through extended playoffs for a place in Russian Federation next year.
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They will now play Australia over two legs in October, before another game which could be against the USA. 2018 will be Saudi’s first World Cup finals appearance since Germany in 2006.
