Eleven Men, Three Ethnicities And One Purpose To Unite A Nation

• Oliver Theobald, Grade 11
• Short Story
• 2007

The referee’s whistle blew and a corner kick was signalled. The Saudi team flooded back in numbers to defend the spot-kick.
The stadium was overcome with a tense and eerie air of apprehension and unarticulated anticipation which was surely no less evident than on the sweat drenched faces of the Saudi team. This however was in great contrast to the countenance of the Iraqi team which was one of utmost determination. They had arrived at the Asian Cup with a purpose unmatched by any other, with a quest to bring unity and hope to a homeland stricken by war and despair.
Only weeks earlier, the proposition of the team even progressing to the final would have been viewed as near on impossible and even the least pessimistic would have agreed that only great fortune could deliver such an unlikely result. The players however were not relying on good fortune or optimism but on fate. Destiny, they believed, had brought them together despite racial tensions, and would propel them to further triumph.
Such purposed belief was clasped by Iraqi captain and Sunni, Younis Mahmoud, as he stood isolated and surrounded by opposition numbers. His up-against-the-wall position was not all too dissimilar to that of the Saddam Hussein leadership on the breach of the invasion in 2003. Nevertheless he stood unmoved and did not jostle for position; the ball would find him, he told himself.
From the corner spot his Kurdish team mate, Hawar Mohammed, now came in for the cross kick.
With catlike patience and resolve Younis Mahmoud watched the ball off the foot as it swerved in from the left flank. The defender in front raced forward in anticipation that the ball would dip. Nonetheless, he declined to follow and pursue the trajectory of the ball for it was already aligned directly to him. Capitalizing on every inch of his height he launched himself off the ground and released a vicious header on goal. In an instant he would do more to restore hope and unity to his desolate homeland than any other politician, world leader or armed tasked force had ever achieved.
Within the lofts of the stadium a Sunni spectator, who had sold his car in order to fly to the final in Indonesia, watched on in excitement. He too, was encapsulated by an inexplicable feeling of destiny as he sat perilously close to the edge of his seat with his sweat soaked Iraqi scarf draped around his neck. He leaped up before the ball had even hit the back of the net, as did the Shiite man sitting within the row in front. They watched on together as the dream turned to reality and then suddenly they were embracing—a hitherto, imaginable act of unity.
The present hysteria and jubilance throughout the stadium and Iraq would not instantly restore peace but reinstate hope in a country where hope alone would sustain—hope to inspire, to unify and to deliver peace.