My Night In A Baghdad Disco

Wednesday May 9, 2007 04:08 PM

Matthew Hall

Australia's loss to Iraq was not a football match. At least, not as we know it.

This game in Dubai was more like a night in a steaming Baghdad disco (more on that later) or maybe like taking a hot bath wrapped in a thick blanket. I'm yet to work out which.

You'll hear a lot about the conditions - heat, humidity - and so you should.

While you can watch 22 players on television try to play a football match in awful conditions (and hear the television commentators describe them from the luxury of their air conditioned booth at the stadium) unless you are actually in it, it's impossible to describe.

Before the game, on a trip to stock up on bottled water from the Lulu Hypermarket across the road from the stadium, I had to sprint across the street to avoid getting run down by a taxi.

Ten metres? Three seconds? Maybe. But that finished me off for the next hour or so.

The players - from both sides - spent 90 minutes doing this. They earned their match fees.

FIFA would do well to not worry about the problems of playing at altitude and have a think about the insanity of humidity.

The game was hosted by the Al Ahli Sports Club, a legendary football organisation in the United Arab Emirates but a long way crosstown, mentally and physically, from the supposed Dubai glitz and glamour of Jumeirah Beach and the Burj Al Arab landmark hotel.

So the weather was not the only trial, especially for fans caught up in a ticketing fiasco which saw the Iraqi Football Association charge Australians the equivalent of $100 for tickets that Arab speakers were asked to pay just $5 for.

Australians, though, are nothing if not resilient and before kick off a sole Socceroo fan beat the ticket rort and somehow gained access inside the Iraqi section of the ground while carrying a blow up plastic kangaroo on his shoulders.

He was, of course, booed and jeered but ultimately cheered by Iraqis before local police escorted him away. Not before, though, he posed for photos with his new friends.

The hour before kick off was full of more fun and games in the crowd. The call to prayer from a mosque located inside the sports club was drowned out by Australian fans chanting "Djite! Djite" at Bruce Djite, an Australian player sitting in the main stand with fellow teammates not taking part in the game.

Then, kick off. Within the opening minutes, the boisterous, Iraqi crowd hit out. Literally. Harry Kewell, playing wide on the left wing, had projectiles thrown at him from the crowd.

For Australia, though, the plan was possession. That much was obvious when Harry Kewell received the ball 30 metres inside the Iraqi half and then played a long ball back to defender Michael Beauchamp, deep inside his own half.

If it was not possession, it was industry.

Jason Culina, who Australia's coaches say will run all day for fun, waved his hands at team mates when a stray ball was slung into space: "You stay - I'll go."

Similarly, Luke Wilkshire covered the entire pitch, seemingly untroubled by the wet heat.

So too, in the second half, Brett Holman.

There's a pattern here. Despite the high tempo of the English Premier League, this trio - Australia's engine room in Dubai - play in Holland, the home of total football and the homeland for Pim Verbeek, assistant Henk Duut, and Technical Director Rob Baan.

A flair player like Nick Carle, ignored by Verbeek, may be aghast to discover this is no coincidence.

The game, meanwhile, seemed set to become a match like those you play in the park where the next goal wins. Except no one can score, dusk fast turns into dark, and your mum hasn't called you in for tea.

The winner will be the first to drop. Except no one drops.

During the week, Australia's players had been tested at training to discover just how much they sweat.

Everyone, apparently, sweats differently, and the team medical staff's analysis resulted in some players going into this game on salt supplements, others taking water retention tablets.

One of the hard lessons from last year's Asian Cup, was the news that if you lose over 10 per cent of your body's fluids, your performance is impaired.

This time, Australia was not going to be the ones to drop.

Then came a tremendous strike from Emad Rida, a curling, loping, long range shot that beat Mark Schwarzer.

"Good luck or good goal?" I was asked later. The answer was a bit of both.

Iraq's supporters, players, and officials couldn't care less. They celebrated like this was a goal of some destiny. Substitutes ran from the bench to celebrate with their teammates. The crowd burst into spontaneous dancing and singing.

In the second half, from out of somewhere - perhaps smuggled in under someone's long woolen winter coat if the temperature allowed it - Iraqi disco music boomed out from a PA system from the cheap(er) seats across the ground.

The music, Iraqi pop tunes, blared across the pitch, around the ground, and was picked up by the crowd.

Forget the football. We were now in a Baghdad nightclub (albeit with no air conditioning) singing along to the equivalent of Iraq's Kylie Minogue (or maybe it was Nick Cave, it was difficult to tell).

The music (and singing and dancing) stopped only to allow another call to prayer from the local mosque but boomed out again once those formalities were complete.

This was certainly not the Sydney Football Stadium.

As the clock ticked down, and some of Iraq's players fell down, the calls from the crowd for Allahu Akbar! - "God is Great!" - gave way for whistles for the ref to call time, even if there were five full minutes, at least, to play.

As you now probably know, Australia had several chances to equalise but didn't.

The ref finally blew his whistle, a cue for Iraqi fans to invade the pitch en masse in celebration which, while perhaps understandable considering the joy such victories bring to their people, FIFA will not look kindly on.

As the crowd swarmed the players it was as if, forget the Asian Cup, Iraq had just won the World Cup.

Maybe they had. Just over a week ago it seemed Iraq was out of the tournament for political reasons. Qualification would have been impossible had they lost on this night, but here they survive again, at least until next week.

Later, Pim Verbeek looked drained and strained.

"I cannot blame my players," he said of the loss. "I don't know about you but I was sweating just doing nothing."

"We have to win next week. We had to win one of the two games (Iraq or Qatar). We have to see how the players react to this defeat."

Outside the stadium, cars (and a few Hummers) drove down the street, passengers hanging out the windows, waving Iraqi flags.

Who knows? Next time, we might even get to do this in Baghdad.

COMMENTS

Cant believe Pim Verbeek keeps ignoring Nick Carle. He has a match winner there but wont use him. We created nothing bar 1 clear chance to Holman (who blew it once again). We need someone to create in the midfield, not just run. Interesting to see what Pim does now that Grella is out next game. Could this be carles chance finally?

by Rod on June 08, 2008 at 10:37 AM

Thanks for the insight Matthew, it certainly didn't look easy out there.

But you'd have to say, it's hard to score when you don't attack. Playing 0 strikers? We escaped in China, and didn't last night. Zero creativity. VERY frustrating to watch.

by Lmacca on June 08, 2008 at 11:43 AM

Jesus, gripe much?

by somedude on June 08, 2008 at 01:37 PM

For goodness sake, we are on the driest continent in the world and grow up, play, work and survive in heat and humidity. Do the Aussie cricketers bitch and moan because of conditions on the sub continent ? Do Rugby sevens players complain about conditions in Dubai, where they cover the same amount of ground with fewer players and physical contact over 5 or 6 matches a day ? Group of Death ? More like the Group of Influenza. We 've just been knocked over by a bunch of blokes whose country does not have have one outhouse intact, let alone pitches and training facilities. We did not produce one quality chance in the entire match. But you'll tell us it won't get easier by George, because next up we have that perennial powerhouse Qatar.....oooooohhh goodness, that's scary .......and then China, oh my God. Memo to PV, buy the boys some 'man up' pills and raise your voice

by citizen on June 08, 2008 at 01:44 PM

Great blog Matthew. I live in Dubai and was at the match and you summed it up beautifully. As a spectator I have never sat in such heat and humidity ever. For all the people at home criticising the team you really have no idea of what these conditions are like until you have been here. Makes Darwin or Singapore in summer feel like cardigan weather! Big problem for us is that without air in the lungs, Kewell and Carney and Co just could not run at defenders and there was no target man. Culina though, what a legend. Heart like Phar Lap.

by Chris on June 08, 2008 at 02:28 PM

A perfect account of the match and conditions here in Dubai.
It is outrageous that we Aussie supporters were required to pay $US100 for this game whilst the 'home supporters paid only $US5. What is FIFA going to do about this blatant dicrimination/exploitation?

by chris corcoran on June 08, 2008 at 02:44 PM

It was a sad, sad, sad day for the "world game". I suppose living overseas should give you an excuse to support any Australian team at any cost. But, after driving from Abu Dhabi, getting lost in Dubai(the game wasn't advertised and it was near impossible to find pregame tickets) and finally finding the stadium, we thought our trials were over. Walking to the ticket box, joking with Iraqi's having fun, no-one realised the huge divide between nations was put down to a cost. It was strange being penalised because we were white?, rich?, foreigners? (some of the reasons told by the angry ticket clerk) who told us we had to pay $100 USD to get in whilst the opposition crowd were paying AED20 (about $6). We were shattered. Then in front of the ticketing box was an Aussie Dad and his 6 or 7 year old son. The kid was dressed to the nine's in yellow and gold, they had their cushions, esky and everything. The boy was bawling. Absolutley bawling. Heartbroken. Dad refused to pay the ticket price. Like us, $100 USD for entry to a crumbling stadium, bad lighting and from what we hear and see, a second rate pitch was way more than he expected. That boy will remember that night for the rest of his life. Go and play rugby, AFL or do ballet, forget soccer if this is how you get introduced to the sport.
Go FIFA.
What a way to promote your "World Game".
Disgusting. You won't see me, my family or our friends with us, support any other competition in the UAE whilst we're living here.
By the way the Aussie with the blow up roo, I heard he got discharged from the game completely, but it was alright to throw cans at the players.........

by Chel Hauschildt on June 08, 2008 at 03:00 PM

The ticketing rort is an absolute disgrace!! What a great way to incite even more division between Australians and the Islamic culture. We went to the game, I refused to pay that much for tickets, as did a lot of people. There were small children in Aussie gear crying and distraught. I can't believe that the organisers have allowed such blatant discrimination to affect the 'World Game'. What a joke. How much do you pay, if you are neither Australian or Arabic, but wanted to see the game???? What about mixed groups of workmates???? If Dubai really wants to be seen as a tourist/events destination they should not allowed such circuses to happen!!!

by Carmen on June 08, 2008 at 03:05 PM

Matt, when you take about a nightclub atmosphere you should have been talking about a brothel, because this lot couldn't organise what usually goes on in one. I've lived in Dubai for over two years and the one thing you learn here is that the expertise and energy behind most of what goes on here comes from expats, whether they are Australians, Poms, South Africans, Indians or Filipinos. Whenever a local gets involved you can be guaranteed that it will take twice as long as it should and that there will be some sort of racist bias behind the pricing. The people who are creating the dream are getting stung everywhere. The game last night was a classic example. Should we pack up and leave. No chance, we need to extract as much of the oil money out of these guys as we can and then transfer it home before it runs out. The defence was very good last night, and so were the blazing runs up the centre by, i think, Brett Holman. Culina was solid but unspectacular and Kewell was well marked but showed some flair. Scott McDonald had no time to shine. I'm $US200 and 5 kilos lighter but I would grudgingly have paid double to watch them play in Dubai.

It should be stressed the "organisation" of the game was in the hands of the Iraq Football Association. According to FFA officials,local Emiratis were very embarrassed by the debacle and hoped that they would not be presumed to be any part of the fiasco. MH

by Michael from Dubai on June 08, 2008 at 03:08 PM

Regarding to the conditions, what can you do? This is nature and you can't prevent it.

And not only Australia had to suffer but also their opponents, so i think is fair. I think wherever they play, this is always a tight contest, because the Iraqi is a technically good team.

The player should have adapting to the climate by playing slow pace football, not running 100 miles an hour. It really again demonstrate the player and coaches mentality on the game!!

I have seen the goal, yes in my opinion it was a FLUKE, but i felt that he also had a last second intention of getting it in because he may have seen Schwarzer out of position at the last split second, and just shear luck he changed his footing and cause the goal. I certainly didn't think he expect to get it in.

Fluke or not it was a good goal.

by gerson on June 08, 2008 at 03:11 PM

Couldn't agree more. I been playing all my life and can't wait till its under 20 degrees, or I get overheated. Your using every muscle in your body, and going to get dehydrated no matter how cool it is. Much rather play with a giddy head, than a dehydrated body - and head. Probably should have played it in a location that simulates Iraqs climate, such as Darfur or Marakesh, not one more suited to Jamaican bobsled teams....

by wosup on June 08, 2008 at 03:22 PM

Yeah right Matt, the locals may not have been involved in the organsiation but the sniggering smirking UAE police did their best to cause a riot by blocking entrance to Australians who had tickets, on the basis that there was no more space, when the joint was half empty. There was one Australian FIFA rep there doing a sterling job to assist but it was a deliberate attempt to keep us out. Asian champions be damned. Iraqi should be expelled from FIFA. Further Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini and the whole inherently corrupt FIFA officialdom should be made to sit in the crud hole that we sat in last night to experience it. Frankly, it probably would have been better playing the game in Baghdad!

by Michael from Dubai on June 08, 2008 at 04:01 PM

I think Verbeek has to reconsider his tactics. He has been riding his luck in the last few matches but it can't go on forever.

We need to start blooding some youngsters, especially upfront. Why is 29 year old Chris Coyne making a debut??? Why not Spiranovic?

Triosi, Burns, Williams etc should be given an opportunity.

by Brad Smith on June 08, 2008 at 04:40 PM

Wake up woggeroos, you just
ain't good enough.

by Eero on June 08, 2008 at 04:48 PM

I too am an expat living in the UAE. I heard about the price difference prior to getting tickets earlier in the day. I was firts told not 20 Dh tickets available. I told the ticket guy rubbish I see a book full of them. I then told him to give me the 20 Dh tickets. He told me they were for Iraqi fans. I so great then I will be an iraqi fan to get in. Finally after some demanding I purchased the 20 Dh tickets for myself and 10 other friends and family. You need to insist in this country otherwise you will be taken for a ride.
Great account of the game I think I lost 5 kg sitting doing nothing and had my water bottles (5) confiscated at the gate. Go figure.........
An experience to remember

by dazza on June 08, 2008 at 04:59 PM

I have cancelled my plans to take my 8 year old son to Doha next week to watch the Soceroos. My whole family, and extended family went last night to Al Rashid Stadium. Eleven of us. If we hadn’t known about the ticket rorting beforehand then 7 unhappy kids and 4 adults would have driven the 140km back to where we live – fortunately having lived here for a while you get used to dealing with racism and blatant ‘us and them’ laws. We (thanks to Dazza) forced the ticket seller to sell us the 20 dirham tickets rather than the 350 dirham ones. Of course he (the ticket seller ) lied to us saying he had none left, forgetting that they were on the counter in front of him.
We had no support from officials. In fact a British official told us to ‘bite the bullet’ and pay the $100 equivalent. I wonder how much he paid to get in? Yes the local police didn’t want us to enter with valid tickets either, but fortunately someone could speak Arabic and again a large group of aussies – around 40 of us forced a policeman to escort us through another entrance…
This is how Iraq repays Australia for sending troops in to try and give them freedom. We have risked our sons and daughters lives for these folk and how do they repay us – charge us 2000% more for the same ticket. Bite the bullet! I think Australians have been bitten by enough bullets courtesy of Iraqis of late. We should not be asked to do it any more. Good on you Rudd. Get our troops home – there is obviously no gratitude at all from Iraq. You’d think as a good will gesture they would have let us in for free – as a thank you…but again that would be asking too much!
As for the game and conditions; the humidity was no worse than what you would get in Queensland on a balmy summer evening. It was only about 32 degrees and quite humid but not unbearably so. It was obviously too humid for Kewell who failed to try and chase down an easily gettable pass back to the Iraqi goalie in the first half. Holman was terrific – should have been on all match. Josh Kennedy needs to be told there are times not to use your head. He received the ball around 8 times up front and headed it away every time. He didn’t need boots as he didn’t kick the ball all the time he was on.
Australia need to be told that in order to win games you have to take shots at the goal. What is the point of playing in the midfield for 80 minutes? I cannot recall one unrushed real shot at goal, and this by the team that dominated play.
Anyway, I cannot risk the same unimpressive performance in Doha, and cannot justify spending the money to watch a team that is too timid to shoot. I also do not want to subject my son to the chance that he will again witness blatant racism and discrimination, all sanctioned by the FIFA governing body. This should be front page news, not some rant on a blog. Do any Australian officials have the guts to stand up to FIFA. I doubt it. In the words of another pain in the ass “Shame, Shame, Shame”.

by Shaby on June 08, 2008 at 05:19 PM

As one of the aussies at the match can vouch for the heat. We took advantage of no one collecting tickets so managed to see the game for free. was like sitting in a sauna. You had to be there to truely believe just what was going on. Most entertaining even if the game was not up to much

by sandy on June 08, 2008 at 05:25 PM

by sandy on June 08, 2008 at 05:25 PM

I used to cringe every time I heard an Australian official/player whine and moan about the conditions in arabic/asian countries, as far as humidity and heat is concerned.

That is, until I went to Dubai around this time last year.

The average heat during the day was 49-51 deg celsius. Thought we'd go for a dip to cool off one day, no such luck. The ocean was never cooler than 29-33 degrees. Anyone who goes to Dubai will note that expats probably spend 3% of their time outside (expats form around 80% of Dubai's population). Let's say that 3% is getting in/out of cars, malls and other complexes.

Point being, the remainding 20% are either locals who can't imagine life without 50 degree heat, the poorer folk living outside the town centre, or the imported "slaves" who work 28 hour days at $10 a day to build those million dollar complexes in heat that would surely soar above 50.

This is not a comment on Australia's performance, or a shot at Iraq. Just wanted to give a bit more insight! Also, good on the FFA for prepping the boys for the conditions this time round.

Love the blog, mate.

Peace

by Rich on June 08, 2008 at 05:37 PM

heat or no heat this is the region we now play in....whether it be asia or middle east we have to get used to it...training camps should be set up in this region during international breaks...if we learn to play in these conditions then we can play anywhere.....weather conditions aside we have not looked good at all since the world cup...against ghana we were shocking we reverted back to the old days of pumping it long and hoping for the best.....we seem to be lacking structure and cohesion...ok we went a goal down but that dosen;t mean we panic.... Kennedy came in and we all know his strengths are in the air however our service into the box was poor to say the least....to many crosses or i should say all the crosses were coming in from deep making it easier for defends to win the ball because they are facing it...what happened to getting to the byline and cutting sharp balls into the 6 yard box with power so we at least give the strikers a chance??? why wasn't bresciano playing??? we had know creativity out of midfield and he is our most creative player...we had a midfield stacked with defensive players and 1 striker..how are we supposed to create chances? if your going to play kewell in these sort of conditions as a lone striker you may as well not play him....scott would be a better option because he more of a runner and can hold up the ball...kewell is most dangerous running at goal so wouldn't bringing him on in the last 30 min be more effective as teams start to get tired? also in these conditions wouldn't playing a flat back 4 be a better option so that u get more out of carney and emmo going forward instead of forcing them to defend all the time because they need to support the back 3? its not going to get easier next round if we make it against teams like iran,japan,sth korea or saudia arabia....i think pim has alot of work to do...you can't score goals by stacking your midfield with wilkshire,grella , culina,vieri who are all grafters and defense minded....you need at least 2 players that can run at defenders or turn players around the edge of the box??? bresciano and carle should be added into the midfield next game and a back four so carney and emmo can support the strikers and get crosses into the box from the right positions....

by alex on June 08, 2008 at 05:47 PM

Australia does not have an "up front" striker, Viduka, in his prime could play that role. Single strikers do not win matches and playing a person, who is not a natural striker, in that position is useless. No one in the current Australian squad is an out and out striker. Australia's strength is the ability to control the midfield and quickly move up, with three or four players supporting. At the same time, they are as deft moving back to defend ! You have to play to your strengths and weaknesses! The strategy most countries use, to qualify, is to win your home games, get at least two draws away, and you should qualify!

The conditions in Dubai were bad, remember our best players are based in Europe ! Against Qatar, they will be better conditioned !

The goal against Australia... I think it was a miss kick, it ballooned into the air, the wind took it, and then it suddenly dropped, remember it hit the underneath of the bar, and went in... .

Playing Asian teams is all new to the Australian players, as the majority play in Europe. In the World cup, they will play mainly European teams !

A draw against Qatar and a win at home against China, should see us qualify. That is what it is all about, qualifying!

by ian bates on June 08, 2008 at 06:46 PM

Why dont we do what we usually do and claim we were robbed. Im sure an Iraqi player dived and got the penalty then they kept possesion for the next 10 minutes and thats when they scored. yes, we were robbed and we should of won but the ref was paid off by the iraqis. We were robbed...lol

by chris on June 08, 2008 at 07:44 PM

the way the Iraqi Football Federation treated the Socceroos and our fans is an absolute disgrace. I hope they don't qualify. Maybe this is pay back for invading their country............

by Ben Johns on June 08, 2008 at 10:46 PM

Australia's best football journalist.

by Dan on June 08, 2008 at 11:58 PM

well done on drowning out the call to prayer. very sensitive.

by Paul on June 09, 2008 at 12:31 AM

To "citizen" you are an idiot. Did you watch the game? Brett Holman should have brought us level and Josh Kennedy could have put us up more than once. We had the chances we just didnt put them away. As for saying our boys should ''man up'' about the conditions you do realise THEY didnt write this article and tackled the conditions head on if anything we came out the end looking much fitter. Their nation may be struggling but they are asian champions they have quality players in quality leagues they arnt practising on the streets of Iraq. I think thats everything you had a good whinge about and if your not a fan stay off a football blog go back to your "international" games like rugby and cricket. Idiot.

by socceroos2010 on June 09, 2008 at 02:36 AM

conditions were shocking i was at the match luckily in a airconditioned media box however decided to go outside and stand amongst the group of aussies, u couldnt believe, people were drenched, I dont understand the marketing hype about DUBAI theres no way we have that type of humidity and head in oz... the stadium was in appaling condition, i cant believe all the bling bling in dubai and they got this shocking stadium , like everything else in this place half constructed toilets with no lights and no actual toilet i was gestered to piss on the floor what else could u do, avergae lights, shocking parking, and they wanted to charge 100usd for ticket what a rort ( lucky i was vip ) iraq played well aussies were brave but what a dunce of a venue and poor organisation and communication re the game,, !

by Mackaveli on June 09, 2008 at 04:35 AM

We were robbed. If you watch the game closely, an Iraqi did a blatant dive about 10 minutes before the goal they scored and we didnt get the decision. Im sick to death of the treatment Australia gets when it comes to soccer. We were robbed of a spot in the 2006 FIFA World cup final because of a dodgy call in that game against Italy, we were robbed against the Japanese in the Asian cup, and we were robbed against Iraq on the weekend. In the last 10 minutes the Iraqis were cheating by using go slow tactics and the ref didnt do nothing. Iraq may have won, but they won only because they cheated !!!

by James on June 09, 2008 at 05:17 PM

The Sun-Herald

Matthew Hall

My Night In A Baghdad Disco

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