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March 7, 2009 By Philip Forgit BAGHDAD, Iraq Raad Hassan’s feet handle the soccer ball as a jug- gler might with his hands. A quick movement of the foot and the ball is in the air, Raad heading it to his friend Sayf Juwad. Both are members of a youth team, Dynamo Egelat in the Kadamiyah hayy or district of Baghdad. The field they play on is in poor condition but, like progress in Iraq, that is relative. The field, once littered with garbage, strewn with mounds of rubble, is now a level field of grass, albeit parched. The lockers rooms, filled with the stench of urine and trash, sport a fresh coat of paint. As for security, the boys acknowledge that it has improved in the last year, but that too is relative as blocks away, just days before, Shia pilgrims to the Kadamiyah Shrine were murdered by a suicide bomber. Still, this field is progress and the presence of young men playing soccer, who a year ago may have stayed indoors or worse, dug holes for IEDs or spotted for the Jaiysh Al Mahdi militia, is evident. In Baghdad, more than $207,000 of American recon- struction money has renovated several fields. As a tenta- tive peace begins to break out, so too do soccer matches. At the Kadamiyah Sports Club in the Kadamiyah hayy, the Basra Originals and the Kadamiyah Sons of Mousa play a friendly game. A semi-professional league in the second tier of soc- cer in Iraq, they play a 20-game season. The winners of each half-season playing one another for the title. The field is in better condition than Kadamiyah‘s. The U.S. Army is here, not for the game, but to check on Improvised Rocket Assisted Mortar threats. These are poor-man rocket launchers. Three rockets fell just short of a U.S. Army compound three days before. The field is suspected as the launch site, but the athletic director has seen nothing. The sprawling athletic complex instead echoes the stirring of normalcy in Baghdad as workers build a vol- leyball court in one section. In another, waiters ready an outdoor restaurant overlooking the various fields, setting out plastic chairs and tables and turning on brightly colored patio lights for the young couples who will gather for dates and the men who will come to argue sports and smoke the hooka. Southwest of Kadamiyah, in the Kharkh hayy, a game played between a Rhamaniyah all-hayy team and one from Kharkh showcases an integrated squad of Sunni and Shia boys. The game is played in the shadow of the Zaura Stadium and its crumbling façade. On the main field, a professional team, Melab al- Zaura is playing a friendly against a National Police team. The boys from Kharkh and Rhamaniyah on the practice field next to the stadium dream of playing for Zaura or any of the 24 teams in the top league in Iraq, but today they are here because of CPT Guillory of U.S. Army 442 Forward Support Company, Golf Troop and Operation Soccer Jersey(OSJ). His parents, and businesses like Yanceys’ Cherished Memories, Flowers and Gifts in the captain’s hometown of De Soto, Missouri have bought over 200 jerseys and 60 soccer balls to outfit the twenty teams in these hayys. The event plays as metaphor for the improving situation in Baghdad. Officials demonstrate Iraqi hos- pitality distributing sodas and cakes. CPT Guillory and De Soto, Missouri show the compassion of Americans and their soldiers. Security is tight, the field ringed with American and Iraqi Army and Police. Dignitaries make their speeches lauding the progress. Meanwhile, several soldiers of the Iraqi Army engage in the culture of corruption that now threatens Iraq as much as terrorism, stealing boxes of jerseys and balls to load on to their transports. American troops “liberate” the boxes in time to be distributed. Despite this, Operation Soccer Jersey is a success with Kharkh winning 1-0 and Sunni and Shia playing together without serious penalty. Omar, a Sunni, says, “We are friends; We are Sunni and Shia. We play together, there is no difference between us.” Muntadar, a Shia chimes in, “We are friends, we are brothers. Makoo mushkela (no problem)! Muhammad, a Shia says that his parents let him play with his friends because nobody fights. These three are from Ramaniyah. When asked about security they said it improved in the last year but before, “at the time of the Haifa Street War, we didn’t go out, we just stayed inside.” Two and three years ago, Haifa Street was an open air morgue, bodies lay in the street. Buildings bare the pock marked evidence of street to street fighting between militias. Ayad credits the relative peace in his Kharkh hayy to the Iraqi Army and cooperation by the residents. When asked, their prediction for Iraq’s future, they were hopeful, “for the best”. At the end of the game, a group of boys, gathered at the fence, do as most Iraqi children do when they see Americans — beg, with the plaintive cry of…”Mister? Mister?” Among the boys, is one that is startling in appear- ance, carrying in his features a recessive gene of the last Western occupation of Iraq, that of the British Empire. The boy with flaming orange hair and freckles sticks out in a crowd of Iraqi boys who call him “English”. He smiles, asks me to take his picture and says, “Mister, Mister, Gimme football.” The beautiful game Soccer is booming in Iraq thanks to American influence Photos by Philip Forgit Soccer players Tariq (left), Muntadar, Omar, have benefitted from the growth of youth soccer. IRAQI VOICES Former Rawls Byrd Elementary School teacher Philip Forgit is embedded with U.S. troops in Iraq, filming how the war has affected the Iraqi people. Fourth in a series. A boy nicknamed “English,” due to his red hair and freckles, has adopted qualities of Americans. Philip Forgit Iraquis have embraced the sport of soccer, thanks in large part to Operation Soccery Jersey, which brought 200 jerseys and 60 soccer balls to the area.
