The Iraqi Super Cup Was Ridiculously Nutty

Iraqi soccer doesn’t exactly get a lot of exposure in the English-speaking world, but Friday’s Iraqi Super Cup between Baghdad rivals Al-Zawraa and Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya in Karbala was absurdly ludicrous and ludicrously absurd. It was a match you had to see to believe. 

Most readers will probably never have heard of Al-Zawraa and Al-Jawiya so we’ll spare you the details and get right to the silliness. 

The first goal of the match was scored in the 14th minute by Al-Jawiya’s Emad Mohsin. He was aided by some unusual fore-checking from a teammate, who rammed into the goalie and knocked him down, allowing Mohsin to score on an empty net. No foul was called. The goal stood. 

Perhaps the ref thought the player was pushed into the goalie and decided to keep his whistle in his pocket, but the blue half of the stadium gave no shits because they had an early goal. 

The score remained 1-0 until the final seconds of the match. In the fifth of five minutes of stoppage time, Ali Rehema scored on a ridiculous looping header from an acute angle to equalize for Al-Zawraa. 

To score from that spot on the field with your feet would be impressive. Doing so with your head in the dying minutes of a cup final? Bravo. You gotta feel bad for that corner flag though, which was somehow sent flying during the revelries after the goal. 

The match proceeded straight to a shootout after regulation with no extra time. The penalty kicks didn’t disappoint.

Karma probably isn’t real because it has no basis in physics, but if it is, it manifested in the shootout. Al-Jawiya, which only scored via the aforementioned bit of questionable officiating, missed all three of its spot kicks while Al-Zawraa made all three of its shots. 

It was the quickest possible end to a shootout and the fans on both sides went bonkers, as they apparently care more about preseason cups than they do in England. During the celebrations, the Al-Zawraa players had to dodge water bottles thrown onto the pitch. 

The Iraqi Super Cup was the start to the 2017-18 season in Iraq. Hopefully the rest of the campaign is just as entertaining, as long as they have plenty of replacement corner flags.