"Their news is the only good message to me every day when I am tired of gruesome daily news of killing and opaque future of my poor, beautiful country," said 24-year-old shop owner Ali Usama.
Usama was referring to Iraq's national soccer players and their performance which may be one of few cheering topics in the country shattered by years of war and violence.
In the Asian Cup in July, the Iraqi national team came out to be the real "weapons of mass destruction", fought all the way to the championship and sent shock waves across the world.
The victory sent Iraqis to the streets on a celebrating spree, although they were well aware that any public gathering could be targeted by suicide or car bombers.
Now, the Iraqi Olympic soccer team is rolling forward in the qualifying competition for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Its leading position in its group is once again shedding the light of hope over the Iraqis overshadowed by the clouds of explosions.
"I think they can make it and they can make people happy again. I know people here are keen to follow their news. They are the only hope for the Iraqis because we are really feeling that anything else, including those politicians, are hopeless," Usama said.
In the eyes of the Iraqis, the soccer players are nothing short of the heroes who are capable of salvaging the war-torn and emotionally split nation.
"They have a motive. Our people is living in a horrible situation and I believe our players feel the pain of their people and play like someone who struggle to survive," said 19-year-old Fawaz Hussein, a student of the Baghdad University. "The pictures of the daily killing of their people and the shadowing partition of their country would push them to do their best, as if they are doing their part to save their loved country."
Car bombs and stray bullets could not keep Hussein daunted. The soccer buff often ventured out to a nearby school for a savoring of the game.
"The guards of the school do not prevent us from playing, but they lock the door of the school, so we jump over the fence and play despite the danger, like an explosion or gunfire. But we have to play or we would die from hiding inside our homes," he added.
Quteiba Abdul-Kareem, 28, a soccer player of a local team and a coach in a secondary school, said the game represents "peace, love and brotherhood" to him.
"When Iraq's soccer team defeated Saudi Arabia 1-0 , granting the war-torn country the Asian Cup, families, friends and neighbors poured into the streets while guns were firing into the air and the Iraqi flags were waving on pickup trucks as horns were sounding," he said. "Crowds from different neighborhoods of Baghdad were gathering to celebrate their team's winning, putting all their differences aside and embracing peace and love."
Kareem said it was "resolution, endurance and patience" as well as the prayer of the Iraqis that helped the team to hit the summit despite the chaos in the country.
Nevertheless, the volatile domestic situation remains a great concern for his career. He expressed the frustration that he could not fulfill any success in soccer unless he could play abroad.
Sportsmen here are the major targets of the extremists who accuse them of betraying Islamic doctrines.
In July, 13 of the 15 Iraqi taekwondo team members were found cruelly killed 13 months after their abduction.
Gunmen broke into a conference center on July 15 last year, kidnapping over 30 people there at a sports meeting. Chairman of Iraq's Olympic Committee, Ahmed al-Hijiya, as well as the president of the taekwondo federation were among the victims of the raid in broad daylight and remain missing as of today.
As for the Iraqi soccer players, they still can not train and play at home.
"We used to describe them like someone who hold his bleeding wound and fight to the end," Hussein said.
Source: Xinhua
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