Peace through Football: how the Syrian national team gave a war-torn country something to hope for

Sports Nilgun Salim
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Today, when you say ‘Syria’, almost everyone is automatically thinking about war, terror, immigrants and, let’s just face it: death.

But, what many people fail to see/recognize is the fact that Syria is also able to offer life, hope and dedication – all these fascinating aspects can be encountered as soon as you watch the country’s national football team doing its thing on the field.

On Tuesday, 10^th October 2017, the world has witnessed a new demonstration of dedication and ambition at the Sydney Olympic Park in Australia

Before the 120-minutes football game officially came to an end, Syria opened the score in the 6^th minute, forcing the ‘Kangaroos’ to come back with a bang after less than eight minutes of Syrian glory.

From that moment on, the game became kind of ‘frozen’

Even though, the Syrians have defended themselves perfectly and leaded the historic confrontation until overtime, Al Mawas was forced to leave the pitch.

That was the moment when Australia took full advantage of the situation, with Cahill scoring again, assuring the qualification once and for all.

However, in the 120 + 2, Cahill and his teammates have experienced some mixed feelings with Al Soma hitting the bar from a free kick.

Although their path towards the final Playoff has been somehow blocked, what Ayman Al Hakeem has done for all Syrians out there during the preliminaries was incredible.

Syria’s national team has not played a home game on their motherland since 2010

These last few preliminaries, including the match against Australia from the playoff tournament, proved one way or another that Syria is invincible, scoring two wins and four draws.

These guys who form Syria’s national football team originate from a state that has only experienced terror and human degradation during the last six years.

The direct and indirect casualties generated show no less than 470,000 victims.

Overall, 11.5% of the country’s population has been killed or injured since the beginning of the conflict in March 2011.

The outstanding results scored by these heroes, show once again, that something that some of us label as insignificant such as football, can temporarily alleviate the pain of people, and what the Syrian national has done lately confirms that with determination and strength, you can definitely make a change.