伊拉克国家队主教练格雷厄姆·阿诺德：“我们有能力做出震惊世界的壮举。”
澳大利亚队克服了战争、50摄氏度高温和季后赛的重重困难，最终时隔40年再次捧起世界杯冠军奖杯。历时28个月，21场比赛，四轮淘汰赛，117分钟的点球绝杀，以及一场附加赛。一位教练被困在迪拜，眼睁睁看着战争在海面上爆发，炸弹震动着一切。球队先是被困在巴格达，随后又被困在约旦，导弹在他们周围呼啸而过。这是一场仓促而至的9000英里征程……
Australian has had to contend with war, 50C heat and playoffs to steer country to a first World Cup in 40 years
Twenty-eight months, 21 games, four rounds, a 117th-minute penalty and a playoff. A coach stuck in Dubai where he watches war start over the water, bombs shaking everything. A team trapped in Baghdad first and Jordan next, missiles flying around them. A scrambled 9,000-mile trip to Mexico where it all rests on one night, the very last country to make it. And, when they do finally land, the hero whose goal took them there is held up by the FBI and the man whose photographs are due to document history is turned back. There may never have been a journey to a World Cup quite like Iraq’s.
“It’s been an experience,” Graham Arnold says. And the 62-year-old Australian coach who led them through it all – the “football nut” who is their other “dad” and gets mobbed everywhere he goes – is adamant that it’s not over yet. “Now it’s time to show the world what we’ve got.” Listening to him, you can’t help but believe it. Not least because he did when no one else would.
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