Well done, Iraq

This weekend, Iraq’s national soccer team won the Asian Cup, largely due to the efforts of their three-man strike team of one Sunni, one Shiite and one Kurd.

People of all three sects set aside their conflict and celebrated together as brothers, if only for a short time.

The next time I’m obsessing about soccer when talking to Americans and they make some disparaging comment about the relevance of the sport, I will have something to point to.

The NBA doesn’t do this. The Super Bowl doesn’t do this. Even the World Series doesn’t do this.

So congratulations to the Iraqi team for an achievement on the pitch which reverberates well outside the stadium.