Despite all the controversy and fighting in Syria, the national football team is thriving in their World Cup qualifying group and lie one point off the play off position and two points behind automatic qualification to the World Cup after a historic win over China and draws with Korea and Iran.
The team got a very important win against Uzbekistan on Thursday which was goalless until the 91st minute until Omar Kharbin tucked away a paneka penalty and the few fans that were there went wild.
The game was played in Malaysia’s Hang Jebat stadium not in Syria for safety reasons, and because they have to play there, they have to travel 4,500 miles for supposed home games.
Syria’s coach, Ayman Hakeem, fell into tears of happiness, pride and disbelief after their win over Uzbekistan. Hakeem has managed Syria since September, 2010.
The team’s next task is to defeat Korea, which will be hard because Korea are a good team and have some top Premier League players.