Iraq continue winning ways in men"s Olympic soccer
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-08-16 09:06

Iraq's Olympic soccer team proved its opening victory was no fluke.

Iraq defeated Costa Rica 2-0 Sunday night to advance to the tournament quarter-finals in a game where the boisterous crowd provided atmosphere but marred the occasion by running onto the field of play.

Hawar Mulla Mohammed sent bouncing ball into the net from 18 yards out in the 67th minute to put Iraq ahead and send the crowd into a frenzy. Mulla jubilantly sprinted around the endline and up the sideline where he was mobbed by his teammates.

Within moments, a couple of Iraqi fans jumped out of the crowd to join the celebration. A few more followed and very quickly there were approximately two dozen fans running around the field and the area surrounding it.

Police and security personnel were at first a bit slow to respond. They tried to corral the intruders, several of whom scurried back to the wall to climb back into the stands. At least one fan was taken away by police.

It took about three minutes for the field to clear of fans and debris. Tahitian referee Charles Ariiotima pitched in, tossing a few bottles away from the area in front of the Costa Rican goal.

It didn't take long for the fans to come back.

Shortly after the ensuing kickoff, Mohammed took the ball down the left side and crossed it to Mahdi Karim, who headed it in. Again, a handful of fans ran onto the field, and this time, they weren't mostly relegated to the periphery.

One bounded around the Costa Rican goal and threw his Iraqi flag into the net. Another ran to midfield and hugged an Iraqi player. One heavyset spectator lumbered across the field toward the Iraqi technical area and into a cluster of people that included two players, a uniformed officer and another fan.

After another short delay the game resumed.

The referee added six minutes of extra time on to the end of the second half, mostly to make up for time lost by the field invasions. After the second Iraq goal, there was an increased uniformed presence near the stands on either sideline, where most of the 12,153 fans were seated.

After the final whistle, Iraqi players linked arms and jogged toward their adoring throng. As the players applauded the fans for their support, a few more fans hopped the wall and tried to break through the line of officers.

Some succeeded and sprinted to the centre circle to embrace Iraqi players.

The majority of the pro-Iraq crowd was well behaved. Early in the game, they pointed out and derided a fan that threw something onto the field. Before opening kickoff, many were chanting, whistling and waving flags while wearing T-shirts with "IRAQ" on the back.

Iraq stunned Portugal 4-2 in its first game in the Olympics. It leads the group with six points and is in the quarter-finals regardless of its result in its final group game against Morocco in Patras on Aug. 18. Costa Rica plays Portugal in its final group game the same day in Iraklion and needs to win to make the quarter-finals. Portugal only needs a draw.

In other action Sunday, Ghana stunned Paraguay with two goals in the final nine minutes for a 2-1 victory.

The victory moved Ghana into a tie for first place with Italy in its qualifying group. Ghana tied Italy 2-2 in its first game and will wrap up group play against Japan on Wednesday.

Paraguay, which beat Japan 4-3 in its opener, will have its hopes hinge on its final group game against Italy.

The game was played before a nearly empty stadium, with the only paying fans sitting in the sections behind the two benches. The Ghanaians chanted and sang the entire match, giving some atmosphere to a crowd that numbered 1,119 among 26,200 seats.

Alberto Gilardino scored twice as Italy beat Japan 3-2 in a thriller to revive its chances of winning the gold medal for the first time in 68 years.

The result eliminated the Japanese who had also lost 4-3 to Paraguay in another entertaining game and Masakuni Yamamoto's team, who had some 2,000 blue-shirted followers in the stadium, made many friends with their enterprising soccer.

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