1993 Japan v Iraq football match

Six nations (Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, and North Korea) competed in the final round of Asian zone qualifying for two places in the 1994 World Cup finals in the United States. The six finalists played each other in Doha, Qatar in a round robin format of matches held between 15 and 28 October 1993. After four rounds of matches and with one match remaining for each team, the standings looked as follows.

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
Japan	5	4	2	1	1	5	2	3
Saudi Arabia	5	4	1	3	0	4	3	1
South Korea	4	4	1	2	1	6	4	2
Iraq	4	4	1	2	1	7	7	0
Iran	4	4	2	0	2	5	7	-2
North Korea	2	4	1	0	3	5	9	-4

(Win = 2 points, draw = 1 point, loss = 0 points; tie broken by goal difference)

In the 4th round of matches, Japan defeated South Korea 1-0 taking first place in the standings going into the final match. Although just one point separated the 1st and 5th spots and only North Korea had been eliminated, Japan would have qualified for the finals with a win regardless of any other results. Japan still would have qualified with a draw as long as either South Korea or Saudi Arabia failed to win its last match and Iran did not defeat Saudi Arabia by more than four goals.

The match was held on 28 October 1993, simultaneously with the other 5th round matches, South Korea versus North Korea and Saudi Arabia versus Iran, held in other venues in Doha.

Japan took the lead first on a first half goal by Kazuyoshi Miura, but Iraq equalized just prior to half time. Japan again took the lead with a goal from Masashi Nakayama. The 2-1 score stood as the match approached the 90th minute.

The matches at the other venues had ended earlier, with South Korea beating North Korea 3-0 and Saudi Arabia beating Iran 4-3. This meant Japan would have to hold onto the score in order to qualify for the World Cup, the combination of results eliminating South Korea.

However, Japan gave the ball up to Iraq, and just after the match entered stoppage time, Jaffar Omran Salman of Iraq scored a goal from a corner kick, tying the score at 2-2. The referee blew the final whistle and finished the match moments after this, eliminating both teams.

Match details

28 October 1993
16:15 UTC+3

Japan	2 – 2	Iraq
Miura  5' Nakayama  69'	(FIFA Report)	Radhi  54' Omran  90+1'

Al-Ahly Stadium, Doha

Attendance: 4,000

Referee: Serge Muhmenthaler (Switzerland)

Japan

Iraq

Japan: GK 1 Shigetatsu Matsunaga  84' LB 3 Toshinobu Katsuya  10' RB 4 Takumi Horiike CB 5 Tetsuji Hashiratani (c) CB 7 Masami Ihara MF 10 Ruy Ramos MF 15 Mitsunori Yoshida MF 17 Hajime Moriyasu FW 11 Kazuyoshi Miura FW 12 Kenta Hasegawa  59' FW 16 Masashi Nakayama  80' Substitutes:   8 Masahiro Fukuda  59'   9 Nobuhiro Takeda  80' Manager: Hans Ooft

Iraq: GK 21 Ibrahim Salim DF 2 Samir Kadhim DF 3 Saad Abdul-Hamed  80' DF 4 Radhi Shenaishil DF 14 Salim Hussein MF 18 Munthir Khalaf MF 12 Mohammed Jassim  HT' MF 22 Bassam Raouf  71' FW 8 Ahmad Radhi (c)  23' FW 9 Alaa Kadhim FW 17 Laith Hussein Substitutes:   5 Abdul-Jabar Hashim  71'   16 Jaffar Omran  HT' Manager: Ammo Baba

After the final round of matches, the standings looked as follows:

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
Saudi Arabia	7	5	2	3	0	8	6	2
South Korea	6	5	2	2	1	9	4	5
Japan	6	5	2	2	1	7	4	3
Iraq	5	5	1	3	1	9	9	0
Iran	4	5	2	0	3	8	11	-3
North Korea	2	5	1	0	4	5	12	-7

Saudi Arabia took first place with its 4-3 victory over Iran. Japan and South Korea were even on points, but South Korea held the goal difference advantage after the 3-goal victory over North Korea, and won the tiebreaker.

During the final round of the Asian qualifiers, South Korea won the match against Iran (3-0), but tied in subsequent matches against Iraq (2-2) and Saudi Arabia (1-1), and lost a match against Japan (0-1). Had Japan won this match against Iraq, South Korea would have been disqualified even if they won the match against North Korea held on the same day. But as Japan and Iraq tied in the last minute, Japan was disqualified instead, and South Korea was qualified, making the South Korean media naming the result a miracle.

Manager Marius Johan Ooft was fired weeks after the match, and the elimination from the tournament effectively ended World Cup aspirations for the majority of the team, most notably the midfield general Ruy Ramos. Only two Japanese players who appeared in the match, Nakayama and Masami Ihara, would go on to appear in Japan's 1998 FIFA World Cup squad.

However, the disheartening result would serve as an inspiration in future World Cup qualification campaigns, and to this day, Doha no higeki is invoked by the Japanese media and fans.

Japan, after missing the 1994 edition, eventually qualified for 1998 FIFA World Cup, before hosting the 2002 FIFA World Cup automatically along with their rivals South Korea. The South Koreans dramatically beat Portugal, Italy and Spain and ended in 4th place while Japan were eliminated in the Round of 16. Both teams lost to Turkey. It was the first time ever for both teams to reach the knockout phase.

They also qualified for every single FIFA World Cup edition since then (up to 2018), reaching the Round of 16 in 2010 and 2018, only to be eliminated in dramatic fashion both times: losing to Paraguay in 2010 in the penalty shoot-out and to Belgium in 2018 by 3-2 after conceding in the fourth minute of the stoppage time after the Belgians set up a counter-attack following a Japanese corner kick. Also in that match, Japan was winning by 2-0 until the 69th minute.[1]

For Iraq, this failure is just one part of the much larger World Cup drought. In comparison to increasing success of the Japanese side, Iraq has repeatedly missed the opportunity to qualify for every World Cup, and, as for the recent 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification, Iraq had only qualified for the 1986 edition. In addition, sectarian conflicts and internal turmoil have prevented Iraq from achieving a greater status in Asian football. Since this game as well, Iraq has never beaten Japan in a competitive match, be it friendlies or major competitions since 1982, the last time Iraq won. Iraq also suffered a losing streak to Japan since this game, starting with a 1–4 defeat in 2000 AFC Asian Cup (which was Japan's first win over Iraq), until 2017 when Iraq drew Japan 1–1 to end the country's losing streak.[2]

• Iraqi Football Website
• History of Iraq National Team
• Agony amid drama in Doha on FIFA.com
• The Rising Sun Soccer News: Japanese National Team History: The Oft Era