An interesting point in Why England Lose on Penalties is that the two countries that most overperform in football are Denmark and Iraq. Here is why Iraq produces so much talent for such a small and impoverished country.



That picture is taken in a refugee camp within artillery range of Mosul that houses about 2500 people. The camp is two and a half years old and the field was refurbished for the first time two months ago. Organised football is played from 8am to 10pm daily and they have 48 mens teams, from under 12s to seniors and 4 womens teams who are looking for opponents.

Every village of about 1000 or more has a field like this and sends representative teams to play in larger towns that have full sized artificial pitches. The only way to play on a full-sized pitch is to make the representative sides, until such time the Iraqi kids only play street football and SSG. This is a huge incentive for these kids, almost an obsession, and from a young age it breeds a mindset that winning is more important than player development. Interesting to compare and contrast with FFA introducing SSG as part of the national curriculum a few years back.

It produces players with wonderful touch but the goalkeepers are universally shit, comically so.