{"id":225438,"date":"2026-06-23T02:06:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T02:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/225438\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T02:06:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T02:06:10","slug":"france-tops-iraq-in-philadelphias-3rd-fifa-world-cup-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/225438\/","title":{"rendered":"France tops Iraq in Philadelphia’s 3rd FIFA World Cup game"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story originally appeared on\u00a0WHYY\u2019s Billy Penn<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

Philly\u2019s third FIFA World Cup game set up another David versus Goliath matchup,\u00a0like Brazil against Haiti<\/a>\u00a0was on Friday. France has won the World Cup twice, in 1998 and 2018, and entered the tournament as one of the favorites. Iraq had only made one World Cup before this year\u2019s,\u00a0back in 1986<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

Like Brazil versus Haiti, the upset wasn\u2019t on the cards. France won 3-0 in front of a sellout crowd during a delay-causing summer downpour to book a place in the knockout rounds. Captain and all-time leading goalscorer Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 made his 100th appearance for Les Bleus and scored twice.\n<\/p>\n

Saif Algburi, the owner of\u00a0Crispy Wonders Baghdad Restaurant<\/a>\u00a0in Northeast Philadelphia, laid out his plan Monday.\n<\/p>\n

He planned to go to Philly\u2019s only Iraqi restaurant early to make sure everything was running properly and his employees didn\u2019t need anything. He then will make sure all the TV\u2019s are set to play Iraq\u2019s\u00a0FIFA World Cup 2026<\/a>\u00a0game against France, then he and his family will head down to Philadelphia Stadium for the game.\n <\/p>\n

All the while he was hoping the Lions of Mesopotamia could pull off one of the biggest upsets in the tournament\u2019s history.\n<\/p>\n

The day before the game, the city was treated to its third\u00a0gathering of soccer fans in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art<\/a>. This time it was fans of both teams celebrating together.\n<\/p>\n

After the site-sharing and global camaraderie though, some Iraq fans tried to put France under the Rocky Statue curse by throwing a France jersey around the Rocky statue\u2019s neck.\n<\/p>\n

For an Iraq team still searching for its first-ever World Cup win, or draw, a curse could have helped the uphill battle of upsetting France.<\/p>\n

\u201cI asked if we could play three goalkeepers, but they said no,\u201d Iraq coach Graham Arnold joked in Sunday\u2019s press conference.\n<\/p>\n

On the other hand, if French coach Didier Deschamps was allowed to play every French player he thought deserved to start, he would have 20 players on the field instead of 11. He did not divulge which six players in his squad would remain on the bench though.\n<\/p>\n

Up in Northeast Philly, Crispy Wonders was having one of its busiest weekends ever. Algburi opened the restaurant two years ago to provide authentic home food for the Iraqi community in the area. He said that this week, the restaurant has been visited by Iraqi soccer fans from all over the continent. Some told him they were skipping work for this game.\n<\/p>\n

Jamal Aldin travelled in from Detroit with his brother who lives in Canada and a group from other parts of Michigan. He said the group searched for a place to eat on Google and Philly\u2019s only Iraqi restaurant came up.\n<\/p>\n

He said that the Iraq national team\u2019s World Cup campaign was helping to unify all Iraqis, whatever their politics, religious sects or ethnic backgrounds.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly when Iraq played in the qualification, the Iraqi people were united and they are united in every match they are playing now,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n

Iraq were the very last team to qualify for the World Cup, competing in March\u2019s World Cup 2026 Playoff Tournament in Guadalupe, Mexico. The team took on Bolivia on March 31\u00a0and won 2-1<\/a>. Many players on the team had to make\u00a0a long three-day journey from Baghdad to Mexico<\/a>, including an overland crossing into Jordan, to get to that game, due to the Iran war.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n