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Hong Kong, China | AFP | A video in which a TV commentator broke down in tears while celebrating Syria’s priceless World Cup qualifying equaliser against Iran has gone viral, racking up more than one million views online.
When Omar Al Soma scored in the 93rd minute, earning Syria a 2-2 draw and a place in the Asian play-offs for Russia 2018, the commentator was overcome with emotion as he shouted excitedly for two minutes.
“The second goal for our national team! The second goal for our national team! Who scored?! Soma! It had to be Soma! It had to be Soma!” he said, according to a translation by Twitter user Mohamed Osama, who posted footage of the incident.
“Allah Soma! The equalising goal! The equalising goal! Pardon me! I’ve lost it! No one can stop them!”
The repeated shouts of “Allah!”, which echoed the famous “Goooooal” celebrations of Brazilian TV, finally died down as the commentator began to sob.
Syrian commentator breaks into tears after Omar Al-Somah’s historic goal against Iran. Goosebumps. pic.twitter.com/MSUC2IBCD0
— Mohamed Osama (@_DrOsama) September 5, 2017
The tweet from Osama (@_DrOsama) drew 1.2 million views and half-a-million responses such as shares and likes, while footage on YouTube was also seen hundreds of thousands of times.
War-torn Syria, who have never reached the World Cup, now go into a two-legged series with Australia, with the winner reaching a play-off against a team from the CONCACAF region.
