Iraq's armies of war-weary soccer fans are looking forward to tomorrow's Asian Cup final with a mixture of hope and fear.
Another victory for their heroic team of Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish players would -- at least temporarily -- unite their divided country in jubilation.
But the scenes of joy triggered by Wednesday's semi-final victory provoked a vicious response from the insurgents battling to tear Iraqi society apart.
Two car bombs ripped through the crowds celebrating the victory, killing at least 51 people and wounding more than 126.
Nevertheless, for some brave fans the risk of more violence tomorrow simply makes it all the more important to fearlessly celebrate Iraqi unity.
"We will defy death and hold Iraq's flag high in order to tell the killers and the politicians we are united," Abdul-Hussein Khazal Obeid said.
"If we win the soccer we will take to the streets even if the earth is trembling from explosions," the 28-year-old Shiite teacher declared.
Others will be more cautious, however.
"If we win on Sunday my friends and I will stay inside to celebrate," said Mateen Omar Khorsheed, an amateur sportsman from Iraq's Turkoman minority.
"What happened in Baghdad is a serious precedent. Those fans did not take to the streets in the name of their sects, but because they are Iraqis," he said.
"This was a new step for these gangs that seek to kill Iraqis and destroy their smiles," he warned from the northern city of Kirkuk.
Since US-led forces overthrew late Iraqi president Saddam Hussein in March 2003 the country has slipped into a chaotic turf war between rival armed factions.
Sectarian and ethnic attacks by extremist groups such as al-Qaeda's Iraqi affiliate have driven a wedge between Sunnis and Shiites, Arabs and Kurds.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's coalition government is riven by internal rivalries which have also contributed to a wave of assassinations.
Against this backdrop, the national soccer team carries the rare honor of commanding support from across the country's fractured society.
Its heroes have not been spared by the war -- they train in exile in Jordan or on pitches in the relative safety of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region.
After Wednesday's match, players revealed that almost all have lost family members to the violence but remain proud to represent their country.
"Four days before we came to Bangkok my wife's brother died and my teammate Hawar Mohammed also lost his step-mother," goalkeeper Noor Sabri said.
"We know we are struggling inside Iraq and we are struggling on the playing field because it is a very modest thing we can give to our people," Sabri said.
"We have to struggle, we have to show them that we are sharing all that we are achieving here, but this is historic for soccer in our country," he said.
For Sabri and his teammates their progress in Kuala Lumpur may have been a modest victory, but back home they have become the heroes of a nation.
"Soccer players did what politicians failed to do -- they pleased us so much," said Mohamed Al-Bajari, a 45-year-old professor at Basra University.
"It is the first happy occasion for all Iraqis from the utmost north to the deepest south -- be they Shiites, Sunnis, Kurds or Christians," he said.
On Wednesday the joy of the mainly Shiite crowds in Basra and Baghdad was mirrored even in the staunchly Sunni city of Tikrit, Saddam's hometown.
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