BAGHDAD — Iraq’s national soccer team played Syria on the greenest patch of grass in Baghdad the other night, under bright lights that mostly stayed lighted, before tens of thousands of Iraqis cheering on their own and the Syrians, too.

The fans roared when the Syrian team emerged from its dressing room, and roared again after it scored a goal in the second half.

“Syria, Syria remains in our heart!” was one chant.

“Bashar, Bashar remains in our heart!” was another.

Up high in a glass-enclosed suite, where ministers, members of Parliament and their well-connected hangers-on took in the game, two Syrian men in the front row had draped themselves in the flag of their embattled country and were holding placards of their president, Bashar al-Assad.