DOHA, Qatar
The American and Iranian soccer teams are the only ones putting politics aside as the sides meet in a match to determine if either nation continues in this World Cup.
Iran's head coach Carlos Queiroz attends a press conference on the eve of the group B World Cup soccer match between Iran and the United States in Doha, Qatar, Monday, Nov. 28, 2022. |
The two met at the 1998 World Cup in France when memories of the 1979 Islamic Revolution were still fresh for both countries. Even the White House was talking about the game as then-President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Madeline Albright used the match to discuss the possible resumption of diplomatic relations with Iran, which had been cut off since the 1979-81 hostage crisis.
The State Department a month
before that game called Iran the world’s “most active″ sponsor of terrorism, so
nerves were frayed for both nations. And just a week ahead of kickoff, a French
television station broadcast the 1991 film “Not Without My Daughter,″ a movie
based on the true story of an American woman who escaped Iran with her daughter
against the wishes of her Iranian husband.
The Iranians claimed the
broadcast was a purposeful insult.
Iran won 2-1 but neither team
advance to the knockout round. They met one other time — a 1-1 draw in a 2000
friendly.
Now the teams head into their
final Group B match Tuesday and the
United States can only advance with a win. Iran would advance with a
win, and perhaps a draw depending on the results England’s match against Wales.
But headed into one of the
most politically charged matches — rematch
in this case — in tournament history, the conversation was again not
centered on winning or losing.
In Monday’s pre-match news
conference, United States captain Tyler Adams and coach Gregg Berhalter were
asked about a variety of social and political subjects that had nothing to do
with what happens on the field. Adams was asked to defend the U.S.’s treatment
of Black people and chastised for pronouncing the opponent “Eye-ran” instead of
“E-ran.”
Berhalter was questioned about
U.S. immigration and Naval policy, and also apologized for the
U.S. Soccer Federation’s decision to strip the emblem of the Islamic Republic
from Iran’s flag in a since-deleted social media post.
Iran coach Carlos
Queiroz was asked about the social media post, which led the governing
body of Iranian soccer to demand FIFA expel the United States from the
tournament. He said he did not intend to use the controversy as motivation.
“If after 42 years in this
game as a coach I still believe that I could win games with those mental games,
I think I did not learn nothing about the game,” Queiroz said. “We have
solidarity with the humanitarian causes all over the world, whatever they are
or who they are. If you talk about human rights, racism, kids that die in
schools with shootings, we have solidarity to all those causes, but here our
mission is to bring the smiles for the people at least for 90 minutes.”
Tuesday marks the final day of
play for both Groups A and B, and it is the first day of simultaneous kickoffs.
The practice of starting two
games at the same time began in 1986, four years after a match dubbed the
“Disgrace of Gijon.” The match was scandalous because West Germany and Austria
both knew that a German win by one or two goals would advance both teams at the
expense of Algeria.
After Germany scored an early
goal, neither team tried to score again.
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