INGLEWOOD — So this is where this World Cup veered off script.
This is where the tournament took an unexpected turn that could place the American dream on a collision course with FIFA and the Trump administration’s worst nightmare:
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The United States and Iran, perhaps still in the midst of a war that has left more than 10,000 people dead across the Middle East region, meeting in the World Cup Round of 16 in Seattle July 6.
With its 2-0 romp over Australia Friday, Team USA clinched Group D and its preferred path to a potential quarterfinal matchup with pre-tournament favorite Spain at SoFi Stadium July 10. It was a route that included a Round of 32 match with a group-stage third-place team in Santa Clara July 1 and then a clash with an aging Belgium side in Seattle.
A journey for a divided country to unite and rally around a talented and entertaining team seemingly capable of advancing deeper into this World Cup than any U.S. side before it. A string of 90-minute “politics-free” zones.
Instead, Iran, with a stunning and gritty 0-0 draw with Belgium at SoFi Sunday afternoon, moved atop Group G and within two victories of meeting the U.S. in what would be the most politically charged match in the World Cup’s nearly 100-year history.
Sure, Iran will likely still need a victory over Egypt on Friday to clinch the group. That’s the same Egypt that drew 1-1 with Belgium earlier in the tournament.
While U.S. officials can’t seem to get Iranian players and coaches back to their Tijuana training base fast enough after matches, Iran has no intention of going away anytime soon.
That much was clear Sunday.
Belgium started the tournament as Group G favorites in what was supposed to be a swan song for what was left of its “Golden Generation,” a side that led FIFA’s World Rankings from September 2018 to March 2022. And to be sure, there were reminders of why Kevin De Bruyne was one of the best midfielders of this century, why Thibaut Courtois is considered the game’s premier goalkeeper.
Yet for all the glimpses of De Bruyne and Courtois’ brilliance, Belgium could not find a way to crack a tight-knit Iranian side anchored by goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand, who was every bit Courtois’ equal Sunday.
Iran had a first-half goal waved off on an offside call and then in the 59th minute, Beiranvand made the save of the match, perhaps the World Cup so far, grabbing the ricochet of a shot inches from the goal line. Seven minutes later Belgium’s Nathan Ngoy was red carded for denying a breakaway goal-scoring opportunity.
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“We came into the World Cup under the worst possible conditions,” Iran coach Amir Ghalenoei said. “And still we got a result against a great team and a great manager.
“We played a beautiful game.”
Ghalenoei has called Iran the “most oppressed team in the whole World Cup.” Other tournament squads have traveled freely from their training bases to match sites, returning to four- and five-star hotels after games to refuel and receive treatment before going back to their base sites the following morning. Iran had to move their tournament training base from Tucson to Tijuana and have been forced to return shortly after their matches by U.S. officials while FIFA president Gianni Infantino shrugs with no intention of holding the administration to its promise that tournament participants would have freedom of movement during the World Cup.
There is no doubt that the U.S. restrictions have placed Iran at a competitive disadvantage. There is also no doubt that adversity has brought the team closer together.
“To be honest, we don’t ask for much. We just ask for the same procedure for all the other 47 teams, so hopefully we can bring everyone who is involved and help us with us,” midfielder Alireza Jahanbakhsh said. “We hope we can go as soon as possible to adapt to the situation in the city and to the place where we’re going to play, and that’s just the fairness, I think, for all the teams. Then we’re not asking for, I think, much from the other side.
“I think this is part of our culture in a difficult situation. We perform better, I think that united us even more, and that’s one of the things that I think we’ve shown today, like someone said, we’ve shown a great team character, and part of it comes from the situation we are in.”
It is a complicated situation as Sunday afternoon reminded us. Once again there were protesters outside SoFi Stadium. And once again the inside of the stadium was draped in two green, white and red flags, the nation’s current official flag and the pre-Islamic Revolution Lion and the Sun flag. There were boos when the Iranian national anthem was played. And there were cheers.
And then the match kicked off, and in one regard Team Iran was not all that much different than Team USA, another team uniting a divided and complicated country.
“I think there are good days, bad days for every team, and also, like I said, we play for all the Iranians in Iran, outside Iran, with whatever ideology, whatever (political) preferences they have, and we make sure to make them happy, because I’m sure at the end of the day they love (Team Iran) from the heart, and we respect them all,” Jahanbakhsh said.
“And I think the most important thing we can do as a team is that to perform well, to make sure we put our heart on the pitch, and to do everything to make them happy, and for the rest, I think that’s something I think we have to respect people, whatever idea they have, and like I said, the best thing we can do is to play football, and hopefully we can do it in the best way possible.”
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