As the ref blew the final whistle at Doha’s Al Thumama Stadium to confirm their 0-1 loss to the US, several members of the Iranian team were seen bursting into tears. In an especially poignant moment, defender Ramin Rezaeian, who had run himself into the ground over 100 gruelling minutes, was consoled by Antonee Robinson, who had lined up opposite him on the American side.
It is not unusual for defeated players to weep in frustration, especially after a game so heavily freighted with historical and geopolitical import. For Team Melli, as the Iranian national soccer squad is known, there was the additional heartbreak of being eliminated from the World Cup.
But for the Iranians, the grief would have been mingled with impending dread. Two weeks ago, they faced the prospect of being damned if they didn’t participate in the tournament and damned if they did, respectively by the regime in Tehran and the anti-regime protest movement. Now, they head home to damnation from both sides.
In scenes that would have been unthinkable before the protest movement erupted in the early northern autumn, many Iranians cheered the American victory. In the eyes of the protesters, Team Melli represented the regime rather than the nation. This view was cemented when members of the squad took part in a photo-op with President Ebrahim Raisi before the tournament, even as other athletes were showing solidarity with the protests, at great personal risk.
Read the article by Bobby Ghosh in the Financial Review.