Odd Andersen/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesThis remains an intensely young team, one that has been designed at least in part with the next World Cup, four years away and (mostly) on home soil, in mind. That they weathered what is most likely the most stressful situation any of them have experienced is to their enormous credit.
They wore T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan “Women, Life, Freedom. ”ImageFans brought flags stripped of the national emblem, or versions bearing the insignia of prerevolutionary Iran, to games. Erin Schaff/The New York TimesFIFA, together with the Qatari authorities, issued an edict that anything that could be seen as a political statement must be confiscated. FIFA does not choose sides, of course, far from it, but still: Iranian flags with the national emblem on them were absolutely fine. Fans sought whatever way they could to circumvent the censorship. They whistled and jeered their own national anthem.
They were forced to play their final tuneup games before the tournament behind closed doors, in case anti-government protesters filled the stands. They were banned from discussing the demonstrations, either in public or on social media, by their national federation. Once they arrived in Qatar, they found themselves in an inescapable bind. The unrest at home followed them across the Gulf. Fans brought flags stripped of the national emblem, or versions bearing the insignia of prerevolutionary Iran, to games.
The U. S. Cleared a Big World Cup Hurdle. The Knockout Round Poses Another. On SoccerThe U. victory over Iran sent it to the round of 16, with a match against the Netherlands on Saturday. The team already has much to be proud of. It has been eight years since the U. men last played a knockout game at the World Cup. Credit... Fabrice Coffrini/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesPublished Nov.
By the time it arrived, though, the situation had changed. The protests that have roiled Iran for the past 10 weeks following the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, while in the custody of Iran’s morality police, and the brutal crackdown the regime has delivered in response, had threatened to turn what was always going to be a particularly charged game into a potential political incident.
) That was enough. All it had to do was hold on. Ever since that night five years ago in Couva, Trinidad, when it had all gone wrong, the question has been whether the United States has sufficiently gifted players to compete with the game’s superpowers. The relative ability of Pulisic, Tyler Adams and Weston McKennie is pored over, their every flaw prized open, their every strength judged and weighed. Those last few minutes, though, were not about talent. They were, instead, the most thorough examination imaginable of Gregg Berhalter’s team’s poise, and composure, and grit.
At one point, when U. Soccer’s website removed the national emblem of Iran from the country’s flag and posted the doctored image on social media, the Iranian federation demanded that the U. be thrown out of the World Cup in response. The pressure on Berhalter’s young squad, already crushing, mounted. It is nothing, though, compared to what Iran’s players have endured. This World Cup, what should have been one of the highlights of their careers, has been a torment for them.
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