LOS ANGELES – Obviously it couldn’t be straightforward – what else has been? When you have battled for visas, shaken off the slings and arrows of a US President and been forced to move countries to train, twice falling behind to New Zealand is small fry. Iran faced so much to get here. They scored two equalisers and each one felt like a mini-redemption.
But more on that a little later. If you’ll allow me, this one doesn’t start with football. It is two o’clock in Inglewood and Farhad, his wife and two children are walking around SoFi Stadium because the doors aren’t actually open for them to get inside. They live in California, and this World Cup draw made it possible for them to watch Iran play for the first time. That is why they are four hours early. They have facepaint on. They are wearing Iran shirts.
“We are here because we want the team to be a positive distraction from bad news,” Farhad says. “We want this tournament and the national team to be positive for all Iranians. To come together, one more time.”
Farhad and his family were attending their first ever national team match (Photo: The i Paper)
Hussein and his son and friends were in a mood of celebratory pride (Photo: The i Paper)
