Iran's national football team has been a lightning rod for opponents of the Islamic Republic, but a spirited display against New Zealand on Tuesday won over many in attendance.
Ask the average person about the power of the World Cup and they are likely to recall a moment when a nation united behind a football team that represented citizens of all backgrounds.
Iran's Team Melli once held that power, but in recent years the team has become almost as polarising as the politics that dominate much of Iranian life.
"My first memory with the sport is watching Iran beat the United States at the 1998 World Cup. I was at my grandparent's house in Tehran and everyone was in the streets celebrating," Sina, 27, a Team Melli fan, told Middle East Eye.
In a bygone era, support for the national side was one of the few things that united Iranians, whether young or old, religious or secular, supportive of the government or opposed to it.
