At the press conference the day before the game between the United States and Iran, there was little about football. There was already a lot of commotion among the Iranians about a recent tweet from the American federation, and from there the press conference degenerated into a veritable barrage of political accusations.
The US national team’s Twitter account shared an image of the Group B standings on Saturday, showing the Iranian flag without any religious symbols. According to a spokesman for the union, this was done in solidarity with the women in Iran. A news agency affiliated with the Iranian government was furious, even calling for the US to be excluded from the World Cup. In doing so, the news agency invoked section thirteen of the FIFA rules, which state that attacking the integrity or dignity of a country, person or group can lead to a suspension of ten matches.
US national coach Gregg Berhalter was confronted with the tweet at the press conference. “We had no idea about the association’s publications. All we can do is apologize on behalf of players and staff,” he replied. After that it went from bad to worse. Berhalter was first asked why he had not asked the US government to remove a warship near Iran before discussing the topics of ‘inflation’ and ‘Iranian visas in the US’. Captain Tyler Adams also had a hard time.
Here is the actual video of @tyler_adams14 beautiful, humble response to a journalist at his press conference before the @USMNT vs. Iranian match. cc: @usmntonly @MenInBlazers pic.twitter.com/kTZbEpuZm1
— Ryan OLeary (@BR0leary) November 28, 2022
Education and discrimination
An Iranian journalist pointed out Adams’ mispronunciation of the word ‘Iran’ before asking the midfielder why he wants to represent a country where black people are widely discriminated against. Adams responded very calmly, saying: “My sincere apologies for mispronouncing the name of your country. That said, there is discrimination everywhere. If there’s anything I’ve learned – especially since I’ve spent the last few years abroad I’ve lived there and also had to fit myself into other cultures again – is that we make progress every day in the US Education plays an important role in that, just like you taught me earlier It’s a process, and the most important thing is that you see progress.”
In possibly the most politically charged game of the World Cup, there is still everything to play for. Iran and the United States are second and third in Group B, trailing leaders England by one and two points respectively. Wales has the least papers for reaching the knockout phase with one point from two games. Both the game between England and Wales and that between Iran and the United States will be completed on Tuesday at 8 p.m.