Football has given us a good share of attention-grabbing rivalries. Brazil vs Argentina, England vs Germany, Spain vs Portugal, and the list goes on to uncountable times.
But today we'll be talking about a match that had politics written all over it.
The 1998 FIFA World Cup was held in France and one of the Groups saw Iran and USA drawn together.
The match had vast political significance as the relations between the two Nations were on an all-time low.
In 1979, the revolution resulted in US-backed Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi fleeing Iran and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini turning into the leader of the new republic. He later criticized America, referring to it as ‘the great Satan’, and anti-US sentiment grew. In November of that year, a bunch of young Iranian militants stormed the US embassy in Tehran
and took over 60 American citizens hostage. The ordeal lasted for 444 days and therefore the US subsequently severed diplomatic ties. Then, in 1980, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein – supported by the US-instigated invasion of Iran, and therefore the resultant war lasted for eight years.
The managers of the two teams tried to focus on the footballing aspect of the clash however given the history between the two sides, football inevitably took a back-seat and political discussion rose to the forefront.
Iranian striker Khodadad Azizi said before the match,
We will not lose, Many families of martyrs are expecting us to win. We will win for their sake.
In the American camp, the atmosphere was a bit different.
I think that’s more important to them than us, midfielder Tab Ramos said, referencing the political and historical significance of the game.
I haven’t heard anyone say, ‘Let’s beat Iran, let’s do it for Bill Clinton.
FIFA incorporates a method of designating teams before the match. So the USA was team A and Iran team B, so by rules, Iran had to steer towards the USA for prematch handshakes. but Iran's Supreme Leader Khamenei gave express orders that the Iranian team must not walk towards the Americans."
FIFA eventually negotiated a compromise that saw the Americans walk towards the Iranians, however, that was the least of FIFA's worries. Off the pitch, a terrorist organization had bought 7,000 tickets for the game and were planning to stage a protest during the match. Mujahedin Khalq was an Iraq-based group funded by Saddam Hussein whose main aim was to destabilize the Iranian regime. They certainly weren't welcome in France but containing such an oversized quantity of fans amongst the 42,000 crowds wasn't going to be easy.
So FIFA issued a notice to the cameramen telling them which cluster of fans to avoid and French riot police were called in to prevent any pitch invasion.
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The build-up to the match was tense and somewhat scary but what happened on matchday shocked the whole world.
The Iranian players walked on to the pitch with white flowers symbolizing peace and both the teams posed for a group photograph along.
The game was everything the Iranians could have hoped for too. In what was a competitive, full-blooded but fair contest, Iran took the lead 5 minutes before half-time with a goal from Hamid Estili. Mehdi Mahdavikia doubled the lead after 84 minutes, but despite a late goal from Brian McBride, the Iranians held on to record their first-ever victory in the World Cup finals – but it might as well have been winning the World Cup itself.
The scenes of celebration in Tehran were ecstatic.
Defeat to Iran condemned the USA to eliminate from the World Cup, however, despite this, the players recognized the part they played in a historic match. "We did more in 90 minutes than the politicians did in 20 years," said US defender Jeff Agoos at the time.
Iran won the 90 minutes match but we can well and truly say that this was a match that Football won.