World Cup: U.S. Advances to Knockout Round With 1-0 Victory Over Iran in Tense Matchup (Published 2022) (2024)

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The World Cup continues for the U.S. Will Christian Pulisic be part of it?

The players showed otherwise, fending off the attacking Iranian team and advancing to the round of 16. While the U.S. has won the last two Women’s World Cups, the men have not made it past the round of 16 since 2002.

“I looked around and saw everybody had calm faces on,” defender Tim Ream said of the pressure of holding the lead as the clocked ticked, and ticked, and ticked. “No one was breathing heavy, or had panic in their eyes.”

President Biden, who had just wrapped up an unrelated event in Michigan when the game ended, returned to the lectern to tell the audience, with a wide grin, of the American victory.

“They did it, God love ’em,” he said.

In sports bars and living rooms, politics added spice to the reactions for many fans. While fans around him chanted “U.S.A.!,” Carlos Vigueras, a server at Legends in Midtown Manhattan, said that the drama between the countries flavored the game for him and raised the stakes. “It makes it more intense, more entertaining, it has more meaning,” said Vigueras, a 25-year-old from the Bronx.

For the Iranian team, the tournament in Qatar has been a crucible. As protests and crackdowns have roiled their nation for months, its soccer players have found themselves trying to navigate an excruciating and shrinking middle ground.

On one side were millions of their countrymen, protesters who have been urging them to use their voices, and their platforms, to do more to support the fight for more rights, more freedoms, more accountability. On the other was Iran’s government, intolerant of dissent and willing to crush it forcibly.

The Iranian players had tested their limits in Qatar, declining to sing their national anthem before their opening game, only to adjust, days later, and appear to grudgingly go through the motions before a match against Wales.

The U.S. Soccer Federation raised the stakes by posting on social media a group standings table with an altered version of the Iranian flag — horizontal green, white and red stripes, stripped of the country’s official emblem and lines of Islamic script removed. A spokesman for the federation said the change was a show of support for the Iranian women who have put themselves at risk to protest government restrictions, but the posts were then deleted.

Iran’s federation responded angrily, calling the move deeply insulting and calling on FIFA, soccer’s world governing body, to expel the United States from the World Cup.

The two nations had met just once before in a World Cup, in 1998, when Iran prevailed, 2-1, in another politically charged match for its first World Cup victory. That emotional game in the group stage had people dancing in the streets of Tehran.

For the regime in Tehran, another victory over the United States on Tuesday would have held immense value, a point of national prestige that it could have claimed as its own.

For the protesters, Iran’s continued presence at the world’s biggest sporting event would have meant more days in the spotlight, more focus on their country and their cause, more chances to jeer the government in subtle — and vocal — ways inside stadiums. Some hoped that celebrations of an Iranian win would morph into another round of demonstrations.

Instead, at Shahrak Ekbatan, a vast apartment complex in central Tehran that has been a hotbed of nightly protests and violent clashes, people cheered and celebrated Iran’s defeat, according to a resident and videos posted on social media.

In the Tehran neighborhood of Eram, a video posted on Twitter showed people chanting “America, America,” and a man narrating a video in another neighborhood said that although it was 1 a.m., the soccer-loving people of Iran were so fed up with the Islamic Republic that they were cheering for its opponent.

Videos also showed people dancing in the streets in Marivan and Sanandaj, cities with large ethnic populations of Kurds in the home province of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old whose death in the custody of the morality police sparked the protests calling for an end to clerical rule.

At the tournament, the pressure may have proved too much for the Iranian squad. Unlike the United States, Iran has never advanced out of the first round at a World Cup. Its team, long a symbol of unity in a persistently divided nation, had needed only a tie to advance. Its tournament had been a roller-coaster: a thumping at the hands of England, a last-minute win over Wales, and a showdown against the young American team.

The Iranian players held their own against the Americans’ repeated thrusts and, after Pulisic’s goal separated the teams, pushed repeatedly for the tying goal they knew would carry them through.

The math on Tuesday was not a secret: England led the group going into its final two games. When England took a lead over Wales in the other game across the city, moving into position to win the group, both Iran and the United States narrowed their eyes and set their sights on second place, and the group’s other place in the knockout rounds.

By then the Americans were ahead. The goal had come off a sequence of incisive passes in the 38th minute: midfielder Weston McKennie picking out a sprinting Sergiño Dest racing up the right wing, and Dest delivering a perfect skidding cross to Pulisic, who had read what was coming and come charging at the goal. He arrived just in time to redirect the ball past the goalkeeper, Alireza Beiranvand, but their forceful collision left Pulisic lying in the net for several minutes.

Initially requiring help just to stand, and move, Pulisic eventually returned to the field for the final few minutes of the first half. But he didn’t return for the second half — team officials said he was headed to the hospital for scans on his injured midsection — and was replaced by one of the team’s young talents, Brenden Aaronson.

Pulisic’s status for the next round, a date with the Netherlands on Saturday, was unclear as the game ended. The team said on Twitter afterward that he had a pelvic bruise. But that will be a question for the future, and thanks to its victory, the U.S. team now has one at this tournament.

It will be joined in the knockout stage by England, a 3-0 winner over Wales on Tuesday in a different sort of political matchup.

Expectations for the Americans were low when they arrived here, their moment thought to be in 2026.

Pulisic made sure they would not have to wait.

Reporting was contributed by Farnaz Fassihi and Sarah Maslin Nir from New York and Michael D. Shear from Washington.

England remakes the case for itself with a 3-0 win over Wales.

By toppling Wales, England advanced to the knockout stages atop Group B, earning — in theory, at least — a more favorable draw in the elimination round. Its reward is a meeting with Senegal, the second-place finisher in Group A, and the avoidance of the Netherlands, which fashions itself a contender just as much as England does.

England, though, has a far better record recently in international tournaments than the Dutch, reaching the finals of last year’s European Championship and the semifinals of the World Cup in Russia in 2018. Its players and its manager, Gareth Southgate, are older and perhaps wiser, and he had a sense of what they were lacking in a stale showing Friday against the United States.

That scoreless draw compelled Southgate to add more attacking flavor into a lineup that lacked tempo and creativity. So in came Marcus Rashford and Phil Foden. They scored a minute apart early in the second half: the first on that splendid free kick and the second after a nifty cross from Harry Kane. Rashford added another in the 68th minute to dismiss Wales, which was appearing in its first World Cup since 1958, without a victory in Qatar.

Though England and Wales are both members of the United Kingdom, they compete as separate nations outside the Olympics. Their meeting Tuesday signified another touchstone moment in a rivalry, both sporting and cultural, that has spanned centuries, with England emerging victorious in matters of soccer — and, it seems, in matters of royalty, with the Prince of Wales expressing his support for the Three Lions.

For the occasion, there was red in the stands at Ahmad bin Ali Stadium, and there was red on the faces of England’s players, and there was red — so much red — in the box. Wales packed five, six, seven men in there at once, and though England dominated possession, Rashford managed its only shot on target in the first half. It was denied by goalkeeper Danny Ward, who kept the match scoreless, if only temporarily, before England showed its might again and again and again.

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Some Iranians in the U.S. were less than enthusiastic about this elimination game.

In Midtown Manhattan, Mehdi Aryan, a 38-year-old dentist, drank cardamom tea and spent much of the game debating mixed feelings about the team with his compatriots who work at the Iranian restaurant Miraj.

Aryan, whose internet handles have always included the words Team Melli, the nickname of the Iran national team, felt conflicted about cheering for them, particularly after footage showed several of them visiting with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and bowing.

“I was frustrated with the team because there are people dying, and are you really going to go and bow to the killers?” he said. He was mollified somewhat when the team declined to sing the national anthem. “At this point I’m not rooting for them. The feeling is I don’t know I should be happy or sad if they lose.”

Pourarab, in an interview in front of her cafe in Los Angeles, said it was sad this time around that the success of the Iran team was not a reason to celebrate.

“Women in Iran don’t want anything big — they simply want their own rights,” she said. “There are people dying in the streets. It’s a very critical moment.”

Sepehr Mikaeilian, 43, an Iranian-American living in Los Angeles, was watching the match at 33 Taps Silver Lake with three friends. They were the only Iranian supporters in the bar, which was crowded with U.S. fans. “People living in Iran don’t care about the World Cup,” Mikaeilian said. “When people are dying in the streets, there’s no reason to celebrate. It’s a tragic time for Iranians. We don’t have any joy, even in the World Cup.”

Mikaeilian, a filmmaker, emigrated to the United States 12 years ago from Tehran after receiving a green card. He said internet and telephone service has been disrupted in Iran in the wake of the protests, making it difficult to communicate with his family living there.

“I’ve built a life here and am very proud to be Iranian-American,” Mikaeilian said, covering his mouth with both hands as Iran narrowly missed a shot after a corner kick late in the match. “But we’re all very concerned about what’s happening there. We’re hoping things change in Iran.”

Pulisic bruises his pelvis on his first World Cup goal.

Pulisic stayed down on the turf after the goal, which gave the United States the lead in a victory that eventually secured their spot in the knockout stage. While he managed to return to play for the rest of the first half, Pulisic was subbed out at the break — and all eyes will be on his recovery as the United States prepares to face the Netherlands in the next round.

At just 24 years old, Pulisic is the national team’s most accomplished player. With his club team, Chelsea in the Premier League, he became the first American to play in the Champions League final in 2021, when Chelsea captured the title. His semifinal goal made him the first American to score at that late stage.

To the renowned British club, however, he is regarded mostly as a nice player to have. So far this season, he’s started three games for Chelsea and scored just once.

But to the United States national team, he’s crucial. Pulisic is considered a bright star on a young team hoping to make waves at the World Cup and serves as the creative engine of the U.S. attack.

In the World Cup opener, he was credited with crafting the U.S.’s first goal. In the 36th minute, Pulisic pierced through the center of the field, carrying the ball past multiple Welsh defenders and then finding Tim Weah in a run from the right, where he scored with just one touch.

Against Iran, Pulisic did not return after halftime and was replaced by Brenden Aaronson. But who will be in the lineup for the United States on Saturday against the Dutch team will be the biggest question facing the young U.S. squad.

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From Kansas City to Doha, U.S. fans gather to watch.

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Halftime: Young Americans are holding up under the pressure.

Symbols of the protests in Iran find their way into the crowd in Qatar.

“I understand people don’t want to make sports about politics,” said the man, Farzin, who preferred to give only his first name for fear of repercussions, like others who spoke to The New York Times. “But this is about freedom and human rights, it has nothing to do with politics.”

Anti-government protests have broken out across Iran since September, when 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died after being arrested on charges of violating a law requiring head coverings for women.

Farzin’s two daughters arrived at the match with American colors painted on their faces and wrapped in American flags that covered up T-shirts bearing the Iranian protest slogan. They planned to ditch the American-themed outfits and wash off the paint with baby wipes once they found their seats.

Farzin’s wife, Shideh, said she had been worried when they left for the stadium. But on the bus she overhead other Iranian fans talking about how they too had hidden small signs of protest that they planned to unveil at the game.

“I could see so many people wanting to speak up, finding ways to keep protesting,” she said.

Two sisters attending the match similarly secreted in symbols of protest. Yekta, 16, who flew in from Tehran for the match, wore a T-shirt with a blacked out Iranian flag concealed under a denim jacket. Her sister, Bita, 26, wore a black ribbon around her wrist.

“We want freedom,” Bita said. “We need the world to know. This an event shown all over the world, it’s the best place to protest.”

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