Ambassadors in Action

With all the Iranian fans packing the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, it was hard to tell the host from the guest

It was ping-pong with China and baseball with Cuba. Now will it be wrestling or soccer with Iran?
To find out about the Iranians’ passion for soccer and wrestling, all you have to do is go to a stadium or a gym one Friday evening. Despite the live broadcast of many sports events, still tens of thousands of spectators come all the way from different cities; arriving hours earlier, tolerating the summer sun or the winter wind to get the action up close.
There are many languages through which two countries, two nations, two teams and two individuals can communicate. As for Iran and the United States, a soccer field proved more helpful than a roundtable when the two countries’ national soccer teams played a landmark match in the World Cup France ’98. Despite repeated statements by Iranian officials that the match had nothing to do with the political atmosphere existing between the two countries, the world could not help the hype about a politically-charged game. Playing in Lyon, Iran overpowered the U.S. in a 2-1 victory.

Months later, when the U.S. Soccer Federation officially invited the Iranian team for a friendly in California, speculation started as whether Iran was accepting the invitation in the first place. Then again, if wrestling teams from Iran and the U.S. have for a few times participated in competitions held in each other’s countries, why not soccer?

So once again the two teams lined up to play, free of all those awkward issues that might have come up in two decades of estrangement. Playing with a less-experienced line-up, Iran held the U.S. at their home to a 1-1 draw. With all the Iranian fans packing the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, it was hard to tell the host from the guest.
There is a large variety of ways for sending a message. On different occasions, Iran has clearly indicated that it does not wish to allow politics upset its game. In this respect, before even discussing such major conflicts as the lifting of economic sanctions, the U.S. could help by abolishing an immigration procedure for fingerprinting Iranian nationals upon their arrival in the States.
You can still find sportsmanship and respect in a long-strained relation. But is everything as friendly as it can be on a soccer field?