Ramin Rezaeian, the scorer of Iran’s second goal against Wales, stood in front of a wall of emotion that was erupting in the stands, clearly on the verge of tears.
At the front of the Iran technical area, striker Sardar Azmoun grabbed head coach Carlos Queiroz by the neck, screaming into his face with joy as substitutes and staff sprinted onto the field. Their team-mates collapsed from exhaustion, relief, disbelief, or some combination of all those things and more.
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Queiroz, 69 years old and leading Iran in a World Cup for the third time, was later thrown into the air by his jubilant squad.
“I need a good sauna now,” he said afterwards. “And a good jacuzzi.”
For at least that briefest spell at the Ahmed bin Ali Stadium on the outskirts of Doha, very little else mattered for the Iranians there than sheer joy. Two late goals — both deep into stoppage time — from two unlikely scorers, Rezaian and substitute Roozbeh Cheshmi (top left), had secured a 2-0 win against Wales in their second World Cup group game.
A tournament that began with constant questions about everything other than football, then brought a 6-2 defeat by England in the opening match, was back on track. A full game’s worth of hard work, industriousness, and a confidence unseen against the English four days earlier had paid off.
“What we want to do is give this gift to Iranian fans,” said Queiroz. “From north, south, east, and west, this game was a gift to them.”
It’s a gift, though, that may have an expiration date for some; perhaps as soon as a few minutes after the full-time whistle.
“I’m crying because I don’t know how to feel,” said Sety, a 28-year-old protester working as a computer engineer in Tehran, whose full identity has been withheld owing to safety concerns. “We were all laughing when it happened because you can’t deny that a 99th-minute winner feels amazing… If this happened when everything was good in the country, I would have been outside celebrating, and been so proud of all the players and team, but currently it’s not like that.”
Iran has been ripped apart by clashes between protesters against its Islamist government and the police and officials who enforce that government’s power.
These tensions have bubbled under the surface for some time, but have become far more visible and violent in the three months since the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was arrested by the country’s morality police for an improper hijab and later died in a hospital.
“No one can understand the feeling apart from the people of Iran,” said Sety.
The national football team’s place within Iran’s very recent history is complicated.
Among opponents of the regime, some support them for the simple reasons of national pride. Other protesters actually cheer against the Iran team, knowing any success they have could be used by the country’s government as a tool as they crack down on protests in what Amnesty International described last month as a “deadly repression”.
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Some feel the players have not done enough to support protesters who are sometimes quite literally in the firing line, and thus do not deserve their support in playing what is, ultimately, just a game.
“In Zahedan (a city in Iran), where there’s not even currently access to drinking water or electricity, people are being shot,” Sety said. “While this is happening, supporters of the regime are outside celebrating the win, and the police officers and IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) are handing them pastries to show they’re not bad people.”
Some support the team for reasons of national pride, but with a different brand of expression.
The Associated Press reported on Friday that pro-Islamist Iranian fans had confronted other supporters of the national side who wore pre-revolutionary flags or shirts emblazoned with “Woman. Life. Freedom”, which has become a rallying cry for the woman-led protest movement.
Supporters carrying anything other than the national flag to the Wales match had property confiscated upon entry to the stadium.
Some believe the Iranian players have been too vocal in support of the protesters; others think they have not done enough.
All of these groups appeared to be represented in the stands in Doha on a steamy afternoon, but it was the protesters that were most audible.
Many in the stadium jeered throughout the pre-match playing of the national anthem, even more loudly than they did during the same ceremony against England. Some of the Iranian players appeared to mouth the anthem’s words after they all remained silent on Monday.
A man holding an Iranian flag was shown on one of the stadium screens amid the whistles and boos, breaking into tears.
”We think the players were forced to sing it, and it was noticeable that the players didn’t really want to sing it, and were just moving their lips,” said Sety. “They wanted to make it look like it was all calm, but it definitely wasn’t.”
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Once the game got underway, Iran played with noticeable verve — as if they had bottled the emotions of the crowd, and perhaps their own frustration at being put in what they see to be an impossible position. All of this was channelled into a performance unrecognisable from the limp display against England.
“I believe this was the solidarity between the team members that we were able to achieve this result,” Cheshmi said after the match through a translator.
Saeed Ezatolahi was excellent in his role as the pivot, having come into the starting XI after being left on the bench against England. He and midfield partner Ehsan Hajsafi sprang no small number of counter-attacks to Azmoun and winger Ali Gholizadeh. Wales goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey was forced into a couple of athletic saves, or brave moments to grab a barrage of crosses into his penalty area.
Azmoun hit the near post on one of those breakaway chances before Gholizadeh recovered the ball and, after a mazy, dribbling run, fired a lofted effort past the outstretched Hennessey that hit the other post. Azmoun then dove to head the ball back in off the rebound, but Hennessey again was there to collect.
Missed chances and blocked shots were met with pained reaction from Iranian players — a look to the sky here, a remonstrative wave there. On the sideline, Queiroz grimaced.
For an Iranian team whose fortunes at the last two World Cups were affected by last-minute group-stage goals (especially negatively by Lionel Messi in 2014) after performances just like this, there was palpable fear that once again a chance had been wasted. Another hard-fought point, another moral victory (in the eyes of some), but ultimately just a single point after two games ahead of an all-important group-stage finale against the United States.
“The first thing I said to my players today in the locker room was, ‘Guys we need to make it more easy for us outside the pitch’,” Queiroz said. “There was a lot of tension outside, from missing all those chances. It was really very emotional, but special because we rebounded from a difficult situation.”
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The breakthrough came via Cheshmi, of all people — a central defender who started against England but was removed at half-time after an especially poor display. His long-range shot from distance in the eighth minute of added time was the first goal scored from outside the box at this World Cup, and it sent the Iranian bench running to him as the stadium erupted in noise.
Even playing with 10 men after Hennessey’s sending off for a violent challenge on 86 minutes, Wales threw numbers forward in search of that crucial goal, and in doing so, set up Rezaeian’s decisive moment in the 101st minute.
The right-back found the energy for one last lung-busting run forward, drew out substitute goalkeeper Danny Ward, and chipped a delightful finish. It was the moment they had craved. The tension, on this team if not on the country itself, had lifted.
“I have a right to be happy,” said a female Iran supporter outside the stadium afterwards, as men, women and children in the red, green and white of their troubled country banged drums and chanted “Iran!”. “It’s my national team and it helps all of my community, my people, to be happy and accept their right to be happy. It is my bigger right.”
Back in Iran, any relief that might have existed was short-lived.
“I’ve been to many protests, and it doesn’t matter what group of people it is — they get shot and arrested and the violence is bad,” said Sety. ”How can I square that with the feeling of watching a win?.
“Personally, I want them to win and lose at the same time. It’s still my country and our players, but with how things have been recently, I don’t know how to feel.”
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(Top photo: Patrick Smith – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)