Political relations between the USA and Iran may have been strained for decades but sports bind us together and sink our differences. After the game between USA and Iran as the Americans were jubilant, the Iranian players were left distraught at the result of USA beating Iran by 1-0. United States footballer Antonee Robinson showed that he is a class act after he embraced Iran's Ramin Rezaeian as Iran faced exit from the Qatar World Cup on November 29 night.
Robinson and Iran’s Ramin Rezaeian shared a very emotional embrace on the pitch, a demonstration of sportsmanship which has rightly gone viral on social media.
From an outside perspective the game was marred with politics and the bitter rivalry was given more fodder after the US social media account irked Iran by removing Islamic emblem from Iran's flag. The Iranian regime asked FIFA to expel the US football team from the World Cup, but the request was denied.
Berhalter did apologise for the flag incident. "Sometimes things are out of our control," he said. "We're not focused on those outside things and all we can do is apologise on behalf of the players and the staff, but it's not something that we were a part of."
The gesture has come despite the fact that the there were fears that fury from the Iranian government could lead to protests but nothing of the sort happened as USA sailed past Iran with a slender lead of 1-0 at the Al Thumama Stadium thanks to Christian Pulisic's goal. The result means Berhalter's side will face Netherlands in the last 16 on December 3.
USA's president spoke to the American team before the match and revealed what he said to them.
He told reporters: “USA! USA! That's a big game, man. When I spoke to the coach and the players, I said, 'You can do this'. They went, 'Eh [maybe]'. They did it, God love them.”
