‘Disaster’: Iran go through a gamut of emotions, and now wait for other results | Football News
Stifling his tears, Iran captain Mehedi Taremi, lamented, more than complained, to the reporters after the dramatic 1-1 draw against Egypt that left their knockout hopes clinging by the slenderest of threads. “It’s a disaster World Cup.” He repeated the word “disaster” like it’s a chant, his eyes turning red with tears. A substandard error-strewn match in Seattle required late on-field drama to lift itself from being an academic footnote. Taremi’s tired face wore the vestiges of the heartbreak that had unfolded just moments ago, of the oscillating extremes of emotions they had experienced. Perhaps, the tepid penalty – a horrendous attempt in the game’s context – he missed in the first half was boiling in his mind too. In a matter of seconds, in the discretion of machine-made dimensions on a pitch-side monitor, Iranian euphoria turned to misery. The moment that was to redeem them consigned them to an endless night of regret, and an agonising wait for the results of other games. Iran’s Shoja Khalilzadeh (4) reacts at the end of the World …

