AfriPulse
Shortly after 4pm in Los Angeles , the Iran team bus was led up South Prairie Avenue by an advance party of police motorcycles. It chugged up the hill, past a small group of supporters, before making a right turn toward the gates of ‘hell.’That is what Amir Ghalenoei and his Iran players had been warned to expect at SoFi Stadium, the $5.5billion spaceship on the outskirts of LA that had been chosen for this fraught, highly-charged World Cup opener against New Zealand.
Never before had a World Cup host nation been at war with one of its visitors. Ahead of this game, however, the biggest threat to Iran’s players appeared to be some of their compatriots living nearby.
‘We are going to make it hell,’ promised one of the many Iranian-Americans who oppose this team and the brutal regime they say it represents.
In the end, though? From the moment they emerged from the tunnel, Iran’s players were greeted by deafening cheers from the majority of fans inside SoFi Stadium. In fact, no one troubled them more than Elijah Just, the New Zealand winger who scored twice as the All Whites upset the odds to secure a 2-2 draw.
Source: Dailymail.co.uk | Read the Full Story…
