Iranians took to the streets to celebrate the United States beating their country in the World Cup tournament on Tuesday, halting their advancement.
The United States scored a 1-0 victory against Iran on Tuesday after a hard-fought game that saw star player Christian Pulisic taking a serious injury to score the winning goal.
“The moment came in the 38th minute when fellow USMNT player Sergino Dest headed the ball to a hard-charging Pulisic, who put the ball and himself past the goalkeeper to give the U.S. a one goal lead,” reported Breitbart News. “However, while accomplishing this, the knee of Iran’s goalkeeper found Pulisic’s groin area.”
As night fell on Iran, images and videos from across the country poured out over social media that appeared to show Iranians celebrating the U.S. victory most likely in protest of the oppressive government that has been cracking down on citizens in recent weeks fighting for women’s rights.
Prior to Tuesday’s game, some Iranians openly expressed hope that the United States would come out victorious.
“It’s not just some people in Iran, it is the majority of people in Iran that want the U.S. to win,” an anonymous Iranian woman told Fox News.
“Because a soccer team should bring honor to its people. They must be our champions,” she added. “But right now people on the street are getting murdered. And people are burying children after they were killed, and the soccer team of the mullahs met [President] Ebrahim Raisi and celebrates someone’s birthday and laughed together. And they didn’t pay attention to the people. The football players just wanted to be the center of the attention.”
The American victory came after Iran attempted to have the United States kicked out of the World Cup over a social media post that shared Iran’s flag minus the emblem of the Islamic Republic as a show of solidarity with “the women in Iran fighting for basic human rights.” The U.S. Soccer Federation deleted the image of the flag after the initial uproar. Iran subsequently filed a complaint with FIFA’s Ethics Committee demanding that the U.S. receive a 10-game ban for “offending the dignity” of the nation.