The 58-year-old returns to coaching for the first time in three years
Former U.S. and Germany men’s national team head coach Jürgen Klinsmann has been named the new boss of the South Korea national team.
Klinsmann, 58, has signed a three-and-a-half year contract and is set to lead South Korea through the 2026 World Cup in North America.
The ex-Germany national team star takes over from Paulo Bento, who stepped down after leading South Korea to the round of 16 at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
“I know that the Korean national team has been improving and achieving results over a long period of time,” Klinsmann said in a statement. “I am honored to follow in the footsteps of the great coaches who have led the Korean national team, from Gus Hiddink to my predecessor, Paulo Bento.”
It will be Klinsmann’s first head coaching position since he stepped down after just 10 weeks in charge of Hertha Berlin in February 2020.
After a legendary playing career, Klinsmann took over as Germany head coach and led his country to a third-place finish at the 2006 World Cup on home soil, which was seen as a major achievement.
That tournament was followed by a less successful spell in charge of Bayern Munich before he took over the USMNT in July 2011.
Klinsmann’s time in charge of the U.S. was full of highs and lows. He led the team to the 2013 Gold Cup before guiding them out of a difficult group at the 2014 World Cup. That tournament was proceeded by perhaps the most infamous moment of his time as U.S. coach: leaving Landon Donovan off the team’s roster.
The German was outspoken in his belief that American players should strive to play in Europe, which rankled some who saw it as disparaging of MLS. Klinsmann’s ultimate downfall, though, was the USMNT’s slow start to 2018 World Cup qualifying, which saw him sacked in November 2016 despite previously having signed a contract extension through the 2018 World Cup.
Bruce Arena was brought in to save the U.S. but to no avail, as the team shockingly missed out on Russia 2018.
Klinsmann will relocate to South Korea, per the federation’s announcement, after previously residing in Los Angeles for many years.
The USMNT has to be feeling pretty good about its depth right now
The U.S. men’s national team has to feel pretty good about its depth right now.
All across Europe, a host of players who didn’t make the World Cup squad are showing they have what it takes to feature for the USMNT, which was again apparent this weekend.
The striker position, which has been a concern for years, has a (very theoretical!) savior possibly en route in the form of Folarin Balogun, but Daryl Dike and Ricardo Pepi keep showing this season they should be in the USMNT mix as well.
That duo, along with some other names who could be coming soon to a U.S. roster near you, features in this week’s Five, along with a coach who could someday be leading them.
Things couldn’t have gone better for the LAFC coach in year one. Year two may not be so easy
It would have been hard for anybody to predict how well Steve Cherundolo’s first season as Los Angeles FC head coach would go. Least of all, Steve Cherundolo himself.
“I’d be lying to say that’s how I envisioned it,” Cherundolo told Pro SoccerWire of a season that saw LAFC win both the Supporters’ Shield and MLS Cup. “I don’t think anybody envisions that.”
But 2022 brought instant success for the longtime U.S. national team right back in his first season as a MLS head coach, and just his second season as a head coach anywhere.
Ahead of last season, there were questions over how an inexperienced head coach would handle the pressure of taking over one of the league’s glamor teams coming off a season where it failed to reach the playoffs.
Those have been replaced by new questions ahead of the 2023 season. Can LAFC still be elite both in domestic and international competition? And if they are, how high will Cherundolo’s coaching stock rise?
To be sure, 2023 is looking like a much bigger challenge for Cherundolo and his staff than 2022.
LAFC’s success last season saw them qualify for the CONCACAF Champions League. The early-season competition presents a paradox for MLS teams: As desirable as a deep run is, it stretches teams thin as fixtures pile up quickly ahead of a long grind of a MLS season.
Many a MLS team has been felled by such fixture congestion. One need look no farther than last season’s Seattle Sounders, who broke the MLS curse by winning CCL but suffered so greatly in the league that their 13-year playoff streak come to an end.
Cherundolo and his team are trying to embrace the challenge as they near a last-16 tie against Alajuelense that starts March 9. But the coach is also aware that the limitations of his squad, as well as MLS salary rules, could both be a headache.
“Playing in the Champions League is the result of a very good season, so we get an opportunity and we want to seize that opportunity,” he said. “It’s not a burden. We’re not afraid of challenge. We respect it, but we’re certainly not afraid of it and we see it as a very big opportunity.”
(Kelvin Kuo-USA TODAY Sports)
Depth is the key for any team balancing CCL and MLS and as it so happens, that is a particular concern for Cherundolo going into the season.
“The biggest difference between this current roster and the roster from last season is depth, and now speaking about the lack thereof,” the coach admitted. “We aren’t as deep as we were last year at this moment in time. That could change but at the moment we are not, and so we will have to be smart about our rotations.”
LAFC lost the insanely productive Cristian Arango and the insanely talented but oft-injured Gareth Bale. Also leaving were defensive regulars Sebastien Ibeagha and Franco Escobar, though the club did make a major free agent signing in the form of USMNT center back Aaron Long.
Cherundolo is keen to look outside the organization for answers, but said he feels somewhat hamstrung by MLS salary rules. LAFC somehow found a way to squeeze Bale and Giorgio Chiellini in under budget last season — which Philadelphia Union sporting director Ernst Tanner somewhat infamously called into question.
This season, though, the club may not be so fortunate. Cherundolo is clearly irked by restrictions which include, but by no means are limited to, a salary cap and a senior roster that is capped at just 20 players.
“It has to financially be doable for us,” he said of new signings. “There are challenges in this league of staying within the means and the budget and the rules. That challenge is not [present] in any of the other leagues within CONCACAF Champions League. So it is a challenge for us and for any MLS team in the Champions League.”
That may be why LAFC has not yet been able to lock down a much-rumored deal for Chelsea’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, which Cherundolo would not be drawn on when asked (“I won’t comment on names or rumors”).
(Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
It all makes 2023 look like the biggest challenge yet in Cherundolo’s brief coaching career. Should he guide LAFC to success this year, the speculation around his own future will undoubtedly grow.
Cherundolo is one of the more intriguing candidates to be linked with the vacant USMNT coaching job. His resume has almost everything you’d want: a lengthy playing career in Germany and with the USMNT, experience as a Bundesliga assistant and in the Germany youth national team setup, and now head coaching success domestically. The only thing it lacks, for now, is a sustained record of success.
Though he’s quick to say he’s happy with LAFC, Cherundolo isn’t against the idea of one day coaching the team he played for at two World Cups.
“I thoroughly enjoyed every single minute I was able to play with the U.S. men’s national team and spend with that organization,” Cherundolo said. “If that time [coaching the USMNT] comes around at some point in my career, then I’ll hopefully be able to say the same thing about it. But at the moment, I’m very happy here at LAFC and we have a lot of work to do.”
The USMNT starter has made just six appearances this season
Brad Friedel has told U.S. national team goalkeeper Matt Turner that if he can’t win the starting role at Arsenal, he has to leave the club.
Turner made the move to north London last summer from the New England Revolution, slotting in as Arsenal’s backup behind Aaron Ramsdale.
The 28-year-old has impressed when given the chance with Arsenal, but has made just six appearances and is still awaiting his Premier League debut.
Turner’s stock rose even higher after a strong World Cup with the USMNT, as he looks capable of starting for a number of clubs in Europe’s top five leagues.
Friedel, who coached Turner with the Revolution in 2018 and 2019, has encouraged the goalkeeper to seek out pastures new if he can’t overtake Ramsdale by next season.
“When I wasn’t playing consistently when I was at Liverpool I had to get out,” the former USMNT goalkeeper told sportingpost.com. “Even though I loved the club and it was the team I supported, I had to leave for my career. You have such a short career as a professional footballer and you need to play as many games as possible inside that time.
“Look at Matt’s competition for the national team spot. He was the number one then and he’s gone all this time without playing, but Zack Steffen, who wasn’t getting a game at Manchester City, is now playing well for Middlesbrough. They are possible promotion candidates and all of a sudden with Zack playing at a high level in the Championship and potentially in the Premier League and he’s playing every week whilst Matt is on the bench, then you’re looking at another change in who is the number one keeper for the U.S. national team.
“I think that Matt, no matter what, even though Arsenal are an incredible club, has to find consistent football somewhere. This season, fine, but if he’s not going to be the number one he has got to go. The only issue is that he’s on a long contract and if you’re Arsenal, why would you let him go? You’ve got an incredible goalkeeper, an incredible guy, a great worker, you have one of the best number twos on the planet.”
While Turner remains a backup, the next three keepers on the USMNT depth chart are all starters with their current clubs: Steffen (Middlesbrough) and Ethan Horvath (Luton Town) on loan in the Championship and Sean Johnson at his new club Toronto FC.
Pulisic was forced out of Chelsea’s game against Manchester City on January 5 and has not played since, with manager Graham Potter saying at the time he expected the American to be out “a couple of months.”
The 24-year-old was back with his teammates on Wednesday, with Mason Mount posting a picture on Instagram of the pair on the training pitch.
The Evening Standard says that Sunday’s game against Tottenham will come too soon for Pulisic, but Chelsea is hopeful he’ll be back for the following weekend’s game against Leeds.
Pulisic was injured with Chelsea languishing in 10th place in the Premier League and the club is still in 10th place, even after a January transfer window that saw the Blues spend more on players than each of the other four top leagues in Europe.
Potter is under huge pressure after just two wins from 14 games, and will be happy to welcome Pulisic back despite Chelsea having signed several expensive players in his position since his injury.
Pulisic only started five games for the Blues prior to the World Cup break, but started all three games after he turned in a strong tournament with the USMNT in Qatar.
The club isn’t exactly lighting up the scoreboard in Pulisic’s absence, with a paltry three goals in the eight games since his injury.
The latest nadir came last weekend as Chelsea contrived to lose 1-0 at home to Southampton, which entered the game bottom of the Premier League.
Pulisic may be back soon but if Chelsea doesn’t get a result against Spurs, the USMNT star could be playing for his third head coach of the season by the time he returns to the pitch.
Could the Leeds America era end as quickly as it began?
Saturday was the kind of game that Leeds should have been up for.
Facing relegation rival Everton at Goodison Park, Leeds needed to show some kind of sign it can turn around the ever-worsening tailspin this season is becoming.
Instead, Leeds was lifeless. Everton wasn’t brilliant either, but it didn’t need to be. One gritty performance and one lighting-bolt of a goal from Seamus Coleman sealed a 1-0 win for the Toffees.
Leeds is now 19th after a damaging weekend that also saw fellow strugglers Southampton and Bournemouth win. The club’s decision to sack Jesse Marsch a couple weeks ago wasn’t necessarily wrong, but doing so without having a potential replacement has been disastrous.
After being turned down in embarrassing and repeated fashion, the club is still being led by the caretaker trio of Michael Skubala, Chris Armas and Paco Gallardo. The Everton performance has, apparently, made Leeds hierarchy reconsider the wisdom of letting that trio continue much longer.
Leeds has become appointment viewing for American fans, but that may not last if things continue down this road.
Let’s explore that and a few other pressing topics in this week’s Five.
The former Arsenal and France forward would be an intriguing candidate
Could Thierry Henry be the next U.S. men’s national team head coach? He at least isn’t saying no to the possibility.
The USMNT is without a coach after Gregg Berhalter’s contract expired at the end of 2022. As U.S. Soccer also searches for a sporting director, federation president Cindy Parlow Cone has said to not expect a new USMNT coach until the end of summer.
Henry is an intriguing candidate to take over the USMNT. He was, of course, one of the greatest players of his generation, with his playing career including a stop in MLS with the New York Red Bulls.
After his retirement, Henry has served as head coach of Monaco and CF Montréal, while also taking in two separate stints as Roberto Martinez’s assistant with the Belgium national team.
Though his head coaching stints have been brief, Henry brings a unique combination of high-level playing success, coaching experience at the club and international level, and familiarity with American soccer.
Henry currently serves as a pundit for CBS Sports, where he was asked by host Kate Abdo on Wednesday if he would be interested in the USMNT job.
“Would I put my name in the hat? First and foremost, that’s a tricky one to talk about,” Henry said. “Roberto Martinez went to coach Portugal and I’m not going with him. Being a number two is no longer something I would like to do. Massive respect for the boss, he gave me an opportunity when no one else did. I’d like to have a crack [at management] again.”
“Do I know the [American] players? Yeah, I know the players. Do I know the league? Yeah, I know the league. It’s a different ballgame to talk about it now like that, but would I want to be a manager at any level? Yes, of course, that’s something I would want to do. But to go back to the U.S. national team and the U.S. in general, what’s the plan? What’s the philosophy? What do you want to be?
“And it’s not because you’re going to host the [World Cup] that you’re going to go far automatically. We’ve seen that it’s not easy to do that. We’ve seen some big teams [struggle] at home.”
The question for any candidate now is whether they will still be available in several months, when U.S. Soccer will begin the process of hiring. Henry, at least, is currently employed at a position from which it would not be hard to leave should the right offer come along.
Questions about soccer were rare. Airing of grievances was the order of the day
AL-RAYYAN, Qatar – In hindsight, the tenor of things was revealed from the moment Carlos Queiroz and Karim Ansarifard received a hearty round of applause as they strode into the wood-paneled auditorium deep inside the Qatari National Convention Centre.
That was just the start of an antagonistic and deeply surreal press conference.
The room that hosted both teams’ pregame availability one day ahead of the enormous — Ansarifard politely called it “a very sensitive game” — United States vs. Iran World Cup match was almost full, with representatives of US, Iranian and overseas journalists alike. Only one of those groups was clapping for Team Melli’s manager and striker, though.
An urbane, charismatic presence, Quieroz has led the Iranian side for most of the past decade. And his back-and-forth with Iran’s press pack — most of it hailing from state-affiliated outlets — flashed the cleverness by which he has endeared himself to so many across the nation without antagonizing the complex network of political factors that affect so much of high-level sports in the Islamic Republic.
While he did not utter the words “stick to sports,” that message was crystal clear.
“If after 42 years in this game as a coach, I still believe that I could win games with those mental games, I think I did not learn anything about the game. And this is not the case,” said Queiroz when asked about allegations of gamesmanship and skulduggery by the U.S. and Jurgen Klinsmann ahead of this fixture. “Those collective set of events that are surrounding this World Cup, I hope it will be a good lesson for all of us in the future. And that in the next event, we’ll be learning that our mission here is to create entertainment. And at least during 90 minutes, make the people happy.
That was likely music to the ears of both Iranian and Qatari government officials infuriated by media coverage of the ongoing human-rights protests that have roiled the streets of Iran for months, with hundreds reportedly killed and thousands arrested in state reprisals. Or the host nation’s questionable track record with migrant labor, laws criminalizing homosexuality and widespread reports of corruption around the awarding of this tournament.
It certainly drew another loud ovation from the Iranian press, who clapped a third time when Queiroz and Ansarifard left the room, with a FIFA official not offering any of the women journalists in the room a chance to pose a question.
(AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
The reception given to USMNT coach Gregg Berhalter and captain Tyler Adams a little under an hour later was drastically different.
“Tomorrow, perhaps it’s going to be the most sensitive game of this Cup,” an Iranian journalist stated in the second question of the United States’ presser. “If we made a survey of the whole world, what percentage of the population of the world will be happy because of the win of the national team of Iran, and what percentage of the whole population of the world will be happy because of the United States soccer team wins?
“I know that a lot of other constituents have another feeling towards it. But for us, it’s a soccer game against a good team. And it’s not much more than that,” said Berhalter. “It’s a knockout game, both teams want to go to the next round, both teams are desperate to go to the next round. And that’s how we’re looking at this match. We’re very focused on what we could do as a team, as are they. And we think it’s going to be a good soccer game.”
The questions posed by Iranians grew more and more strident. After Adams offered a seemingly earnest declaration of support for “Iran’s people and Iran’s team,” but added that his team is “laser focused” on securing the victory that will see them through to the knockout stages, another journalist called out his mispronunciation of the country’s name (Adams said I-ran rather than eee-ron).
Then he asked the USMNT captain if he was “OK to be representing a country that has so much discrimination against Black people in its own borders?” and where “there’s so much discrimination happening against Black people in America.”
Adams was measured in his response.
“My apologies on the mispronunciation of your country,” said the 23-year-old midfielder. “That being said, there’s discrimination everywhere you go. One thing that I’ve learned, especially from living abroad in the past years, and having to fit in in different cultures and kind of assimilate into different cultures, is that in the U.S., we’re continuing to make progress every single day. Growing up for me, I grew up in a white family with obviously an African-American heritage and background as well.
“So I had a little bit of different cultures, and I was very easily able to assimilate in different cultures. So not everyone has that ease and the ability to do that. And obviously, it takes longer to understand and through education, I think it’s super important. Like you just educated me now on the pronunciation of your country. So yeah, it’s a process, I think. As long as you see progress, that’s the most important thing.”
🎙️ La rueda de prensa más incómoda de lo que llevamos de Mundial.
🎥 Tyler Adams contestó una de las preguntas a un periodista iraní sobre el racismo en Estados Unidos.
The queries from Iranian reporters ran the gamut of their nation’s frustrations with the United States government and its foreign policy.
“Why is it that you do not ask your government to take away its military fleet from the Persian Gulf?”
“It seems the U.S. media have also started the mind games and attack like England and U.K. [media], we have never seen in sports that something like this has happened.”
“I’ve been in New York about two months ago, and there was no support to your team [due to] the high rise of inflation and economic problems. Do you think the American people support your team and you?”
“How is your reaction when I tell you U.S. passport [holders], they can be welcome to Iran anytime, and they can visit anywhere in Iran. But the same time Iranian passport, they can’t enter USA or United States lands, otherwise they have to make some problems?”
“Jurgen Klinsmann and his offense to head coach of Iran, Mr. Queiroz, he was starting psychological warfare to Iran or not?”
On and on went the fusillade of grievance, with Iranian journalists making clear that their members see great unfairness being inflicted on their team and its nation, leaving Adams and Berhalter nonplussed.
“I don’t know enough about politics. I’m a soccer coach,” Berhalter said at one point. “And I’m not well-versed on international politics.”
It was a surreal moment, and underlined — if the USMNT could possibly have any remaining doubt — just how many layers of meaning and controversy have been layered atop this zero-sum match.
“Sports is a huge opportunity to bring people together,” Adams said. “We continue to show our support and our empathy for what’s obviously happening to the Iranian team and the people. That being said, we do have a game to focus on.”
The architect of Project 2010 is now trying to end project 2022
AL-RAYYAN, Qatar – A savvy, charismatic, multi-national polyglot with a fascination for the particularities of the American spirit: One could make the case that Carlos Queiroz was American soccer’s Jurgen Klinsmann before Jurgen Klinsmann was.
While Klinsmann has been a constant presence in the nation’s footballing consciousness for more than a decade thanks to his television commentary work and time in charge of the U.S. men’s national team that followed, the Portuguese manager was a quietly influential figure on the domestic scene before the turn of the century.
Though he would become a globetrotting coach with an array of high-powered destinations on his resume, Queiroz maintained U.S. ties through a network of colleagues and relationships that stretches from New York to Chicago to Manchester to Tehran and, eventually, to Doha today.
Here he leads Iran into a massive World Cup match with the USMNT on Tuesday, with Group B’s results pitting the longtime geopolitical antagonists in a zero-sum situation for advancement to the tournament’s knockout stages. The Yanks need a win at Al Thumama Stadium to reach the round of 16, while a draw would be enough to see Team Melli through.
In several ways, Queiroz’s ideas served as a sort of Rosetta Stone for the dramatic evolution of the player development pathway that produced so many members of the current USMNT squad. He arrived stateside in the spring of 1996 to take over the coaching duties of the New York/New Jersey MetroStars during Major League Soccer’s inaugural season.
“I realized immediately the great potential of United States soccer,” Queiroz told Soccer America in 2018. “What I found was the beginning of a huge project to create and help develop soccer in the United States.”
Not long after, the U.S. Soccer Federation launched Project 2010, an ambitious big-picture plan to orient multiple levels of the sport towards the pursuit of excellence in time to compete for the trophy at that year’s World Cup.
Federation leaders, mindful of his past role in cultivating Portugal’s “golden generation,” tabbed Queiroz and his friend and colleague Dan Gaspar to provide “an independent look at the landscape here with a third-party point of view,” as Sunil Gulati would later put it.
Its general outline was released just before France 1998, where the USMNT’s woebegone last-place performance delivered a painful reality check.
The 113-page “Q report” wasn’t exactly implemented in full. Yet its concepts helped lay the groundwork for innovations like the U.S. Soccer Development Academy youth league, upgraded coaching education structures and a national talent scouting network.
In fact, the federation was impressed enough that tentative plans were mooted for Queiroz to take over the USMNT after Steve Sampson’s departure, although that never came to pass. He would go on to manage Real Madrid, work alongside Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United and lead a diverse list of national teams from Portugal to South Africa.
Nowhere did he build a legacy quite like with Iran. He’s led Team Melli at three consecutive World Cups across two stints in charge, and is now just one positive result away from steering them into the knockout stages for the first time ever.
(Photo by MIGUEL MEDINA / AFP)
A hard-charging personality who’s said to thrive on four hours of sleep a night, Queiroz has earned the loyalty of fans and players while managing to walk the tightrope required in the treacherous, politicized environment of Iranian sports, a domain government officials often involve themselves in.
He’s also drawn headlines for his outspoken defenses of his players, who are under a microscope in Qatar, just across the Persian Gulf from Iran. Huge numbers of supporters on both sides of the political divide are flocking to their matches while the human-rights protests and deadly government reprisals that have roiled their homeland since September loom large.
Making sure to note Klinsmann’s perceived “German/American” allegiances, Queiroz called his remarks “prejudiced,” “outrageous” and “a disgrace to football” before calling on him to resign from his position on FIFA’s Technical Study Group.
Klinsmann responded that his words were “taken completely wrong” and “taken out of context,” suggesting that his past role in charge of the USMNT had led Iranians to see him as a provocateur and pledging to get in touch with Queiroz and “calm things down.” The subsequent controversy over U.S. Soccer’s use of an altered Iran flag with the symbols of its hardline Islamic government removed has only roiled the waters further.
“It is unique. It is something different,” said U.S. defender Tim Ream on Sunday in a tense press conference attended by media from both nations. “But at the same time, we’re all human, we understand that there are things going on that are out of our control. And so that’s where we find ourselves. Again, we understand and empathize with the Iranian people. And at the end of the day, we are still having to focus on what is our job.”
It all shapes Tuesday into a metaphorical powder keg, as well as an on-field scenario that favors Queiroz, known for his organized, defensively resilient tactics. If the Yanks are unable to dig out the victory they require to reach the round of 16, they’ll have been undone by an adversary who knows them and their soccer culture just about as well as any opposing manager could.
Iran officials reacted angrily to the gesture from U.S. Soccer
AL-RAYYAN, Qatar – An already-contentious occasion with massive stakes got even spicier for the U.S. men’s national team on Sunday, as a social-media squabble turned up the heat on Tuesday’s must-win World Cup match versus Iran.
Fierce, women-led street protests have rumbled on in Iranian streets for weeks, with the nation’s hardline Islamic government responding with violent crackdowns that have reportedly killed hundreds and led to thousands of arrests. Amid that backdrop, U.S. Soccer officials decided to show support for Iran’s human-rights activists by using an Iranian flag without the Emblem of Iran on the USMNT’s Twitter header and some social-media posts.
The emblem was added to the flag’s center after the Iranian Revolution of 1979; it is a stylized depiction of the word Allah that represents the phrase “There is no god but God” and has become associated with the country’s fundamentalist religious leadership.
“The intent of the post was to show support for women’s rights, it was meant to be a moment,” said USMNT press officer Michael Kammarman at a Sunday media availability at the team’s Al-Gharafa training base. “We made the posts at the time, all the other representations of the flag remain consistent, and will continue to.”
The flag on the USMNT’s Twitter header was soon adjusted to reflect the official Iranian flag and the social-media posts have been taken down amid rapid blowback. Iranian officials and state-associated media have reacted with anger, accusing USSF of removing God from their flag and attempting to disrupt their national team before a crucial game for both sides.
“We know that this game isn’t isn’t played in a bubble,” said U.S. defender Tim Ream. “There are a lot of things that happen around the world and people want our opinions, but our opinion is that we want to play the game. And the game is for everyone. And that’s what we’re focused on.”
U.S. Soccer officials had consulted with Iranian experts on the gesture of support, but did not inform USMNT head coach Gregg Berhalter or his players before posting the images of the altered flag.
“We’re huge supporters of women’s rights,” said USMNT defender Walker Zimmerman. “We didn’t know anything about the post, but we are supporters of women’s rights. We always have been. We’re focused a lot on Tuesday from the sporting side as well, so you [a reporter] mentioned it’s a distraction. I think this is such a focused group on the task at hand. But at the same time we empathize, and we are firm believers in women’s rights and support them.”
The USMNT are on two points and must win Tuesday’s match at Al Thumama Stadium to advance to the World Cup’s knockout phase, while Iran enter with three points and need only a draw to advance. The game is a redux of the nations’ meeting at the 1998 World Cup in France, where Iran won 2-1 amid similar political tensions owing to their tangled history over the decades.
