World Cup Diary | Day Six

Day 6: Wales v Iran, Qatar v Senegal, Netherlands v Ecuador and England v USA

Day six began with the most emotionally charged game of the Finals so far. Wales v Iran. There was not the nerves of the opening fixture for either side as they lined up for the national anthems. Both teams knew this was their best chance at picking up points and progressing to the next round.

This felt like the game with the most genuine supporters from both sides too. Wales red wall group of supporters belted out "Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau" – meaning Land of my Fathers, with a roar befitting of their reputation as a nation of singers. They sang with hope, determination, expectation. There were tears in the eyes with the emotion. Back home, a thousand schools were taking breaks from lessons so children could watch the game.

The word Welsh means foreigner or slave in Old English and was the name given to native Brits by the Anglo-Saxons invaders 1,500 years ago. There's been a lot of talk recently of a vote for Scottish independence, but listen to any interview with Michael Sheen and you'll wonder why the movement for Welsh independence isn't stronger.

The word Cymry means fellow-countrymen and Cymru means land of compatriots. Surely, if it is the will of the Cymry to be called by these names, as has been indicated before the tournament, then the English speaking world giving them that respect, is the least that can be done.

Onto Iran then. And we speculated yesterday that the arrest of Iranian footballer, Voria Ghafouri, was a warning to the Iran National team at the World Cup. Ghafouri is one of three high profile Iranian footballers arrested this year, joining Parviz Boroumand, former national team goalkeeper, as well as as unconfirmed reports of the arrest of 26 year old right back Amir Nasr Azadani.

There was no silent protest this time, the players sang the anthem and they didn't look happy to be doing it at all. It was a mumble at best. Meanwhile in the crowd the reaction to the images of the players singing heightened the feeling. Boos and jeers rose up with more fervour this match.

The camera gave us close ups of Iranian fans sobbing uncontrollably. Has there ever been national anthems like this? Normally there is a mix of some players singing, some not, often the veterans looking to get it over with and get the game going. This was quite the opposite, I've never seen anything like it, truly unforgettable.

Among the crowd a women, with makeup of red tears coming from her eyes, held up an Iranian t-shirt with MAHSA AMINI and 22 on the back, in memory of the 22 year old who's death in the custody of the morality police, was the catalyst which has sparked renewed protests across the country.

A man next to her held a t-shirt up with the slogan “WOMEN, LIFE, FREEDOM”. They were led away by security officers.

They were one of the few protesters that got into the stadium with their anti-regime messages. The process for passing through security at this game took longer than any game so far, with 1000s missing kick-off still waiting to get into the ground.

There are reports that Qatar officials are working to stop any anti-regime protests from the Iranian supporters. And the evidence all points to that.

The game itself was as passionate as the mood. For most of the game it was scoreless, but not without drama, the action, often end-to-end, was borne of two teams knowing that a draw would not really be good enough. At one point, Iran hit both posts in the matter of seconds. It encouraged the supporters in the stands. The Cymry becoming nervous but no less loud.

The drama intensified when, 4 minutes from normal time, the Cymry goalkeeper Wayne Hennessy, once infamous for being caught in a photograph performing a Nazi salute, and later claimed he didn't know what that was, was sent off after VAR suggested, correctly, that the referee had missed once of the most obvious red cards you're likely to see.

9 minutes of stoppage time for Ian to get a winner or for the red dragons to hang on.

What a moment then, that in the 98^th minute, Rouzbeh Cheshmi sent a brilliantly struck shot into the bottom corner of the goal and the celebrations from the whole squad were scenes of pure jubiliation.It was the first goal scored from outside the box at this World Cup. As Cymru pushed on in the dying seconds, Iran broke and Ramin Rezaeian clipped a technically brilliant chip over Danny Ward and brought pure ecstasy to a distraught nation.

No other game on day six could come close to this level of passion, and perhaps not in the tournament, Cymru 0 Iran 2.

Onto Qatar Senegal then. Now Qatar have taken a lot of criticism for their human rights abuses in this tournament, and rightly so. But their football team are terrible too.

2 goals for Senegal either side of half-time effectively ended the contest, and though Qatar warmed to the challenge at two down, and even scored their 200 billion goal, that was as much as you felt they could get. Bamba dieng restore the two goal cushion for Senegal and it was easy in the end for the Africans.

Netherlands are one of the favourites, but they were totally outplayed by Ecuador who should consider themselves unlucky not to have won. The Dutch scored from their only shot on target, a Cody Gakpo strike, from outside the box that snuck in at the near post. Five minutes gone, 1-0 Netherlands.

But it was all Ecuador after that. The South Americans had 15 shots to the Oranje's 2 and they got their goal just after half time from the talismanic Enner Valencia. Netherlands 1 Ecuador 1.

Onto the evenings main event then. England v USA. Finally two countries without a blemish on their human rights records. So we can just focus on the football!

England have never beaten USA at a World Cup Finals and the wait for that to happen will go on. To win at football you have to look like a scoring a goal, and England did not. But for the passionate United States Mens National Team, this would have been a dead rubber, but it's always a passionate game for States.

Every game rekindles stories of the war of independence, the reason they celebrate on 4^th July, a sporting spectacle against the old enemy. Cups of tea celebrations, but this game was no party.

0-0. An anti-climax. Day six began with the most passionate and emotionally charged game perhaps of the whole tournament, and ended with two sides who seemed content, in the end, to play out the draw, not wanting to risk losing the game. England have now effectively qualified, only an unlikely huge loss to Cymru in their final game would knock them out. The US know that if they beat Iran they will progress.

Qatar, who have waited and planned a decade for this opportunity, are out, will they ever qualify for a World Cup? Despite their Asian Cup win in 2019, their chances seem incredibly remote. Perhaps they should have stuck to nationalising players. They are the first host nation to lose two games of a group round at a World Cup.

Ecuador and Senegal will play what will effectively be a knockout match to progress, the only way Netherlands can be knocked out now is if they lose to Qatar and Senegal beat Ecuador. Meanwhile Iran will play the USA for a place in the next round, in what is sure to be another memorable tie.

In a tournament were debate has been fierce off the pitch as much as on it, Iran stole the hearts of all freedom-loving people. Their passion to make a better life back home, especially for the women of their nation, manifested on the pitch in a spirited and unforgettable performance.

You can take away their flags, and t-shirts, you can remove them from the grounds, but their message has been heard.

ABOUT

The Qatar World Cup 2022 is potentially the most controversial sporting event since the 1936 Berlin Olympics. A story that is so bizarre and complex, it has sent sport from the back pages, to the front pages, to the long-reads in the middle of newspapers.

Blood on the Sand: Qatar 2022 will track the progress of the World Cup through the World Cup Diary series. A short podcast episode, one per day, covering news from the tournament both on and off the pitch. Followed by a more detailed in-depth look at the history of Qatar, the tournament and how those two collided.

CREDITS

Blood on the Sand is written, produced and performed by Adonis Storr (@theadelites on Twitter).

Cover Art was created with Daan (@DaanGraphics on Twitter and Instagram).

Music by WombatNoisesAudio (https://soundcloud.com/user-734462061) including the tracks The Legend of Narmer and Jewel Of Nekhen. Music was promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com and is used in conjunction with Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US.