← All shows

The Daily - Why Everyone Cares About This World Cup

Published Jun 29, 2026 · Duration 40:08 · Language en · 8 highlights

Summary

这期《The Daily》播客聚焦在美国、墨西哥和加拿大举办的世界杯,探讨了这场全球最受关注的体育赛事在场外引发的人文故事。记者Tarek Panja指出,尽管赛前因美国的地缘政治紧张、移民限制、签证困难和ICE执法等因素令人担忧,但当各国球队和球迷涌入美国小城镇后,赛事意外地带来了喜悦与彼此敞开心扉的相遇。节目讲述了阿尔及利亚队落脚堪萨斯州劳伦斯、苏格兰格子军团让波士顿彻夜狂欢、挪威球迷占领纽约等温暖瞬间,展现了美国作为移民国家的多元拼图。同时,节目深入剖析了世界杯的复杂性,尤其是伊朗队在与美国处于公开军事冲突期间参赛所面临的困境。庞大的伊朗裔美国社群在如何支持球队这一问题上产生分裂:有人视球队为德黑兰政府的宣传工具,更多人则在热爱球队和反对本国政府之间艰难权衡。制作人Anna Foley采访了伊朗裔父子Farhad和Kevin,他们既深爱伊朗也深爱美国,努力把政治与对球员、对人民的热爱区分开来。整期节目通过球场内外国歌被嘘、球员却被欢呼的场景,呈现了民族主义、身份认同与爱国情感在足球赛场上的实时碰撞。

Highlights

  1. America's posture to the world has been one which is kind of antithetical to a tournament that is supposed to bring the world together and bring the world to it. This was a country that was talking about building walls, reducing immigration, sending people out.

    美国对世界的姿态,与一场本应把世界团结起来、把世界吸引过来的赛事是相悖的。这是一个谈论着修建隔离墙、削减移民、把人驱逐出境的国家。

    Sharp framing of the geopolitical paradox underlying the tournament
  2. Spain going to Chattanooga. And there is a phenomenon there called Lameen watching. So Lamine Yamal is one of the most famous athletes in the world. He is going to be the next massive superstar after Messi and Ronaldo. And here we are, seeing him go to a Walmart.

    西班牙队落脚查塔努加。那里出现了一种叫做围观拉明的现象。拉明·亚马尔是世界上最著名的运动员之一,他将成为继梅西和C罗之后的下一位超级巨星。而我们现在却看到他出现在沃尔玛里。

    Surprising, funny image of global superstars in small-town America
  3. What happened when the Algerian team arrived in Lawrence, Kansas. They prepared by getting the marching band of the University of Kansas to learn the national anthem of Algeria.

    当阿尔及利亚队抵达堪萨斯州劳伦斯时发生的事。他们让堪萨斯大学的行进乐队提前学会了阿尔及利亚的国歌。

    Heartwarming story of an American town embracing a foreign team
  4. The way the fan culture works is be loud, be fun, drink all of the beer, but leave the people happy you were there. This was a culture that was created almost as an opposition to the hooliganism that was around English football and English fans in the 80s and 90s.

    这种球迷文化的精髓是:喧闹、有趣、把啤酒喝光,但要让当地人为你的到来感到高兴。这种文化几乎是作为对上世纪八九十年代英格兰足球流氓行为的反抗而创造出来的。

    Reveals the deliberate origin of Scotland's beloved fan culture
  5. It's a split love. I love America more than anything. It's the one that gave me the opportunity. It gives me everything. My kids, I have three boys and a girl, they're all successful. But Jordan, it's my love. Oh my God, this is the proudest moment of my life.

    这是一份分裂的爱。我爱美国胜过一切,是它给了我机会,给了我一切。我的孩子,三个儿子一个女儿,都很成功。但约旦,是我的挚爱。天哪,这是我一生中最骄傲的时刻。

    Moving personal testimony of dual national identity
  6. On the most extreme edge of this are people who simply will not support the team and say, this is a propaganda tool of the government in Tehran. This is not the Iranian team. But it's the majority in the middle. They're the ones finding it the hardest because they do love this te ...

    在最极端的一端,有些人干脆拒绝支持这支球队,他们说这是德黑兰政府的宣传工具,这不是伊朗队。但处于中间的才是大多数。他们才是最纠结的人,因为他们确实热爱这支球队,也热爱自己的国家。那么该如何支持他们呢?

    Captures the painful internal division within the Iranian diaspora
  7. When the Iranian national anthem plays, you hear widespread booing, jeering across the stadium. But when the team then takes to the field, it's like a home game. What we are seeing in real time is a mash-up of nationalism, of identity, of patriotism, of a sense of people trying t ...

    当伊朗国歌奏响时,整个体育场充斥着此起彼伏的嘘声和奚落。但当球队踏上球场时,又仿佛是一场主场比赛。我们正在实时见证的,是民族主义、身份认同、爱国情感的交织,是人们试图弄清自己是谁的过程。

    Vivid scene crystallizing the booing-anthem-yet-cheering-players paradox
  8. I love the people of Iran and I love the people of the United States and that's what the countries are about. I'm not really crazy about the governments right now, either of them. I try to block out politics from when I want to feel something good about these countries.

    我爱伊朗人民,也爱美国人民,国家的本质就在于此。我现在对两国的政府都不怎么感冒。当我想对这两个国家产生美好感受时,我会努力把政治排除在外。

    Distills how fans separate love of people from politics amid war
Full transcript

I'm Paul Tenorio. I cover soccer for The Athletic. And I'm Amy Lawrence. I cover football for The Athletic. Whatever you call it, the biggest competition in the sport is happening right now. And The Athletic's World Cup coverage has everything you need to follow the tournament. We've got more than 70 obsessive reporters on the ground. If you're eager to know more about the teams, the matches, all the stories on and off the pitch, we've got you sorted. Throughout the tournament, you have free access to all the coverage in our app.

Download the athletic app and see you there. From the New York Times, I'm Natalie Ketroev. This is the Daily. Two weeks into the World Cup, the most watched sports event on the planet has already broken records.

hitting its highest attendance ever and generating the most goals scored in history. But one of the biggest stories of the tournament is happening off the field. I feel like I've been lied to in my entire life about America. Like, I mean, Florida, this beach is insane. Like, just as good as Australian beaches. As a wave of international visitors encounter an America they'd never seen up close. How do you think of America, of Texas?

Texas is good. Everything needs to be. Ranch. I love ranch. I taste it here and it's delicious. And I take two bottles with home. And Americans encounter them and open their arms to the world's soccer fans. It's hard to sit there and think Americans are bad because every single person I've met that's American has been unbelievable.

Today, my colleague Tarek Panja explains the magic and the complexity of this moment, and Daily Producer Anna Foley talks to two fans in the middle of it. It's Monday, June 29th. Tarek, welcome back to The Daily. It's lovely to have you. Lovely to be back with you.

I have been watching the World Cup. It has been incredible, the competition itself, but also the amazing scenes that we have seen from fans from all over the world colliding with each other. And this is the thing that you told us would happen when you were last on the show. There is always this anticipation and anxiety that leads up to the World Cup. And then...

The games begin and it becomes this human experiment of what happens when you bring the entire world together around a sport. It does. And tournament after tournament, it gives us this brief moment of uplift, of joy, of people coming together. And we're seeing it in places big and small here in the United States. And I'm so pleased that people in this part of the world are able to experience this.

And we should say this wasn't perhaps expected because there was a lot of angst around some of the geopolitical tension that was hanging over this. I mean, one of the host countries in this case, the United States, is literally in the middle of a war right now. And the U.S. has even had beef with the co-hosts, Mexico and Canada. One of them, Trump has threatened to bomb and the other, he's threatened to turn into the 51st state. So this wasn't straightforward. You're right. This wasn't straightforward.

at all america's posture to the world has been one which is kind of antithetical to a tournament that is supposed to bring the world together and bring the world to it this was a country that was talking about building walls reducing immigration sending people out and for fans who were trying to come here getting visas was proving very difficult then there was the question of.

Ice enforcement of the tournament the possibility of that even even on the cusp of the tournament We had the situation with the referee from Somalia FIFA referee someone on the list to work at this tournament sent back to Turkey where he flew from and that does give you a sense of dread if you are not someone who is sure they're gonna be able to get into this country but tournament starts and we've seen Wonderful images. We've heard wonderful songs. We've all heard anecdotes of things that only the World Cup can bring. It is what happens when the world comes together. And so, Tarek, despite the baggage, the good feelings began almost immediately. So, tell us how that happened. Like, what actually shifted? What shifted? The people. It starts with these teams, 48 teams.

in the biggest World Cup ever. And they have to choose base camps where the team will be staying between the matches in these enormous stadiums in these cities. And where they tend to go are certainly not big cities. And I'll give you some examples. Spain going to Chattanooga. Right. And there is a phenomenon there called Lameen watching. So Lameen Yamal.

is one of the most famous athletes in the world. He is going to be the next massive superstar after Messi and Ronaldo. Right. And here we are, seeing him go to a Walmart. Then we have Erling Haaland, who also has a claim to be one of the most famous people in the world. He's with Norway.

in Greensboro. How cool is it to have Norway in Greensboro, North Carolina? It's awesome. It's epic. But the best example of the one that is almost the cutest is what happened when the Algerian team arrived in Lawrence, Kansas. They prepared by getting the marching band of the University of Kansas to learn the national anthem of Algeria. I want to say thank you to Team Algeria for choosing our hometown Lawrence Kansas to come here and so welcome. This I believe it's a college town would never have had anything approaching this in terms of a global event. So far everybody here has been very friendly and very welcoming and I'm really glad Algeria is going to be here.

And one, two, three, Viva Alger. You see local people dressed in the Algeria jerseys, they are all rooting for this Algerian team. So I love to support them, you know, especially since they're in Lawrence, you know, I'll support them. Right. OK, so you start to have this mutual excitement bubbling up on both sides, the teams and the Americans that are receiving them. And then.

There's a next wave that comes, right, when the fans of these teams begin to arrive. Talk to me about that. Now, this is my favorite part. This is where fans from every corner of our world arrive full of hope, full of cheer, and just ready to have fun meeting each other and showing their colors, the showing their songs. And we've seen that.

We've seen images of the famous or now famous Norwegian Viking road taking over New York and New Jersey, including an escalator where you have Norwegian fans sitting down and rowing as it takes them into the subway system. There are buses that have been organised by the city of Dallas to take fans to various points of interest.

In Norway, we have nothing like this. This is too much. I love it. But the one that's proved more popular than most has been the trip to Bukkys. You're never going to believe this, guys. This is a gas station. This goes on for miles and miles and miles. Gotta get to Bukkys. I agree with that strategy. And the guys behind the counter, like, they do a sing song. What is this place? I can stay in here forever.

We've also had all of these stories of fans, whether they're French, Japanese or from anywhere else, trying American food and actually liking it. Hot French fries in a chocolate milkshake. That shouldn't work, but that's actually really good. Texas barbecue seems to be a big hit at the moment.

I love it! The Philly cheesesteak. A national delicacy. Yeah, a national delicacy. I love beef, I love cheese. It's a perfect combination. And then, Scotland. What can we say about the Tartan army? The name the Scottish fans are best known by. What's been the most Bostonian thing you've seen or witnessed? It's got to be some yardums. A couple of the guys don't like it, but I think it's pretty nice.

They hadn't been to the World Cup since 1998. Right. And they really have made up for lost time, haven't they? The Bostonians are something special, honestly. The people of Boston will never forget the days the Tartan army invaded their city. And, obviously, drank their city dry, but all in good cheer. We went from regular Boston to all of a sudden party Boston 24-7.

Scotland did, unfortunately, just officially get kicked out of the World Cup this past weekend, but they clearly left an impression. I mean, it was so pronounced, this love story between these Scottish fans and the Bostonians that received them that I think the Boston Globe literally dedicated a full page in the newspaper just thanking them for visiting. They did indeed. And now the Scots have a tradition for this. The way the fan culture works is be loud, be fun, drink all of the beer, but leave the people happy you were there. This was a culture that was created almost as an opposition to the hooliganism that was around English football and English fans in the 80s and 90s. I had no idea. That's so interesting. And it's not just the Scots.

you can't manufacture some of these meetings. They are chance meetings. And we're seeing this in a way that perhaps we were not expecting because of the sensation or the feeling around the US. Right. And so these international fans, they're being exposed to parts of America that they may never have seen otherwise. And for Americans, you do see people trying to show their most open selves.

I think there's also the inquisitiveness. People want to know about each other. And there's a pride as well. Say, look, this is our town. This is who we are. And we want to show our best face. It also feels significant that this is happening at the same time that the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary. And some of those official celebrations have become very tied to President Trump. And they've become...

contentious in some cases for that reason. And then at the same time, you have this other celebration that's happening all across the country that also feels like it's saying something important about the United States and its identity. Yeah, it tells us that this country is a patchwork of people and it was built on everybody. This is an immigrant nation. The World Cup has shown it to be so.

Not only are the fans coming from overseas to support their teams, the entire diaspora of these teams is also behind them. I met a guy who was Jordanian. And what's your name, sir? My name is Farouq Orfred. This man called Farouq. I moved to the state 46 years ago. 46 years ago? Yes.

It's a split love. I love America more than anything. And he just could not tell me how much he loved America. It's the one that gave me the opportunity. It gives me everything. My kids, I have three boys and a girl, they're all successful. He was beaming about what America gave to him. But Jordan, it's my love. But he also said, I love Jordan. Oh my God, this is the proudest moment of my life.

Really? For a small nation of ours, you cannot believe how proud we are. I am so proud that my country has made the World Cup. I came to the first game and I'm in second game, then I'm going to go watch. He was off to Dallas next to see them against Lionel Messi. Every day of the week, God bless America. God bless everything about this place. And God bless my nation, Jordan. Thank you very much. So you can have that duality. It's also what it's shown.

You can be two things. You don't have to lash yourself to one flag or to the master one idea. Right, and in many ways this is kind of the diaspora world cup. Off the field and on the field, the word diaspora has been said over and over about this world cup. But with that comes a degree of complexity. It is not a seamless thing. This can...

sometimes be difficult. Just talk about that side of things. What exactly you mean by that? The most obvious case has to be that of Iran. This is a team I've been following now for months since the start of the war. This team has faced hardships, unlike any other. This is the first time a team participating at the World Cup has been in conflict, military conflict.

With a host nation right that has struck us here, too I mean the complications around the Iran team has been this major story of the World Cup for many reasons right yeah, and the fans have had their own kind of hardships because of the feeling Towards the government in Iran the love of country in that context mm-hmm and the love of team Do we support this team? Who does this team represent?

and has split the Iranian community somewhat. I think most Iranians remain firmly supportive of the team on the field. But I've spoken to so many people who are trying to find ways to support the team, but also in a way protest or find a way of opposing the government back home. You're saying this really big...

Iranian community in the United States is itself in conflict over how to relate to their own team, right? Because they have such a conflicted relationship to their government. And the idea of how to support them is presenting all of these conundrums for these people. It does. On the most extreme edge of this are people who simply will not support the team and say, this is a propaganda tool of the government in Tehran. This is not the Iranian team, but it's the majority in the middle. They're the ones, I think, that are finding it the hardest because they do love this team. They do love their country as well. So how do you support them? So we're almost seeing kind of the internal divisions of the Iranian opposition, Iranian politics writ large around the outskirts.

of a World Cup stadium in Los Angeles. Right. You're seeing this internal struggle of this diaspora play out live in front of us, in the stadiums, outside them, this internal debate inside of a community over how to relate to their team. It's all there in public. It's all there in public and it's all in the face of those players.

So when the Iranian national anthem plays, you hear widespread booing jeering across the stadium. But when the team then takes to the field, it's like a home game. What we are seeing in real time is a mash-up of nationalism, of identity, of patriotism, of a sense of people trying to work out who they are, what they want.

and what their future holds all around this international soccer tournament. Well, Tariq, thank you so much for being here. Nice to be with you again. We'll be right back. I'm Jonathan Knight, and I'm the general manager of New York Times Games. If you play our games, you probably know there's something a bit different about them. Just like there are writers behind the articles you read in The Times, there are creators behind our daily puzzles.

Tracy Bennett curates the day's wordle solution to keep it lively and varied. When a lu creates each connections board, including all those categories that try to stump you, Sam Ozersky comes through every last letter, word, and pangram in spelling bee so that loyal players of all skill levels enjoy it. Our puzzles are human made every day with the standards you'd expect from the New York Times.

And this matters because when you choose to spend time with our games, it should be time well spent solving puzzles that are challenging, surprising, and joyful. Puzzles handcrafted for you. We think that's something worth investing in and something worth paying for. Subscribe now for a special offer on all of our games at nytimes.com. As we said before the break, the team and arguably the most complicated place in this World Cup is Iran.

The team is playing in a host country that's in open conflict with theirs, and now the whole world's watching as this fragile ceasefire gets tested again and again. One of our show's producers, Anna Foley, spent time with a couple of lifelong fans of the Iranian team, just hours before Iran played their first game. They talked about what all this is like this year, and the complex business of sorting out national pride and fandom in the middle of war.

Is there anything you miss from Iran? Of course. This is Farhad. Tell me something. Okay. People, this is my love. Land, people very hospitable, kind, caring, full of love. I've been a third of my life over there and two-third here. Believe it or not, I remember the first one-third.

Farhad came to the US from Iran 47 years ago. Back then he'd been trying to get a visa for years. For five years I tried, nothing happened. But nothing seemed to work. This was right before the Iranian Revolution. A lot of other people were trying to get visas around the same time. One day he showed up at the embassy.

the whole street completely filled with people. There were thousands of people there. Chances seemed slim. He was going to be able to get his paperwork. But then he heard a man call his name. And I was sort of surprised. No microphone, no speaker or nothing. He just yelled it and I happened to be right there. So he handed me my passport and I didn't even know what that meant. I said, can you tell me what this is with broken English, of course? And he said, you got visa. I said, so I can go.

to United States. He said, yes, of course. So I was really, really shocked, really, really shocked. Very lucky. Yeah. No. How this thing happened, I took it as a, honestly, as an act of God. I could not logically reason it. How this thing worked out. Farhad says he's replayed that moment every day he's lived in America, which it's been a while. He got here in 1979, settled down in Ohio.

got married, had kids. One of whom is Kevin. Kevin's lifelong obsession with soccer started at home with his dad and an old VHS tape of World Cup goals. Kevin couldn't get enough. One VHS tape turned into boxes of taped games in the living room. Soon, Kevin was playing soccer in a neighborhood league, and Farhad was taking him to meet American players. Oh, Brad Friedle, Brian McBride, Thomas Dooley. Kevin became a real student of the game. Like the U.S., I think, hit the post like four times in that game. Even now, he can recite what happened in one of his favorite games from when he was 11. I've rewatched all the old U.S. games. Kevin has tremendous amount of knowledge. I can't, it's like insipidia of soccer, honestly.

Why did you love soccer so much? What drew you in, do you think? I think a big part of it is the connection with my family, the fact that my dad loved it. It's one of the major ways that I have been able to connect with my past and my heritage, my Iranian side in particular. This is all, of course, a classic. Father and son watch a sport, feel closer. It's how they show they love one another. They live in the same apartment complex these days.

Kevin told me a typical night for them is he'll go over to his dad's, they'll cook some Persian food, and turn on a game. And Iranian soccer has always been a part of their bond. Back in 1998, when Kevin was 11, the Iranian national team was good. It looked like they set a chance to qualify for the World Cup. So Kevin and Farhad started following the team, cutting out articles in the paper about their games. And so then, I think me, my mom and my sister came home from somewhere and my dad said, I have the biggest soccer news for you. And I think it took me two guesses, but I realized it was that Iran had qualified for the World Cup. So that's a moment that I always remember. Iran actually played the U.S. in that World Cup the first time ever. And for Kevin, it was the first time his two identities were pitted against each other in the sport he loved. We went to, you know, this restaurant. There was a lot of U.S. fans. And then it's like our little table with the Iranian section and the rest is like USA. But I also

I'm cheering for both teams so yeah those are always sort of interesting situations when like you have two teams that you you really like and they're coming up against each other. Iran won that game two to one. What did Iran's victory back then feel like for you? Like was it complicated to watch Iran win over the US? No it was at least for my self-satisfaction that Iran came positive. Not that I wanted the US to lose or anything, but I was happy after so many negative things in media regarding Iran and so forth. At least it shows yes they can make effort, they can move up, they can be proud of themselves in the international level. I never can turn my back to where I was raised and so forth. That is part

part of my nature. The US and Iran wouldn't meet again on the World Cup pitch for more than 20 years in 2022 in Qatar. At that point, Kevin and Farhad had moved to Southern California, the other side of the planet. But the opportunity to see their two favorite teams square off, it was just too good to pass up. So I got some US tickets for myself, but I was like, I can't not go to the USA Iran game without my dad, you know.

What started as Kevin's plans to take his dad to one game ballooned into an epic father-son Middle East trip. Farhad was in charge of logistics. So this is our flight pattern, and this is all the games that we attend. He showed me the maps of all the stadiums. I made two copies just in case we lose. Train times I took to get there. Yeah, my dad is legendary with his notes and his charts. He ran the itinerary with precision and rigor. But...

Kevin was the one who had the idea to start off their trip with his dad's lifelong dream, to go to Mecca. When Kevin said it, it just touched my heart. To me, that has the highest value. Nothing can beat that. We basically started our FIFA tournament in a spiritual way. Yeah, I was going to say, it's like a nice symmetry. You have a religious pilgrimage and a sports pilgrimage. Yes, exactly.

And when it came to the US versus Iran game, here they were again. Two teams that they could cheer for, one game. How to choose. There was definitely like a little bit of a tension about it. It was nothing like Kevin's experience in 1998 in that little Ohio restaurant.

And you hear the Iranian fans like jeering and stuff and whistling at maybe if the US did something or whatever. This game was louder and full of people who were born and raised in Iran who never even had to question which team to cheer for or how to cheer for both. I've always been Iranian-American even though it's not every day that they come up and play each other in soccer, but there's been like sporting rivalries or political things between the two countries. It's always been that way my whole life. Like, I can't even imagine not having that. Of course, this year, this World Cup. With the Iranian team playing in the U.S., it is a different kind of complicated. There's an actual war. There's fallout around the world. There's nationalistic rhetoric and threats. And amid all of that, the Iranian team was scheduled to play World Cup games in Los Angeles.

basically in Farhad and Kevin's backyard. There's two kind of conflicts in me, which one is obviously the war is going on, but then it's like, I really want Iran to be in the World Cup. Are they going to be able to travel? Are they going to be allowed to come into the US? Especially because Trump had made comments which were kind of conflicting each other of just like, yeah, they can come, but I can't guarantee their safety or something like that. That was troublesome to hear that sort of thing.

Kevin doesn't want the games Iran plays to become political, but he's also not naive. When he sees the players on the pitch, he knows that he's seeing them right off a plane. The U.S. restricted visas for the Iranian players, which forces them to stay in Tijuana. At the start of the tournament, they were only allowed to be in the U.S. for a day at a time. The war is imposing itself, whether Kevin likes it or not. I love both Iran and the U.S. I mean, the government.

I love the people of Iran and I love the people of the United States and that's what the countries are about. I'm not really crazy about the governments right now, either of them. I try to block out politics from when I want to feel something good about these countries. I think about the people, I think of the team playing soccer on the World Cup stage and how these people are being represented in that way as opposed to...

by whatever the governments are doing. It's interesting because I think the World Cup, it is often that like politics and geopolitics seeps into it. You know, like, does it feel that way to you as we're getting ready to go to this first game? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, sports are always politicized, especially the World Cup. You know, 1998.

From the Iran perspective, that was highly politicized because after Iran won, it became the government's evidence or something like we were in the right or something like that. Like we beat the US at this or whatever. It became like a political message. Right. How will it feel to cheer for Iran today? I mean, for me, I'm going to be really happy about it because I'd love cheering for my background in general, but there's an added joy of the fact that Iran was able to send a team, even though the situation is going on. Yeah, well, I guess I'm curious. I think for some people, cheering for Iran today, the Iranian team could be cheering for the regime. I guess I'm kind of curious how that hits you and how you differentiate what you're doing when you cheer for Iran. Yeah, I could definitely see that it could be seen that way by some people. For me, personally, it's more about the

The players and the Iranians as a people so that's kind of the perspective I'm going from you know I'm going from a perspective of Iranian American specifically so I'm able to kind of separate it in my mind a little bit but if we didn't have the Contacts of what's going on right now, and it was just Iran is in the World Cup I get to see Iran play in person that would have me very excited already to begin with because it's You know, it's it's something that kind of taps into my my heritage like these are some people who are like me and I don't get to relate to them every day because you know, especially growing up there weren't a lot of Iranians around but now this Is a completely different situation because of the war and everything going on

There's kind of like this feeling like you're standing over a ledge or something. It's like there's this huge thing that's happening. But there's a kind of element of unease and danger and you don't really know how things are going to be resolved. Yeah. It feels like you both have such a lovely relationship just to each other, but also to this game and to soccer. And then there's this bigger geopolitical context, this war that's kind of like hanging all above it. More spicier.

It's spicier. It just makes everything a little bit spicier. It's kind of how you're feeling. It turns up the heat, is what you're saying. Absolutely. How does it feel to sit in that spice, I guess? As I said, it's more challenging. We've passed through it, hopefully. Sometimes you look at the curve in math. It always goes down before it has to meet a minimum point.

before it starts going up. So there has to be a low point before it becomes a high point. So what point in the curve are we at right now? I think and I'm hoping this is as the lowest it can go, not further than that. And as far as whether this game now versus politics was not involved, it is more challenging, more spicier or whatever you want to call it. But hopefully it will pass through all these things.

Kevin and Farhad left for the first Iran game with five hours to spare. They were worried about traffic and parking, and they didn't want to miss a second of the game. Farhad's a planner, after all. They had nice seats near one of the corners of the field, where, before the game started, a huge Iranian flag was unfurled. And the country's national anthem played. There were booze all throughout the stadium.

Some people turned around so their backs face the flag while the anthem played. Others waved pre-revolution flags in protest. Farhad and Kevin just stood there, taking it all in. You know, so much of what we talked about earlier today was, you know, like feeling torn. Have any of those feelings come up for you now that you're sitting here? There's a little bit just of the way the crowd is going and the way that they were booing like the anthem, but then when the players come in and play they were cheering the players.

So there's a little bit of that. You're saying that you resonate with both the booze and the cheers? Is that what you're saying? I mean a little bit because I understand what everything's representing, you know? Because I think for a lot of people, especially who are here right now in this stadium, it's the people who, Iran means something different to them because Iran means their childhood and where they grew up before the revolution. So I think a lot of people are looking at it from a bad perspective.

So they're cheering for Iranians and for the Iranian players and all that. But when the anthem comes on, then that represents a different part of Iran, you know? It's like you're kind of watching people like draw lines in the sand in real time. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Iran tied that game. They actually tied all of their games in the World Cup. And over the weekend, they were officially eliminated from the tournament. I talked to Farhad and Kevin on Sunday, and I asked them how they were feeling. Kevin was excited.

His other team, the US, was doing well, and he was eager to watch them play in the next round. Farhad was disappointed. He felt like politics and the repercussions of the real world had seeped into the game, and it all made it impossible for Iran to succeed. Before the Iranian team left Los Angeles, they wrote this note on a whiteboard in the dressing room of the stadium. It said, The spirit of Iran remains alive and steadfast. We came to Los Angeles with pride, competed with honor, and leave with dignity. Thank you Los Angeles for your hospitality, and thank you to every Iranian who gave their heart, voice, and soul for Iran throughout these 180 minutes. May peace, respect, and friendship prevail among all nations. I read it to Farhad and asked what he thought. He said, they wrote what I feel.

We'll be right back. Here's what else you need to know today. The US and Iran have agreed to stop attacks in the Strait of Hormuz and allow ships to move freely through it, according to a US official. Iran had yet to confirm that agreement as of Sunday night. Pausing the hostilities would bring calm after a series of attacks in recent days.

After accusing Iran of striking an oil tanker in the street on Saturday, the US military carried out attacks on Iranian air defense sites and other military infrastructure. Iranian forces retaliated on Sunday, saying they targeted a US naval base in Bahrain and an air base in Kuwait with drones and missiles. No casualties were reported. And more than three days after two earthquakes devastated Venezuela, The death toll rose to more than 1,400 people, with thousands more injured, as the desperate efforts to rescue survivors were stymied by chaos and delays. The government's response has been complicated by a rush of civilian vehicles carrying relief supplies in La Guaida, the most affected state in the country, leaving aid workers stranded in traffic. There have been more than 430 aftershocks since the earthquakes on Wednesday,

prompting many in Lugwita to sleep outside for fear that more buildings could fall. Today's episode was produced by Anna Foley, Rachelle Bonja, Eric Kruppke, and Diana Nguyen. It was edited by Brendan Klankenberg and Ben Calhoun. Fact-checked by Susan Lee and contains music by Alicia E. Toup, Sophia Landman, Marion Lazano, Pat McCusker, and Diane Wong. Our theme music is by Wonderly.

This episode was engineered by Chris Wood. That's it for the daily. I'm Natalie Kittrowef. See you tomorrow. This week on The Wirecutter Show, we're talking all about frozen summer treats and the best year for making them at home, whether you want to spend 10 bucks or invest in something more luxurious. Do you guys like gelato? I love gelato. It's my favorite type of ice cream. OK. So you have to get the 800 dollar machine. I guess so.

Find the Wirecutter Show wherever you listen to podcasts.

Delete this episode?

This removes the episode page and its saved audio from this library.