U.S. coach Gregg Berhalter apologized Monday for the release by his country’s federation of an altered flag of Iran, its World Cup opponent in Qatar on Tuesday, but insisted he and his locker room knew nothing about it in a tense press conference beforehand.
The United States and Iran will meet in a match always surrounded by the political tension in their respective countries and the possibility of qualifying for the round of 16 of the World Cup, but the coach tried to focus on the sport.
«When I think about this match, I know that many others have a lot of feelings towards it, but for us it’s a soccer match against a good team, it’s not much more than that. It’s a knockout game because both teams are desperate to get through to the next round and that’s how we are looking at this game,» Berhalter said.
But that did little to quell the line of questions, especially in the wake of US Soccer uploading an edited Iranian flag without the Islamic Republic’s emblem to Twitter on Sunday in a move to support protesters in the country, where there has been unrest since the death in September of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who died in police custody after being arrested for refusing to wear the mandatory hijab.
That publication sparked outrage in Iran, including its affiliated media calling for the U.S. to be eliminated from the World Cup. «We had no idea what US Soccer published, neither the staff nor the players. Our focus is on this game,» the U.S. coach tried to settle the matter.
«I don’t want to sound aloof or that I don’t care to say that, but the guys have worked very hard over the last four years. We have 72 hours between England and Iran and we’re really focused on how to get past Iran and go to the knockout stage of this tournament,» he added.
In any case, he made it clear that «of course» he has the «Iranian people» in his «thoughts. «The whole country, the whole team, everyone, but our focus is on this match,» reiterated Berhalter, who warned that «sometimes things are out of» his control.
«We think it’s going to be a game where the result depends on who tries harder, who executes better on the field, not what happens outside. We can only apologize on behalf of the players and the ‘staff’. It’s not something we’re a part of,» he said.
