If you were at the stadium in Lyon for Iran vs USA in 1998, share your memory here

[webmaster]

Please post any memories, photos or videos of that day and of the game or stadium. There were many Iranians at that match and hope some of our old timers are still around to share their stories with our younger members.

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[Iran_19]

I wasn't in stadium but it was a memorial day for our football, first ever win in WC and against USA. The 1998 team was very good, with a good mental and physical preparation, that team could make a history by advancing to the second round. During 270 minutes in that tournament, the second half against Germany was the only time the opponent was much better than us, even though USA gave us a hard time(despite our victory) but our counter-attack strategy was very effective with Kia, Daei and Azizi being on peak of their careers.
I am not old enough to remember the 78 team(i have watched all of our 3 matches), but i think 1998 had the best team performance in the last 4 WC participation, and individually the team was quite talented.

[ehsan singapore]

i was 9 years old in singapore watch the game at 3am, was a very very memorable experience

[Kavian]

Please post any memories, photos or videos of that day and of the game or stadium. There were many Iranians at that match and hope some of our old timers are still around to share their stories with our younger members.
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This a good post, however you can tell by the kind of reply, most of those who watched the game in the stadium by now and after almost 20 years can't even remember what they had for breakfast today, let alone the details of what transpired in the stadium. :-)

[KC McElroy]

This a good post, however you can tell by the kind of reply, most of those who watched the game in the stadium by now and after almost 30 years can't even remember what they had for breakfast today, let alone the details of what transpired in the stadium. :-)

30 years?

[MehdiKing]

Well, I might not remember what I had for breakfast but I remember every second I spent inside and outside the stadium In Lyon! I had to take a bus from A Coruna (spain) to Lyon that took around 28 hours! I have never been that nervous before a game and trust me, as a big Team melli fan I have watched many important games live (including Iran-Irland playoff game in Irland)! I could write a book about that experience and maybe I will one day but for now I can tell you something that I am sure most of you don't know except the ones who were in the stadium: After the game was over and we came out of tge stadium, it felt like the whole world was cheering for Iran!!! Africans, even Arabs were chanting, dancing and singing! It felt like Iran defeated the big enemy! Here is a picture!

[arash123]

(Sorry I know I wasnt at stadium but this sparked a very fond memory)
I remember this German lady had a bar and grill somewhere near Lake Tahoe. She initially said her bar was 21+, but when she found out we were Iranian she started speaking World Cup. She found out Germany came back from 0-2 to tie Yugoslavia 2-2, and she was so excited she immediately sat us down and hooked us up. 15 minutes later Estili scores the header and the whole place goes crazy. Super great memories of that day.

[teammelli91]

I wasn’t at the stadium, but I remember watching a bunch of Mojaheddin who were there on television lol.

My sister, cousin and I had bet our parents that if Iran won we could spend 2 weeks at our grandparent’s house (which was a lot of fun, especially being away from our homes during the summer).

So we won and we got to spend 2 whole weeks there. I was 7 at the time. Yadesh bekheyr, kheili roozhaye khoobi bood.

[KhodadadAzizi]

Hard to believe it's almost been 20 years since Iran has won a World Cup game.

[littlepersia17]

If you were at the stadium in Lyon for Iran vs USA in 1998, share your memory here

Hard to believe it's almost been 20 years since Iran has won a World Cup game.

I believe we will get a win this time around at the World Cup.

But at the end of the day, it is all dependent on December the 1st, when we find out who we have in our group.

I'm so f*cking HYPED for that day[emoji881][emoji881][emoji109][emoji109][emoji1377][emoji1377][emoji1130][emoji1130][emoji1130]

[Nokhodi]

I wasn't at the stadium but I remember watching the game with my family and being just pure happy. I think I watched the replay of the game numerous times that week.

[Salar]

We were in Canada 2 days before the match, we had tickets but my dad was trying to convince me not to go and stay in Canada (obviously I disagreed), we drove from Niagara to Toronto, took a flight to Montreal, changed and got on a flight to Zurich, another flight to Nice, drove to Cannes, checked into the hotel and drove 4 hours to Lyon (over 30 hours in total) and we got to our seats right before kick off. I was only 10 but it was the best day of my life and I'll never forget the experience.

[BacheLot]

I was a poor, somewhat recent college grad back then. watched the game along with my long time American gf (now my wife) in our first apt, together on a futon in closely in front of my first ever proudly purchased 22'' SanYo BlackFriday special color tv from WalMart..!
the mostly sarcastic, good-natured smack-talk between us started days before the game and slowly got heated during the detailed, long-ass broadcasted pre-game show due to the obvious political and historic nature of the fixture..!!!
my wife(then GF) who otherwise couldnt give 2shits about any sport nor understand the rules of Any, slowly had gotten riled-up from our continued backNforth & that overly patriotic, smog-faced pre-game TV announcer (Bob Ley??), so the exchanges between us, while watching the game all nervously, was getting uglier by the minute culminating to the Estili's Goal which sent me into an immediate euphoria and i think a temporary loss of sanity ...?? cause i jumped up so high on our futon/couch in jubilation that i broke it upon landing and then proceeded to scream out loudly some very intense obscenities right into my girlfriend's face ...!! i dont recall what i was yelling (something like IN YOUR FACE...!, FUCK USA, FK YOU ..?? )
then i got a bit alarmed and taken back by the suddenly surprised and highly frightened looks of my GF who had never seen me like that before , so i took a step back and instead proceeded to karate kicking the raggedy asss end table i had gotten at a garage sale and throwing down the bowl and magazines on it all over and then running all around the futon yelling doo doo IRAN..!!

She stormed outa of the apt off course shortly afterwards and it took me a while after the game to calm down and to proceed to khaye maling her back into moving back in...!!

[KhodadadAzizi]

I believe we will get a win this time around at the World Cup.

But at the end of the day, it is all dependent on December the 1st, when we find out who we have in our group.

I'm so f*cking HYPED for that day[emoji881][emoji881][emoji109][emoji109][emoji1377][emoji1377][emoji1130][emoji1130][emoji1130]

The World Cup draw is the hardest wait for me. Last time I couldn't fall asleep the night before because I was so excited.

[KC McElroy]

There was this kid I saw in the stadium at half time and he was wearing a US jersey. So I asked "do you like the US team?" and he said "yeah" and I said "why, they suck" and he said "I'm from the US" then he said "who do you like" and I said "Iran" and then he's like "ok" and I'm like "yeah" and then I went back to my seat.