Lady Luck: The Legendary Sequel?

Persianfootball.com  – SARANSK, The 2018 World Cup campaign has undoubtedly been one of the most exciting and memorable rollercoaster rides for Team Melli fans, starting the qualification stage at the Door to Hell with a tie against Turkmenistan and the final tournament with a victory against Morocco after the Alignment of the Stars.

After Lady Luck sent her message of support and solidarity to Team Melli and its fans in the first match and From Russia with Love, the collective consciousness of a beautiful and ancient people transcended itself to the self-belief that defying all the odds and causing a major World Cup upset was not out of the question in this tournament.

It was precisely this collective consciousness that transformed into a passionate, disciplined, hard-fought and absolutely patriotic performance from Team Melli in the first half against Spain, followed by an even more impressive second half. So, the unanswered question in the minds of many fans is why did Lady Luck abandon us?

A lucky bounce off Diego Costa that put him on the scoreboard and the subsequent annulment of Team Melli’s goal by the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) seem to validate that point of view. In fact, it was quite ironic that the VAR, introduced to avoid the type of mistakes that denied Iran a penalty and a possible goal against Argentina in 2014 would now be denying us a goal!

The answer to that earlier question is that Lady Luck works in subtle and mysterious ways and her manifestations reach far beyond the green rectangular field of the Beautiful Game. Lady Luck didn’t abandon Iran; it transcended the field in a symbolic and magical moment before the starting whistle that night…

In a rather surreal incident, a small bird crashed in front of Gerald Pique and while the Catalan player tried to help, it wasn’t until the involvement of Isco – an Andalusian – that the bird was carried off the pitch and eventually flew away. It was as if a small representative of Lady Luck had delivered a loud and clear message that the magic was transcending the field that night.

Indeed, the irony of the moment was not lost on Spanish fans. A young democracy, suffering a territorial crisis with two secessionist movements in Basque Country and Catalonia – with the latter involving strong resentments toward Andalusia – Spain was very much in need of the message of unity and tranquility that was delivered that night by that incident, and an eventual victory.

At the same time, some 2200 km away, Iranian women who have been yearning for their own young democracy, equality and respect, were for the first time in 37 years allowed to enter a stadium to watch this match. It was a loud and clear reply from Lady Luck to the relentless efforts of tens of thousands of brave Iranian women fighting for more freedoms.

The full implications of these events remain to be seen but it is clear that Team Melli achieved a much more valuable, meaningful and resounding victory in the Azadi Stadium that night, than it could have ever achieved in the Kazan Arena and for that reason June 20th was forever marked as “Rooze Azadi” [the day of freedom] to commemorate this great victory in the stadium named “Freedom”.

And it is freedom that will propel Team Melli and its fans to further victories in this World Cup – freedom from the shackles and limitations that hold us back, like judging the strength of our team by the dollar value of our players rather than being greater than the sum of our parts, or the defeatist conspiracy theories that FIFA stands firmly between us and the second round by favoring Portugal.

In 1998, Team Melli helped FIFA to its greatest and most memorable achievement, transcending the Beautiful Game above politics and diplomacy for the first time and Jalal Talebi and his men won the Fair Play award in the process. The ripples produced by that match are still being remembered and felt today, as evidenced by BBC’s just released “The Great Game: Iran v USA”.

According to this documentary, the highest level of authority in Iran, supreme leader Ali Khamenei was personally overseeing the arrangements for that match and it is unlikely that anyone had the authority to open Azadi Stadium to Iranian women on June 20th, exactly 20 years later. The date can hardly be a coincidence because such authorization was not given for Iran’s first match against Morocco.

So it is extremely ill-advised to assume that FIFA would favour the marketing and financial value of a single team – or worse yet a single player – advancing to the second round, over a politically significant achievement such as Iranian women being allowed into stadiums; after all, the United States was the biggest market in the world just opening up to football in 1998 and it still lost to Iran!

And the truth is that Team Melli is bigger than the sum of its parts and Carlos Queiroz and his men have proven this throughout this long, arduous but very successful campaign. They have broken free from many limitations including sanctions and cancelled friendlies and they have consistently asked Team Melli fans to understand that and stand behind them.

Anything short of us fans also breaking free from the shackles and limitations that hold us back and lifting our collective consciousness to absolutely believe that Team Melli will – not can – cause a major upset in this next match, for fear of disappointment or using logic as justification will be a major betrayal to a team that stands at the gates of being legendary.

What about Lady Luck? She smiled upon us in the first match and The Prequel took us back to a revolution that unfolded during our first World Cup appearance. It brought us back to the present and the potential dawn of a new day where rights are won not lost, and pleasantly surprising victories can be, and in fact have already been achieved.

So, if I had to put my money on it, I’d have to bet that The Sequel is going to be absolutely legendary! I wouldn’t be surprised if it would usher in an era of hope and further victories, on and off the field, and judging from Lady Luck’s naming convention, with Rooze Aziz and Rooze Azadi, we would have to believe that this one will be Rooze Azmoun not Rooze Ronaldo, wouldn’t we?