{"id":47582,"date":"2022-11-26T08:11:05","date_gmt":"2022-11-26T16:11:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/?p=47582"},"modified":"2022-11-26T08:11:06","modified_gmt":"2022-11-26T16:11:06","slug":"usa-vs-iran-will-be-a-hotly-contested-game-gregg-berhalter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2022\/11\/26\/usa-vs-iran-will-be-a-hotly-contested-game-gregg-berhalter\/","title":{"rendered":"USA vs Iran will be a hotly contested game: Gregg Berhalter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Sport Star &#8211; DOHA, <strong>The USA vs Iran is a politically charged match because of the geopolitical tension between the two countries. The rivalry started in the 1998 World Cup when Iran drubbed the USA 2-1.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Much-awaited\u00a0Iran\u00a0vs\u00a0USA\u00a0FIFA World Cup\u00a02022 match is scheduled for November 30 kick-off. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After holding\u00a0England\u00a0to a goalless draw on Friday night, the USA coach\u00a0Gregg Berhalter\u00a0faced tricky questions about the game against Iran, which is fresh from a clinical 2-0 win over\u00a0Wales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Berhalter said the Iran game would be \u2018hotly contested, but not because of relations between our countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wednesday\u2019s match is important for both teams, with the USA facing Iran in a must-win game, while a draw or a win will be enough for Team Melli to seal a Last 16 berth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u2018United by a common love of football\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI have played in three different countries, and I coached in Sweden, and the thing about football is you meet so many different people from all around the world, and you are united by a common love of the sport,\u201d said Berhalter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI envision the game being hotly contested for the fact that both teams want to advance to the next round \u2013 not because of politics or because of relations between our countries. We are footballers and we are going to compete and they are going to compete and that is it,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u2018Focus on preparation\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Berhalter, however, described the match as the \u201cfirst knockout game\u201d of the\u00a0Qatar World Cup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe win or we are out of the World Cup, and that is going to be the focus of ours in preparing the team,\u201d Berhalter said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBut most of all we will need to understand the intensity Iran\u2019s going to bring. We going to have to be up for it if we want a chance to advance,\u201d added the 49-year-old coach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Placed in Group B, the USA is currently third on the table with two draws, while Iran is second with a win and defeat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sport Star &#8211; DOHA, The USA vs Iran is a politically charged match because of&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26307,"featured_media":47583,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[84,92,86,110],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c47-featured-news","category-c21-international-football-news","category-c13-team-melli-news","category-world-cup"],"views":1357,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26307"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47582"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47584,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47582\/revisions\/47584"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}