It was ten years ago this week. It is indeed interesting to note that Iran’s 2-1 win against USA in World Cup 1998 was the first and last victory by the Iranian team in World Cup Finals.

USA Coach Steve Sampson wanted his team to go forward. Instead, they soon were going back home. Iran scored two easy goals on June 21, 1998 against a United States national soccer team stubbornly committed to the attack, stunning the Americans 2-1 before a World Cup crowd of 44,000 at Gerland Stadium in Lyon.

The victory was Iran’s first in World Cup history, and it came over the team that represents a country routinely referred to in Iran as The Great Satan. Before Iran’s victory, Asia’s four teams here were winless in seven matches and had been outscored 16-1.

The United States went to work and missed a number of good early scoring chances. Three shots hit the post or crossbar in the first 33 minutes, two headers by McBride.

“It was like the post had a magnet on it,” he said. ” It was like the post was magnetized to attract the ball.We easily could have won this game three or four to one,” Sampson said.

At the 33-minute mark, Reyna dribbled left across the top of the penalty box area against a curiously unconcerned Iranian defenxe, then let fly a withering left-footed shot that caromed off the right post. However, as the United States went forward, often pushing one of its defenders into the attack,  it left vacant enormous tracts of territory in the defensive half. I

ran began to counterattack with some vigor, creating dangerous, one-on-one moments, usually with German Bundesliga forward Khodadad Azizi at the firing end. The first goal came late in the first half, when the defensively limited Americans appeared both tired and in disarray.

Javad Zarincheh, previously a harmless threat on the right wing, played a give-and-go outside the U.S. box with midfielder Mahdavikia,. Zarincheh then carried the ball toward the corner, where he crossed it past U.S. sweeper Thomas Dooley. The ball found the head of midfielder Estili, completely unmarked near the penalty spot, and he flicked a perfectly placed header into the upper-left corner of the goal.

Reyna and Ramos, neither known for defensive prowess, were the only U.S. players close to the play, and they watched Estili’s effort sail over them and into the goal. Ramos said he and Reyna thought the other was marking the Iranian.

The second half was just like the first. Reyna missed  a bicycle kick in front of the net off a headed pass from McBride in the 57th. Preki Radosavljevic was wide on an open header in the 63rd. David Regis hit the goalpost in the 68th, and Frankie Hejduk’s volley was stuffed by goalkeeper Ahmad Abedzadeh in the 79th. The second goal was even easier.

With the Americans pressing forward desperately late in the game, Estili popped the ball past a missed tackle by Frankie Hejduk, and Mahdavikia ran onto it with no one between him and goalkeeper Kasey Keller. Defender David Regis couldn’t catch Mahdavikia before he entered the box and fired a shot into the right corner past a diving Keller. Mahdavikia’s winning goal in the 83rd, was good enough to send Iranian players into a wild, hugging, kissing celebration.

 “We were all crying,” Mahdavikia recalls.

Iran nearly took a three-goal lead four minutes later, but Ali Daei’s shot was cleared of the goal line by Regis. Finally, McBride scored less than a minute later when his header bounced off a defender standing on the goal line.

“We were the better team tonight,” U.S. forward Roy Wegerle said. “But we scored too late and that cost us victory.”

At the end, Iranian players mobbed each other on the field, then ran to a section of the stands filled with their countrymen. The teams exchanged jerseys, as is the custom, but players broke with tradition and carried the opposing jerseys off the field in their hands instead of putting them on.

“It is a big victory for the Iranian nation,” coach Jalal Talebi said. “Not because it was the United States, but because it was Iran’s first World Cup win.”

Before the game, both teams posed together in an unusual joint picture, one of many unique aspects of a game U.S. politicians seized as an opportunity that might lead to a thawing of relations between the nations. American players were all smiles then, but by the end of the night, their faces were grim.

Group F

Iran 2, United States 1 in Lyon

Iran: Ahmad Abedzadeh, Mohammad Khakpour, Mehdi Pashazadeh, Javad Zarincheh (Naim Saadavi 77), Mehdi Mahdavikia, Karim Bagheri, Hamid Estili, Nader Mohammadkhani (Afshin Peyravani 76), Mehrdad Minavand, Ali Daei, Khodadad Azizi (Ali Reza Mansourian 74).

United States: Kasey Keller, Eddie Pope, Thomas Dooley (Brian Maisonneuve 82), David Regis, Frankie Hejduk, Joe-Max Moore, Tab Ramos (Ernie Stewart 57), Claudio Reyna, Cobi Jones, Roy Wegerle (Preki Radosavljevic 57), Brian McBride.

Goals: Iran – Hamid Reza Estili 40, Medhi Mahdavikia 83. United States – Brian McBride 87.
Shots: United States 27, Iran 15.
Shots on goal: United States 8, Iran 6.
Corner kicks: United States 6, Iran 2.
Fouls: United States 9, Iran 21.
Offsides: United States 1, Iran 1.
Yellow cautionary cards:Iran – Mehrdad Minavand 8, Javad Zarincheh 78. United States – David Regis 18.
Referee: Urs Meier (Switzerland).
Attendance: 44,000 (estimated).