He looked out the airplane window and saw the host country. And whatever indescribable things one feels before a first FIFA World Cup — excitement, nerves, a sense of history, the joy and weight of the unknown — he felt it all.

“I’ll never forget that,” he said on Thursday conference call.

And since those first tingles, the Vancouver Whitecaps right-back, an Iranian-American born and raised in San Jose, Calif., has been all business, which is business as usual for Beitashour.

He hardly wanted to talk about the World Cup before he left the Whitecaps to join Iran, out of respect for the MLS club’s season and his own desire to remain in the moment.

He’s the kind of guy who apologizes in advance for clichés and then talks about taking things one day at a time.

Asked how he’ll balance a desire to enjoy this experience, to soak it in, as well as focus on the task at hand, he said: “I don’t know because it’s my first one. I don’t know if I’m having too much fun or not enough. Right now I have a job to do and I want to do it to the best of my abilities.”

But he certainly sounded light and upbeat and anxious to kick off.

First up is Nigeria on Monday (noon), a match that, at least based on FIFA rankings, represents Iran’s best hope for getting out of Group F, which looks to be a walk in the park for Argentina.

Iran is ranked 43rd, one spot ahead of Nigeria, which has a far richer World Cup history, having made the round of 16 in 1994 and 1998.

Iran’s been to three World Cups, the last being Germany in 2006, but they’ve never made it out of their group.

Their lone World Cup match victory was at least a famous one, over the U.S. at France ’98.

World Cup debutantes Bosnia-Herzegovina, ranked 21st, are favoured to finish second behind the powerful Argentines in Iran’s group, but Beitashour believes the race is wide open.

“Argentina’s the favourite. They deserve it,” he said. “The second spot out of our group is up for grabs. We’ve got three hungry teams and that’s why it’s so important, that first game, to start on the right foot.”

For Iran that means defending as a team: organized, patient, hard-working, constantly closing down space.

They had 10 shutouts in qualifying, the most of any team in Brazil.

Beitashour, brought into coach Carlos Queiroz’s side after a brief flirtation with the U.S. squad, said he doesn’t know if he’ll start in the opener.

His wife Karlie, his Iranian-born parents, Edward and Pari, his siblings and cousins, will all be there for the games. He’s expecting big support from Iranians in Brazil, too.

“All the guys on the team say, ‘You’ll be shocked to see how many Iranians show up,’” he said. “I’m excited for it.”