Dave Hanratty

Did they soundproof them a touch?

So if I was to ask you, how was the atmosphere?

You're like, I don't really know.

I think it was okay.

Even during the goals or the anthems, it's fairly soundproofed.

absolutely amazing but just the press box thing is a bit jarring to go from the Aztec or the history of the colour to a pretty quiet press box it's a bit funny The Iran game was obviously going to be interesting for all sorts of reasons first off it was a really good game Iran went down twice came back twice against New Zealand and

It was such a striking image because people have seen at this stage the pageantry pre-game and the sheer size of the flags which are unfurled.

It was just an amazing thing to see that flag writ large on the pitch.

tight the security is around these world cup stadiums they didn't actually let you i pretty much only could only do a half a lap of the stadium um with you know all the roads being blocked off and excuse my ignorance when you say looking for protests was that like were you looking for u.s citizens protesting iran in their country were you looking for iranians protesting the regime at home or protesting against the u.s what were you looking for

And then the third element was... Yeah, so if people didn't see that, some Iranian fans challenged the FIFA ruling that they couldn't bring the Lion and Sun flag into the stadium.

And they lost.

So the flags were technically prohibited, but you saw lots of them there.

That tallies with what I read as well, which is plenty of Sun and Lion flags.

Obviously, the flag pre-

regime change in 1979, a fair booing of the anthem, a protest against the current regime.

And then once the match starts, well, you're our guys, you're our people.

We're not holding you accountable.

We're supporting you.

That was the flow I heard.

One of the Iranian midfielders, maybe the man of the match, was asked afterwards by an American journalist about that, you know, like, so the booing and the flags and then support you in the game.