World Cup (Soccer)

AL KHOR, Qatar — This is how fine the margins can be: Had Nico Schlotterbeck not raced back, his jaw tight with effort, to steal the ball from Álvaro Morata’s feet, Germany’s World Cup would hang by a thread. For the second tournament in a row, a group stage exit would loom. Questions would be asked, culprits sought, knives sharpened.But Schlotterbeck did race back, straining every sinew to close the gap to Morata, and he did slide in, his timing perfect, and he did steal the ball from his feet, and now it is not beyond the realm of possibility that Germany might find itself — in a couple of weeks’ time — preparing for a World Cup semifinal, the scent of unlikely glory in its nostrils.Catherine Ivill/Getty ImagesThe irony, of course, was that Schlotterbeck’s intervention was just one moment among many thousands over the course of more than 100 minutes, a speck in terms of Hansi Flick’s team’s overall performance, and yet everything turned on that single instant. Every assessment of this game, every analysis of the health of German soccer, hinged on it; so, too, did the international careers of several players and, likely, of one coach.The truth of it is that this had been a hugely encouraging display from Germany, regardless of whether Morata, scorer of Spain’s opener, had added a second in injury time. It would have been even if Flick’s team had not sealed a point thanks to a goal from Niclas Füllkrug, the late-blooming striker added to the squad almost as an afterthought in the weeks before this tournament.That is not to say it was spectacular — far from it — but it was brim full of all of those other traits that are considered quite useful in these circumstances: grit and fight and industry and nous. Germany richly deserved its point, one that means it goes into its final game knowing that a victory against Costa Rica will, in all likelihood, carry it into the knockout rounds.After that, the field opens just a little. It might be Morocco in the last 16 and Portugal in the quarterfinals. Germany came within a whisker of yet another embarrassment in the World Cup. The margins, though, are fine. All of a sudden, it can see nothing but promise. More

AL RAYYAN, Qatar — Iran’s national anthem was met by halfhearted singing or mouthing of the words by players and the jeering whistles of thousands of fans at Ahmad bin Ali Stadium before the team played Wales on Friday in its second game at the World Cup.The scene, and the sounds, was different from Iran’s opener against England on Monday, when players gave the anthem the stoic silent treatment, a form of protest that got global attention. Iran’s team, a regular at the tournament and long a unifying force in a divided country, has for months been trying to navigate the delicate internal politics of Iran, caught between government expectations and an ongoing national uprising. Before Friday’s match against Wales, the stadium camera feeds showed a man sobbing as Iran’s anthem was played. When an emotional woman was shown, fans erupted in cheers. Elsewhere, others booed. In the seats, a woman unveiled a No. 22 jersey with the name Mahsa Amini on it. She was the 22-year-old who died while in police custody in September, sparking a growing movement of discontent about freedoms and women’s rights under Iran’s theocratic rule.The Iran National Anthem plays at the FIFA World Cup ahead of their matchup vs Wales 🇮🇷 pic.twitter.com/T4ilXEAN9k— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) November 25, 2022
It was the actions of Iran’s players, though, that attracted the most attention. After standing silently during the anthem before their first game, they appeared to sing with varying degrees of commitment amid a mix of boos and cheers. Iran’s fan base may be as incessantly noisy as any here at the World Cup. That was true before the game, as its fans and those arriving to cheer Wales emerged from the metro and spilled out toward Ahmad bin Ali Stadium. One woman coming off the metro started a chant — “Say her name! Mahsa! Amini!” — that has become common here. Others wore blue T-shirts that read, “Woman Life Freedom.” One man wore a shirt that read, “Arrest of Lawyers = Beginning of Your End” in English on the front and Arabic on the back.World Cup security officers have been trained to look for such political displays. Before Monday’s game against England, fans were told they wee not allowed to bring or display Iran’s pre-revolutionary flag inside the stadium. Outside the arena on Friday, grim-faced officers patrolled in packs of five or six, wearing black-and-blue vests that read “security cells” on the back. A group of 10 officers surrounded one woman, argued with her and took something from her, perhaps a shirt.Freed and frustrated, she disappeared into the stadium. More

Dado Galdieri for The New York TimesRIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil does not celebrate Thanksgiving, but it is in effect a national holiday here this year. School, banks and government offices closed early on Thursday, and just about everyone was off work, unless they were serving beer or frying something. The national team was back in action.Fans spilled out of bars onto the streets across Rio’s beachside Copacabana neighborhood on Thursday afternoon. Most people wore the national team’s iconic yellow jerseys, but this year, there was a lot more blue in the mix. That is because the yellow jerseys have become a sort of uniform for supporters of Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, and many on the left have begun wearing the team’s alternative blue jersey in response.The jersey is not the only thing that has become politicized. Brazil’s star player, Neymar, was one of Bolsonaro’s most vocal supporters ahead of last month’s election, which Bolsonaro lost. Neymar even promised to pay homage to Bolsonaro after his first goal in the World Cup, though such political statements are banned.“It’s wrong. The team doesn’t belong to any political party,” said Fabrício Neves, 42, an offshore oil technician standing outside a bar wearing a blue Romarío jersey from Brazil’s championship 1994 team. “We go through a lot of hardship here, and the national team brings us some joy for a little while.” More