00:00Our country is also their second home and we receive them with a lot of love.
00:30They couldn't get a visa.
00:30Their fans were denied tickets.
00:32Officials were turned away at the door.
00:34Their court said quietly that his team was perhaps the most oppressed in the world.
00:38In Los Angeles, home to the largest Iranian diaspora in the world, a city so Persian,
00:43its nickname Tehrangelis, something extraordinary happened.
00:47A crowd divided by decades of politics and pain, people who hadn't been home in years,
00:52people unsure whether to cheer or protest, all sat in the stadium together.
00:56And when Iran scored, every single one of them was on their feet.
01:00Just Iranians cheering for Iran.
01:02After the Belgium game, the players went back to the dressing room.
01:05Before they left, they picked up a pen.
01:07They wrote,
01:07We came to Los Angeles with pride, competed with honor and left with dignity.
01:12May peace, respect and friendship prevail among all nations.
01:15Peace, written by the team of a country at war, left in the dressing room of the nation that bombed
01:21them.
01:21Then, in Seattle, their last game, deep into stoppage time,
01:25Khalilzadeh, put the ball in the net.
01:27Thousands of Iranians who had woken at dawn to watch from Tehran erupted.
01:31Strangers embracing, flags waving, tears streaming.
01:34The referee checked, flag went up, disallowed.
01:37Full time whistle, Iran were out.
01:40They went back to the dressing room one last time and they wrote again.
01:43Perhaps points can be won in many ways, but respect cannot.
01:47Iran, always standing tall.
01:50along.
01:52Mikey &
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