Word: matching
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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LONDON: It's a game of numbers. As many as 30,000 British soccer fans will arrive in the French town of Lens Friday for England's match against Colombia -- 10,000 of them without tickets. Meanwhile, 640 known German hooligans are at large in France, many remaining in Lens, where they battered a French policeman into a coma Sunday. If this convergence of soccer's worst louts seems coincidental, it ain't: A leaked French intelligence service memo, published Wednesday in Le Monde, says the Germans have chosen the spot "to battle for the title of 'hardest hooligans...
...other first-round game features an intriguing political matchup against Iran. The U.S.-Iran match was one of the first sellouts in France, which has a large contingent of Iranian expatriates. The Iranians, one of the weaker teams, can return home as heroes by beating the Great Satan II. Says Khodadad Azizi, one of Iran's top players: "The U.S.A. mistreated our country. In the war they supported our enemy, Iraq. That's why a victory against the U.S.A. will be a special victory." Iran's team prayed at the tomb of Ayatullah Khomeini before flying off to France...
...team doesn't face that kind of pressure yet, but expectations have been rising as soccer's popularity in America increases. Dooley, an earnest sort, is captain of the best American team ever, as evidenced by its knocking off world champion Brazil 1-0 in a friendly match earlier this year. Foreign-born players like Dooley, who played for the U.S. in the 1994 World Cup, combined with the fast-rising level of home-grown talent have turned the U.S. team from international doormat to contender. "The mix is good for competition within the team," says Steve Sampson, the first...
...sought to spin it as a "bitter defeat" for the "arrogant opponent," the fact that it was celebrated on the streets by hundreds of thousands of men and women mixing freely represented a challenge to Khamenei. "Getting people onto the street to celebrate something as simple as a soccer match is a challenge to the conservatives' austere vision," says MacLeod. "Iran's involvement in the World Cup epitomizes what Khatami stands for and what they fear -- a more relaxed society participating in the international community...
...will take more than a soccer victory to break Khamenei's grip: The conservative-dominated legislature chose the day of the match to impeach the liberal interior minister Abdullah Nouri for allowing a demonstration against the conservative stranglehold. Khatami fired back by appointing Nouri as deputy president. The president's 70 percent majority in last year's election confirmed his overwhelming popular support, but conservatives still dominate the country's political and judicial institutions. So the battle for the soul of Iran is still in its first period, and the mullahs aren't exactly shy with the red card...