re: I found myself cheering for Iran late in yesterday's game. Who am I?

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I mean frick Iran but I’m not stupid enough to conflate their freaking soccer team with their government lol.

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It's more complicated than this.

I've tried to talk to as many Iranians as I can - and I work with some. Here's what I think I've gleaned:

--the national team is widely regarded as an organ of the regime - much more so than a western team being seen as related to an unpopular (but elected) figure

--having said that, ~75% of the population simply cannot help themselves from watching and/or pulling for the team

--some of the Iranians I talked to said their families back home refuse to watch

And it's also true that the Iranian team has been used for overt political statements of the regime (e.g. the backpack stunt the other day).

I personally find it hard to know what exactly to do. Many Americans are blinkered on the issue. e.g. in Seattle, graffiti artists kept painting the traditional "lion" flag over the regime flag...and the city of Seattle dutifully kept re-painting the regime flag over it.

And you can bet your arse that a lot of the cheers you hear are from idiot American leftists who don't even understand the evil of the regime and view it as anti-US to cheer.