‘The World Is Watching This Game’

Carlo Chubak has a vision for the end of today’s World Cup soccer matchup between his native Iran and the United States--a 1-0 Iranian victory followed by handshakes and the traditional exchange of jerseys.

No fights. No vicious fouls. And most importantly, no politics.

Just pure soccer.

“The world is watching this game,” Chubak, 37, an amateur soccer player, said over lunch with old college friends at Darya, a Persian restaurant in Costa Mesa’s South Coast Plaza Village. “It sends the proper message to the world that an Iranian is a person, an American is a person, and we can all live happily together.”

Within the realm of soccer fans--a relatively arcane realm in this country--today’s game will be notable because each team needs to win to sustain hopes of moving on to the tournament’s second round.

But for some non-soccer fans, and not a few media commentators, the game stands as a symbol of 20 years of bad blood, evoking images of hostage-takers, charred helicopters in the desert and lingering fears of terrorism.

Chubak and his friends, who met nearly 20 years ago as students at UC Irvine, understand the symbolism. They just don’t think it’s realistic.

“This is sports,” Chubak said. “This is athlete versus athlete, and that’s it. They are all citizens of the world on the field.”

It’s the citizens off the field, though, that have security forces on alert in Lyons, France, where today’s game takes place. While much attention has been paid to the history of political enmity between the United States and Iran, a bigger threat comes from expatriate Iranians in France who oppose the current Islamic regime in their homeland. One such group has threatened to disrupt the match, leading French officials to assign a heavier security presence than initially planned.

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Yet players for both teams have downplayed the political overtones, with American players saying they hope it leads to higher viewership. And FIFA--soccer’s international governing organization--assigned a Swiss referee to the match, a nod to that country’s friendly diplomatic ties to both the United States and Iran.

While there might be tension in France over the match, Iranian Americans said they feel no tension here. Orange County is home to an estimated 80,000 people of Iranian descent.

“The Iranian community is very excited there is going to be such a match to bring the two cultures together in a significant way,” said Fardad Fateri, a community leader and organizer of annual Persian New Year celebrations. “It will be hard to tell who’s going to be rooting for what team. Personally, I’ll be rooting for both teams in the hopes that this match will bring the two countries even closer to one another.”

Rather than focusing on the negative, he said, the positive should be accented.

“It’s one more incremental step toward peace and tolerance and, hopefully, appreciation between the two nations,” Fateri said.

Several fans mentioned a recent sports exchange between Iran and the United States, in which wrestlers met first in Tehran in February and then in Stillwater, Okla., in April for the wrestling World Cup. While the Americans were politely received in Tehran, Iranians were upset when their team members’ entry to the United States was delayed for two hours while they were photographed and fingerprinted.

The soccer fans said they hope the countries move beyond such pettiness in the World Cup, and said they plan to focus today not on flags but on the caliber of play.

“We’re going to root for whoever does the best,” said Ray Esfahanian, co-owner of Darya, who plans to wheel in two extra television sets for the noon match. “I think it’s going to be a good, clean game.”

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Saeed Pessian, 40, plays soccer in an adult recreational league. His team had a game scheduled for this afternoon, and both teams have Iranian players on their rosters. Pessian said the two sides agreed to postpone the game so everyone could watch the World Cup.

He’ll host a dozen friends at his Santa Ana home.

“I’ve been hearing that the odds are 11-1 that the U.S. will win,” said Pessian, who predicts a 1-1 tie. “I’m looking for someone to take that bet.”

Another fan, who would identify himself only as Sirous, blamed the media for fanning whatever flames might be out there. He cited one American television commentator who referred to the game as “holy war.”

“I don’t look at it that way,” Sirous said, eating lunch at the bar while watching Spain and Paraguay play on TV. “It’s a sport. They’re making something out of nothing. These are my two favorite countries. May God bless both of them.”