I watched the 1990 World Cup final with my friend who showed up a little late and thus missed much of the pregame ceremonies. He finally made it there just as the game was about to start. In spite of the hot summer weather I brought some tea and pastries for us to eat. Following the singing of the national anthems the teams began getting ready for kickoff. The crowd was chanting in unison although I couldn’t quite make out what they were saying so I turned to him to see if he could make it out. “Are they chanting Iran?” he asked me prompting us both to laugh out loud at the ridiculousness of his suggestion. After suffering through that 90 minutes of vomit and an ultimate German win, I walked him outside and as we chatted a bit and he got ready to leave my exact words to him (with the final still fresh in my mind) were "عجب جام جهانی ک**ری بود."
I saw him after the 1998 World Cup where he had called a controversial penalty kick against Brazil for Norway. This was a friendly at Foxboro on September 12, 1998 between the US and Mexico's women's team that the US won 9-0 although he wasn't the ref but rather was there for some kind of award. I shouted out to him as he walked by "اسی چاکریم!" but he either didn't hear me or chose not to respond. https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2019/...-builder-award Esfandiar "Esse" Baharmast, a former referee, player, coach and current instructor who has been involved in more than a dozen World Cup tournaments and Olympic Games, has been named the 2020 winner of U.S. Soccer's prestigious Werner Fricker Builder Award. The Iranian who officiated the first MLS match and first MLS Cup, and won the inaugural MLS Referee of the Year award in 1997, is the second referee to receive U.S. Soccer's highest honor after Gerhard Mengel in 2005. The Wern...
Comments
Post a Comment