Football is cruel. Iran thought they had pulled off the heist of the tournament against Belgium, celebrating a goal that belonged in a museum. They danced. They hugged. Then, the linesman ruined everything.
It was a masterpiece. Haji Safi stood over a free-kick 25 meters out, looking like he would shoot. He didn’t. Instead, he slipped a clever pass to Mehdi Taremi, who had peeled off the Belgian wall. Taremi finished with cold-blooded ease. The Belgian defense stood frozen, completely bamboozled by a routine straight off the training ground.
Then came the buzzkill. The goal was wiped out. Why? Taremi’s backside. He was offside by a literal cheek. That is the tragedy of modern sports. Too much gym time, perhaps. A slightly smaller rear end and Iran would have been leading, but instead, they got nothing but a harsh lesson in anatomy.
