Iran's World cup sojourn has not been a happy one. There have been arguments in the dressing room, injuries to key players, and the distractions and demonstrations arising from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's remarks about the Holocaust. On the pitch, Iran suffered straight defeats by Mexico and Portugal and were consigned to an early, slightly ignominious exit from the competition.
All this has left Tehranis subdued if not depressed. The normally frantic streets, packed pavement to pavement with traffic, emptied eeerily during the second, evening match against Portugal. Hotel foyers where satellite TV was available were packed with well-to-do businessmen, fashionable women shoppers, anxious young men and bored children. Every lame Iranian attack brought clenched-fist excitement, each silky Portuguese strike a silent, shrugging gloom.
When the final whistle blew, a pretty receptionist slumped sadly over her desk. The passion was there all right. It was just that it was held tight inside her, like so much of what Iranians feel and think. Mullahdom does not totally encourage free expression.
Iranians are not especially demonstrative by nature. Unlike younger nations, such as England or America, they rarely shout or lose their tempers in public. They don't throw things at each other or the opposition. Until they get really mad, that is, as Saddam Hussein discovered during the eight-year Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. Then they don't give up. Either they win, which wasn't an option in the World Cup but was in Iraq, or they go down with all hands. George Bush please note.
As with other countries, politics is never far away when Iranians compete against other nations. Mr Ahmadinejad's adviser, Ali Akbar Javanfekr, issued a rallying cry on Monday to chastened compatriots - and a sinister warning about the dangers of politically incorrect despondency. "All teams participating in the World Cup are not supposed to win and become champions," he explained, in case anyone was in doubt.
He went on: "The national football team have problems. The press should highlight these problems through constructive criticism. By creating a negative image, the Iranian nation will be even more disappointed. The sports press should be cautious in this regard."
Imagine telling Sun or Guardian or Washington Post sports writers to pull their punches for the sake of national morale. Then again, imagine tacitly threatening them with the sack or worse if they disobey. It might work.
Not all is lost. Iran's midfielder Ferydoon Zandi told reporters that the best was yet to come, in Iran's final match against Angola this afternoon. "We haven't shown what we can do at all," he said. "But now we can play without pressure, maybe that has been a factor. We want to leave with a victory."
Once again, that old triumph of hope over experience. A sinking feeling says Iran, unfairly ostracised, battered and beleaguered in so many other respects internationally, is on a hiding to nothing once again. But at least they'll take it on the chin. Would that England were so wise.
