Iran in the World Cup

I've been a soccer fan ever since I lived in Brazil over 10 years ago. And now that it's World Cup again, I'm trying to watch as much as I can (which isn't a lot since I don't have cable).

Today was the Mexico-Iran game. If there's one thing I learned from watching this game, it's that American sports commentators suck when it comes to the world's most popular sport. Not only do they know nothing about soccer, they kept making political statements about Iran.

For instance, the commentator at one point said something to the effect that Iran's team is not paying attention to the controversy (their word, not mine) caused by Iran's president Ahmadinejad's desire to watch the game. The commentator went on to say that the Iranian team is only there to play.

Well, DUH! What team isn't there to play?

What truly struck me as controversial about Iran participating in the world cup is the fact that they recently stopped allowing women to attend soccer games. Of course, the commentators said nothing about this inequality.