Soccer fans across the 50 states can finally take a breath after more than 90 minutes of tense World Cup action. Though, through it all, they never stopped posting.
Some background: The U.S. advanced past the group stage of the World Cup on Tuesday (Nov. 29), courtesy of a thrilling, nail-biting 1-0 victory over Iran. It was a wildly close game, with the Americans barely holding on for the final thirty minutes or so. The second-screen experience online was thrilling as well. The big takeaway, at least in the States? Holy crap was that scary. There were tons of tweets and jokes about sweating the game out.
Before the actual game itself, most of the talk was about anything but soccer. The geopolitical implications and undertones of the game were striking. There have massive protests in Iran over its treatment of women, which has resulted in a reported hundreds of deaths, as well as disappearances and arrests. The temperature surrounding the game was raised when the U.S. Men’s National Team social accounts briefly altered images of the Iranian flag in an apparent effort to show support of the protests. So this was way, way more than a game.
In a pre-match press conference, U.S. captain Tyler Adams was even pushed by an Iranian journalist, who asked the player, who is Black, about discrimination in America and how he can represent a country with racism. The clip went viral after Adams deftly responded.
The posts focused on geopolitics didn’t necessarily stop as the game went on. Of course, normal folks — and pro athletes — often don’t have much to do with the political leaders.
On the complete opposite side of things, during the actual game, U.S. star Christian Pulisic got injured while scoring the game’s only goal. He appeared to take a knee to the, erm, groin area at full speed. The jokes flew in, as they typically do.
After the massive win, the U.S. will play Netherlands on Saturday in the Round of 16. Everyone get your Twitter fingers ready.
