David Régis: “USA-Iran 98? I was there to play football, not to wage war”

David Régis, the United States and Iran have already met in the World Cup before Tuesday’s match. It was June 21, 1998 in Lyon and you were there. Did you feel any particular pressure during the days leading up to the meeting because of the political context between the two countries?

David Regis. : “The pressure was primarily sporting, because we were playing the qualification (note: USA-Iran was the second group match). But the week preceding the match, we saw a lot of new journalists arrive who did not know nothing about football. They only asked us questions of a political nature. We felt like we were going to war. There, I understood that it was a game apart for them. But for the players, it remained only one game to win.”

What was the atmosphere within the American selection?

D.R. : “We were quiet. It was going well, there was a lot of fun. I was in the room with Alexi Lalas, he was playing the guitar and that relaxed the atmosphere. Political relations between the United States and Iran, we didn’t talk about it. At the time, I was playing in Karlsruhe (Germany) and the best Iranian striker, Ali Daei, was also playing in the Bundesliga (Arminia Bielefeld). I had already taken him on marking and It went well. We knew each other and we respected each other. Afterwards, I heard my teammates say that political journalists were going to arrive. But I did not expect the questions to be so politicized. I was far from of all that.”

What kind of questions did you have to answer?

D.R. : “They asked us if we were going to shake hands with the Iranian players, we were told about a match between the god and the devil… I quickly told them that I was there to play football, not to do the war. The questions were really direct. It was particular for my in-laws in the United States. They said to me: “All the channels are talking about you. You are going to play a match against Iran, it talks about war, etc…”. They were worried. We, the players, were a little annoyed because we felt left out of this party that is the World Cup. In our base camp, we were in a kind of bunker. It was very secure, we had no access to the outside. In our group, we also played against Yugoslavia ( Editor’s note: a war took place there between 1991 and 2001. At the 2002 World Cup in Seoul, we were able to meet members of our family and friends. It got us a bit drunk. If we missed the 1998 World Cup, it’s also a bit because of that. I felt that some players were eager to get back to move on.”

On the pitch, the two teams posed together before kick-off. How did you experience the pre-match?

D.R. : “On the field, it was great. There was the pressure of the match, but it was good child. The common photo, we had not prepared it. Our captain Claudio Reyna (note: his son Giovanni Reyna is currently with the American selection) discussed with the Iranian captain and they said to themselves: “what if we took a picture together? It was like that. They had also offered us bouquets of flowers. There had been lots of nice gestures around that game.”

Do you know how the current American selection approaches this new match against Iran?

D.R. “I am still in contact with the former players of the selection. The context? I have the impression that it is more “light” than at the time.”