When Iran faces Spain on Thursday, it will be come exactly 20 years after the most politically-charged World Cup match of all time
Politics have stayed out of the spotlight for most of the first week of the 2018 World Cup, but when Iran faces Spain in Wednesday's 2018 World Cup showdown in Kazan, Russia, it will arrive just a day before the 20-year-anniversary of the most politically-charged match in finals’ history.
Iran and the United States have had a complicated and often hostile relationship for the better part of the past 40 years, so when the two countries were placed in the same group for the 1998 World Cup, political overtones immediately surrounded the match.