The match was at best a momentary salve, a reminder that whatever baggage I thought it could help carry, it would, in fact, only carry so far, if at all.

Team Melli punches their ticket to Qatar.

The US and Iran are at an impasse, but it didn’t have to be this way. Years of mismanagement of tensions and delusions of grandeur have brought us to this point. Diplomacy remains the only path forward. Both countries will be better for it, but does either side have the political capital to do so.