Iran's team training in Mexico

Today on State of the World, World Cup First for Iran and Uzbekistan . You're listening to State of the World from NPR. We bring you today's most vital international stories up close where they're happening. It's Monday, june twenty second. I'm Greg Dickson. Now that World Cup games have taken over nearly every television around the globe, today we bring you two stories of World Cup firsts in this year's tournament, a double header, if you will . Eh ? No, okay. In a few minutes with Iran playing its matches in the U. S., it's the first time a host country welcomes a team from a country they're at war with . But first, we go to Uzbekistan. It's the first time they or any central Asian nation has appeared in the tournament. NPR's Charles Meins went there and found out it may be a sign of bigger changes underway. In the heart of Central Asia, soccer starts here kids in a patch of grass with dreams of a larger stage that no longer seems so out of reach. Uzbekistan is champions . For Uzbekistan's team, the White Wolves, the World Cup debut has been thirty six years in the making. Starford, Abos Beck Fazuliv, says it's a dream come true. For the first time to represent our country in a big stage, it will be a huge honor. The country's president Shafkner Zyoev has gone further ,ing tout the team as a symbol of the new Uzbekistan, part of a so called golden generation of Uzbek youth now making their mark in sports, culture and science, even chess . That success has been a long time coming for a nation that, like much of Central Asia, struggled to emerge from the chaos of the collapse of the Soviet Union. It's really lent of talents. Rav Shan atov is vice president of Uzbekistan's footb all association, he says years of government investments in youth development programs have finally paid off. Today's result is not coming by chance . Uzbekistan doing investing a lot for future. Several young Musbeck players on the national team have established themselves as stars in Europe and elsewhere, none brighter than one name you'll hear and hear mangled often. Abdul Kdi Kosanov It's actually Husanov, Abdul Khodor Husanov, the twenty two year old Uzbek defender has quickly become a mainstay at Manchester City and the British Premier League in a pinch me moment for fans back home. Imagining that somebody from Uzbekistan would be playing in the main squad of that team. It felt like it was unbelievable. Danior Umar Khajev runs the popular Uzbek football blog Tactica. I am feeling the goosebumps being some body who just runs a blog on football, but I can imagine what kind of boost of confidence that gives to younger kids who want to be footballers. That includes girls and women. Last year, Uzbekistan's team qualified for the women's Asian Cup for the first time in over two decades. Ohina Akbarova, a forward on the National Under Seventeen Squad, says even with that progress, her generation wants more. We want to see like level , so I am going to play board . I want to I dream. That would have been unlikely just a few years ago when laws in this Muslim majority nation forbade women freedom of travel without permission from husbands or fathers. Uzbekistan's recent football success has coincided with President Rosay v implementing reforms, opening the country up to travel and invest ment following years of isolation and dictatorship under former President Islam Karimov. Well, thank you very much. It's a great honor to be with the president of Uzbekistan. Izeov met with President Trump last year at the United Nations , part of a wider geopolitical repositioning as the new Uzbekistan and its Central Asian neighbors forged ties beyond Russia to pursue closer relations and trade with China and the US, including the Trump administration with its interest in critical minerals. But some argue amid all that deal making, pro democratic reforms haven't kept pace. Objectively, we do have a lot of major changes. That's Dior Rafaeva, a lawyer and occasional government critic, Rafia acknowledges there are more freedoms in Uzbekistan now, but says too often they exist more on paper than in reality . And she says with all the government's promotion of sporting accomplishments, there's some rebranding going on here. I think the success in sports , this is kind of image washing . They would say, Oh, newsbekistan. Maybe they do live in Newsbekistan. In other words, not everyone does. And there are just naysayers out there. Tashkent local Delshad Husanov tells me he doesn't drink, but watching white wolves football sure makes him want to. I want to hit someone or break my television, he says, adding that government resources spent on football should go elsewhere. The irony, his ability to criticize the authorities is a small sign of how far Uzbekistan has come in recent years and just maybe how his nation's soccer team can pleasantly surprise at this World Cup now that at long last, its players have taken the field. Charles Maine's NPR News Tashken, Uzbekistan . We move from group K to Group G now and the Iran national team. Their games are in the U. S., but the team is being forced to stay and train south of the border in Tijuana, Mexico. And PR's Aider Peralta went there to see how Mexicans feel about hosting the Iranian team. The Marriott in Tijuana is surrounded by a chain link fence. The only one staying there are members of Iran's national team. Fausto Vadillo, who is ten years old presses his face against the fence. He's never seen a World Cup player in his life. Now he was here hugging his panini sticker book. One autograph, he says, is all he needs. Last month, the U. S. said it didn't want Iranian players training on its soil, so the Mexican president said her nation would host, and the local soccer team in Pjuana Da Sholos offered their stadium as a training ground. Ever since the team arrived, people have gathered to see the players leave the hotel for practice. Jose Re es, who came with his kid, says the geopolitics of this escapes him. What the US did was disrespectful, he says. The World Cup unites borders, unites humanity. Right now, there is no war, he says. We're just united to watch the games. The Victor Clarke Alfaro, a professor who studies US Mexico relations at San Diego State University, says, It's not as simple as that he says part of the reason Mexico welcomed Iran was to send a message of sovereignty to the United States, but Clark says this is also a complicated moment to send that kind of message. It's a moment where President Trump has been threatening military action against Mexico, and it's a moment when the US and Mexico are deep into negotiations to renew a North American free trade agreement. The big question, he says, is whether this overchart to Iran will inflame tensions between the U. S. and Mexico. To Clark, it's not a risk Mexico should be taking it. But across Tijuana, no one seems too worried about any American backlash. Kids playing football worry that they'll lose the team quickly because well, Iran is not Spain and they may not even make it past the group stage . And a short distance away on the bridge that leads to San Diego, merchants are simply busy selling the jerseys of the Mexican national team . No one was selling the Iranian one, but as I ask around, Francisco Gutia shouts, We are all Iranians . We Mexicans always go for the underdog. It's about our history, Muses. After the Mexican American War, Mexico lost half its territory to the U. S. Back at the hotel, the crowd grows. There's a group of Australians who came for the World Cup. There are a couple of Iranian Americ ans who came from San Diego and Fausto, a ten year old clinging to the chain link fence . And suddenly the Iranian team comes out of the hotel Metitoremi, the team star who once played for Intermilan, Aliresa Bianran Van, the goalkeeper . Fausto doesn't get one autograph . He gets three and he can't stop smiling . It repalta in Per News Dijuana, Mexico . That's the state of the World from NPR. Thanks for listening.