EMPTY FEELING; U.S., UNABLE TO FIND NET, IS EMBARRASSED BY IRAN : IRAN 2, U.S. 1.

Byline: Mike Jensen Philadelphia Inquirer 

Before this game for the political ages, Iran's players presented flowers to their opponents from the United States. After it was over, they followed a soccer custom by giving the U.S. players the shirts off their backs.

In between, in addition to igniting a party in Tehran that could be heard from here, Iran eliminated the Americans from this World Cup with a 2-1 victory Sunday.

The Yanks had come to France talking about having their most talented team ever and having taken their soccer to the next creative level. They left talking about how that darned post was like a magnet.

Actually, they haven't left yet. But the loss to Iran at Stade Gerland, coming on the heels of an earlier surrender to Germany, means that Thursday's game against Yugoslavia in Nantes is just a friendly for the U.S. They can take the flowers.

Bizarre as they sounded, these were some of the first words out of the mouth of U.S. coach Steve Sampson after his team lost the first World Cup game in decades that it was supposed to win: ``We did what we set out to do, in the beginning.''

The U.S. did hit the post three times and the crossbar once. They also had a communications breakdown that helped Iran score first. Then they had everybody so far up in the offensive end in the second half that Iran, excellent at counterattacking, almost had no choice but to score again.

The U.S. finally scored its first goal of the World Cup just before the end, in the 87th minute, when Brian McBride put a header, his specialty, through Iranian defender Naim Saadavi. There were a couple of chances after that, but nothing that tested Iran's goalkeeper.

``We're very disappointed to see four years' work destroyed in the space of a week,'' said U.S. midfielder Cobi Jones.

``You work your whole life to get here, and then it's over,'' echoed another midfielder, Joe-Max Moore.

Iranian players talked about how the whole world had been watching.

``In the dressing room, we were all crying,'' said Mehdi Mahdavika, who scored the game-winner in the 84th minute, running away from a U.S. defense that was up in the attack. ``When I scored, I thought about my people. Against Germany, we will win if God wishes it.''

The game was full of action, some of it even on the field. But the cameras weren't showing security police racing around confiscating banners celebrating an Iranian political opposition group, or the giant pink balloon that landed on the field, attached to a resistance banner, or the hundreds of opposition shirts that had been smuggled into the place.

Iran's game with Germany on Thursday will be meaningful (although Germany won't be so kind as to keep hitting the post). Right now, after their draw Sunday, Germany and Yugoslavia each have a win and tie. Iran has a win and a loss.

At least U.S. Soccer president Alan Rothenberg didn't follow the lead of the princes who run Saudi Arabian soccer and fire Sampson on the spot.

``I don't think he could have done anything except go out himself and play,'' Rothenberg said.

World Cup coaches are routinely replaced after World Cup failures, but Sampson said he wouldn't be quitting - ``C'mon, give me a break'' - and said that if the federation didn't want him, he was sure ``some other organization'' would.

The game's big lineup surprise, the one that left Sampson open to the second guess, was that Eric Wynalda never hit the field. The all-time leading U.S. scorer sat out a game that required offense.

Afterward, Wynalda was the first one out of the U.S. dressing room. Accompanied by the team's general manager, he didn't stop and talk to the print media, only for a quick ESPN interview, saying, ``I didn't play well against Germany, so I understand why I didn't start. It's a coaching decision. I can't fault him for that.''

Then Wynalda walked out of the interview area, the door slamming behind him as a Sampson answer was being translated into French. Sampson declined to get into why he sat Wynalda, saying only that it wasn't a question of fitness.

The decision surprised even some U.S. players.

``If you need someone to score goals, he's the guy to do it for us,'' Moore said.

This lineup had five changes from the opener. In the previous U.S. World Cup history, there had been only four total changes from the first game to the second.

Early in the first half, McBride hit a header off the crossbar, and Claudio Reyna boomed a left-footer from just outside the box in the 33rd minute that caromed off the inside of the right post.

In the 40th minute, Iran got the first goal, on a header by Hamid Estili, unmarked in the middle of the field, with Reyna and Tab Ramos close to him but not on him. Reyna said he thought he had Estili and Ramos thought he had him, yet nobody ending up taking him.

After that came more missed opportunities.

``It was weird,'' McBride said. ``They just kept playing back and let us keep serving balls with crosses. They had seven or eight players in the box.''

Reyna said: ``We weren't clever enough getting the game inside. If Germany was down 1-0, they'd win 2-1.''

Goalkeeper Kasey Keller, the most accomplished American player and a star in the English Premier League, said he hoped the MLS, the U.S. domestic league that provided 16 players to the team, will improve in the next three or four years and become a launching pad to top European Leagues for young American stars like Frankie Hejduk. That's what the Dutch league does for its players, Keller said.

As for himself, Keller said he'd be sticking around France for a while.

``I've got tickets for the semifinal and final,'' he said.

Fair play: Sunday was ``Fair Play Day,'' part of FIFA's efforts to promote sportsmanship and camaraderie through soccer.

Each of the Iranian starters, as they did in their first game against Yugoslavia, presented their American counterparts with flowers and, in an unprecedented move, the two teams joined for a group photo instead of the customary two separate squad shots.

FIFA said the timing of the ceremonies and the U.S.-Iran game was coincidental.

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

PHOTO (1--Color) The United States' Frankie Hejduk used his head near the net but, like his teammates, had trouble with accuracy.

Eric Draper/Associated Press

(2--Color) There's no doubt who the winners are on this day as the U.S.' Ernie Stewart stands dejectedly amid jubilant Iranian players.

Denis Doyle/Associated Press