Mehdi Taremi lay on the ground at Seattle Stadium, staring at the heavens in devastation.
His Iran team had just drawn 1-1 with Egypt in their final World Cup group game, a match they needed to win to reach the knockout round for the first time in seven appearances.
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Taremi missed a penalty in the contest. A late goal that sent the team into bedlam was correctly ruled out for offside.
He remained on the ground for several minutes as teammate Alireza Jahanbakhsh offered comfort. Other players who had collapsed eventually arose and trudged to the locker room.
Minutes later, Taremi told the media there was “good energy” in the locker room.
He said they were proud of their performance and would look forward to the next day’s games.
Saturday brought only more heartbreak. Iran needed Ghana to beat Croatia, but got the opposite.
They needed Uzbekistan to win or draw against the Democratic Republic of Congo, only to see the African side come back from 1-0 down to win.
Most agonizingly, they got a jolt of hope when Riyad Mahrez scored in stoppage time to put Algeria up 3-2 over Austria.
Then their World Cup ended about 120 seconds later, when Austria equalized and the final whistle blew.
Iran and South Korea miss out on the World Cup last 32 in a dramatic third-place race.
Iran had planned for a senior federation official to speak at the team’s training session on Saturday night.
