Iran's World Cup Campaign Faces Unexpected Setbacks
Iran’s World Cup campaign had barely begun when it was sent back to the border.
Only a few hours after a draining, politically charged 2-2 draw with New Zealand at SoFi Stadium on Monday night, coach Amir Ghalenoei and his players were told to leave the U.S. immediately and return to their training base in Tijuana, Mexico — scrapping carefully laid recovery plans.
“They didn’t even give us time to recover,” Ghalenoei said through an interpreter. “After the game today, they said to us, ‘You have to leave immediately.’”
Iran had expected to stay overnight in California, sleep, rehydrate, and train lightly before flying back at lunchtime on Tuesday. Instead, players were hustled from a crackling World Cup atmosphere straight into another airport queue for the 140-mile trip south.
Who gave the order? Ghalenoei didn’t say. What he did make clear was the sense of powerlessness.
“It seems like others are doing the planning for us,” he said. “The decision-making for us is being made elsewhere. We have no idea why.”
A World Cup played under fire
Nothing about Iran’s World Cup cycle has been normal. Since war broke out on Feb. 28 involving the U.S., Israel and Iran, the team has prepared under a cloud. Iran still chose to compete after FIFA rejected its request to move all three group games out of the U.S.
The obstacles have piled up.
Key staff members never made it across the border. The president of Iran’s football federation, several coaching support staff and media officials were all denied U.S. visas, stripping away layers of support around the squad. Captain Mehdi Taremi described a five-hour ordeal of travel and security checks just to get from Tijuana to the Los Angeles area on Sunday — a trip that should be routine.
“We don’t know why they are returning us, to be honest,” Ghalenoei said. “We were supposed to come two nights before the game, and we were supposed to stay tonight to recover and return tomorrow at lunchtime. We have no idea why.
“I think our team is perhaps the most oppressed in the World Cup.”
Taremi did not soften the picture.
“We have to leave Los Angeles right now, and it’s not good for us,” he said about an hour after full time. “I think FIFA have to help us more than this. ... Everything is like a disaster, actually, for us.”
Cramps, substitutions and a fraying edge
The effects showed on the pitch.
The game unfolded in mild conditions, but several Iranian players cramped up. Ghalenoei pointed straight at the team’s disrupted build-up and the travel chaos.
“Before the game, I said we haven’t had time to adjust because of the travel,” he said. “Many of our players, they had cramps, and that’s why we had to substitute them. So it wasn’t for technical reasons that we made substitutions. It was because of the injury and because of the cramp.”
Those players will be examined by the staff on Tuesday back in camp. The coach is in no doubt about the cause: delayed arrivals, forced early departures, and no time to let bodies settle.
“They are making the situation more difficult,” he said.
That matters, because the schedule only gets harsher. Iran face Belgium in Inglewood on Sunday, then fly north to meet Egypt in Seattle next week. On paper, both are tougher assignments than New Zealand. All four teams in the group — Iran, Belgium, Egypt and New Zealand — sit on one point after the opening round.
A fractured crowd, a united roar
If the logistics were hostile, the stands were anything but.
SoFi Stadium, in a region that houses the largest Iranian population outside Iran, pulsed with noise and contradiction. Outside, several hundred Iranian Americans protested against the government. Inside, some fans turned their backs during the national anthem and jeered, a raw expression of anger at the regime.
Once the whistle blew, the mood changed. The vast majority roared for Team Melli.
“It was an incredible atmosphere in the game, all 90 minutes,” Taremi said. “It was like at home for us.”
The players fed off it. Twice they fell behind to Elijah Just, who scored early in each half for New Zealand. Twice they hauled themselves level with goals of real quality.
Ramin Rezaeian struck first, guiding the ball in with the outside of his boot, a deft finish that cut through the tension. Then came the moment that shook the stadium: Mohammad Mohebi’s towering header in the 64th minute, meeting a perfect cross from Rezaeian and burying it past the goalkeeper.
The noise was deafening. The celebration sparked debate.
Mohebi appeared to mime the firing of a gun, prompting criticism online. He followed it with the “ice in my veins” gesture made famous in Los Angeles by Lakers guard D’Angelo Russell, then formed a heart with his hands toward the crowd.
“The Iranians who live in Los Angeles, they make a great atmosphere,” Mohebi said. He described the celebration as spontaneous: “That celebration, it comes in the mind, and I did like this for all the fans. Just a celebration.”
A point gained, two points lost
On the surface, a 2-2 draw with a side ranked 65 places lower in the FIFA rankings is a missed opportunity. Iran trailed twice, rallied twice and left with a point that feels thin in a group where every margin counts.
Yet there was also resilience. Character. In a stadium charged by politics, diaspora pain and sporting expectation, Iran refused to fold.
Players from both teams embraced at the final whistle, swapping shirts and handshakes. Ghalenoei sat alone in the dugout for a moment, absorbing it all, while his squad walked the perimeter, applauding thousands of flag-waving fans who stayed to salute them.
Both of Iran’s remaining group matches look more daunting than New Zealand. Progress to the knockout rounds — something Iran has never achieved at a World Cup — hangs in the balance.
“We’re facing more hurdles, but we’re not going to let that stop us from doing our best,” Ghalenoei said. “I think today was one of the best games in the World Cup so far, and I think the fans really enjoyed it inside the stadium and outside the stadium.”
Now comes the harder part: surviving a World Cup played on someone else’s terms, with the clock, the travel and the politics all running against them.
