The coach of Iran's World Cup team said it was ordered to leave the US and return to its training base in Mexico only a few hours after opening its politically charged tournament by playing to a 2-2 draw with New Zealand on Monday night.
Coach Amir Ghalenoei didn't say who ordered the Iranians to leave earlier than planned. The team had expected to spend the night in California to maximize the normal recovery process after its opening game, only to be told after the match that everyone must immediately get on a plane for the 140-mile trip back to Tijuana.
“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.’ It’s very important for us to have time for recovery, (but) we are asked to get on a plane and return to our camp in Tijuana, and we are really troubled by that.”
The Iranians’ World Cup cycle has been in upheaval since the US and Israel began a war against Iran on Feb. 28. Iran ultimately decided to compete even after FIFA rejected its request to move its three group-stage matches out of the US.
Iran captain Mehdi Taremi said the team endured five hours of travel and security checks during what's normally a very short trip from Tijuana to the Los Angeles area on Sunday.
“We don’t know why they are returning us, to be honest,” Ghalenoei said. “I think it’s very strange. It seems like others are doing the planning for us. The decision-making for us is being made elsewhere. 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 and Ghalenoei both decried the team's lack of many important staff members, including the president of Iran's football federation, coaching support personnel and media officials, who were denied visas by the US, amplifying the team's difficult preparations.
“We have to leave Los Angeles right now, and it’s not good for us,” Taremi said about an hour after the match. “I think FIFA have to help us more than this. ... Everything is like a disaster, actually, for us.”
Ghalenoei said several players developed cramps during the game, which was played in mild conditions. He attributed the injury problems to the lack of proper preparation time caused by Iran's bureaucratic and diplomatic obstacles.
“Before the game, I said we haven’t had time to adjust because of the travel,” Ghalenoei 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.”
“They will be examined (Tuesday) by our technical staff, but the fact they delayed our arrivals and they are forcing us to go back early without time for recovery, they are making the situation more difficult,” he added.
The Iranians’ remaining two games in group stage play are against Belgium in Inglewood on Sunday, followed by a trip to Seattle to face Egypt next week.
Iran opened its World Cup with a disappointing draw to a team ranked 65 places lower in FIFA's rankings. Yet the Iranians also overcame two deficits in an exciting match, getting the tying goal from Mohammad Mohebi in the 64th minute before a strongly pro-Iranian crowd at SoFi Stadium near Los Angeles, which has the world’s largest population of Iranians outside Iran.
The game was played in a crackling atmosphere created in part by a conflicted, diasporic fan base which remains furious with the current Iranian government, but is still largely supportive of Team Melli.
While several hundred Iranian Americans protested the government outside, many fans from the diaspora jeered and turned their backs on the field during the national anthem. Dozens of Lion and Sun emblems — the centerpiece of Iran’s official flag before 1979 — were displayed in the crowd despite FIFA’s attempts to keep them away, while dozens more fans wore the Lion and Sun emblems on T-shirts.
Yet the vast majority of the crowd vocally supported the Iranian players once the match kicked off.
“It was an incredible atmosphere in the game, all 90 minutes,” Taremi said. “It was like at home for us.”
