Iran's World Cup Turmoil: Late-Night Order to Leave U.S.

The noise was still ringing around SoFi Stadium when Iran were told to get out.

Barely a couple of hours after a bruising, breathless 2-2 draw with New Zealand in Los Angeles, Amir Ghalenoei’s players were ordered to leave the U.S. and fly back to their training base in Tijuana. No overnight recovery, no ice baths, no proper debrief. Just a 140-mile trip and another layer of chaos on a World Cup campaign already warped by geopolitics.

“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.’”

He did not say who gave the order. That silence said plenty.

A team on the move, but never settled

Iran had planned to stay the night in California, a standard move to help players’ bodies calm down after a high-intensity opener. Instead, the squad were hustled out of Los Angeles and sent south, back over the border, back into the churn of a tournament being played under the shadow of war.

Their World Cup has been unstable from the start. Since the U.S. and Israel began a war against Iran on February 28, the very idea of Iran taking part in a World Cup on American soil has been drenched in tension. Iran pushed FIFA to move its three group-stage matches out of the U.S. The request was rejected. The team came anyway.

The price has been heavy.

Captain Mehdi Taremi described five hours of travel and security checks just to get from Tijuana to the Los Angeles area on Sunday — a journey that should be routine, almost casual. Instead, every movement has felt like a negotiation.

“We don’t know why they are returning us, to be honest,” Ghalenoei said. “It seems like others are doing the planning for us. The decision-making for us is being made elsewhere.”

They had been scheduled to arrive two nights before the New Zealand game, stay again after the match, then fly back at lunchtime the following day. None of that happened. “We have no idea why,” he added. “I think our team is perhaps the most oppressed in the World Cup.”

Staff missing, visas denied, plans shredded

The strain has not just been logistical. Iran are operating without key figures who would normally form the backbone of a World Cup operation. The president of Iran’s football federation is absent. So are several coaching support staff and media officials. The U.S. denied their visas.

For a team already fighting fatigue and distraction, it has cut into their preparation and their sense of normality.

“We have to leave Los Angeles right now, and it’s not good for us,” Taremi 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.”

On the pitch, that chaos showed up in tired legs. In a match played in mild conditions, several Iranian players cramped and had to be substituted.

“Before the game, I said we haven’t had time to adjust because of the travel,” Ghalenoei explained. “Many of our players, they had cramps, and that’s why we had to substitute them. So it wasn’t for technical reasons. It was because of the injury and because of the cramp.”

He said the players will be examined by the technical staff on Tuesday, but he made his point clearly: delayed arrivals, forced early departures, no proper recovery windows. “They are making the situation more difficult.”

A draw that felt like both defiance and a warning

On paper, a 2-2 draw with New Zealand is a stumble. Iran are ranked 65 places higher in FIFA’s rankings and came into the tournament with ambitions of finally escaping the group stage for the first time in their history.

In reality, the game was a surge of defiance.

Elijah Just scored early in each half for New Zealand, punishing lapses and threatening to turn Iran’s opener into a damaging defeat. Twice Iran trailed. Twice they clawed their way back with moments of real quality.

Ramin Rezaeian dragged them level the first time, scoring off the side of his boot with the kind of improvisation that cuts through tension. Then came the goal that truly lit up the night: Mohammad Mohebi’s towering header in the 64th minute, guided in off a perfect cross from Rezaeian.

The noise when the ball hit the net felt like it came from two places at once — Los Angeles and Tehran.

Mohebi’s celebration, though, sparked its own storm. He appeared to mime the shooting of a gun, a gesture that drew criticism online, before switching to the now-familiar “ice in my veins” pose and then forming a heart with his hands toward the stands.

“The Iranians who live in Los Angeles, they make a great atmosphere,” Mohebi said. “That celebration, it comes in the mind, and I did like this for all the fans. Just a celebration.”

A divided crowd, united in 90 minutes

SoFi Stadium hosted more than a football match. It hosted a reckoning.

Outside, several hundred Iranian Americans protested against the current Iranian government. Inside, the contradictions of a vast diaspora played out in real time. Many fans turned their backs and jeered during the national anthem, a visible rejection of the regime. Then the whistle blew, and the mood flipped.

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.”

Los Angeles is home to the largest population of Iranians outside Iran, and the stadium crackled with that energy. Flags waved, drums pounded, voices rose and fell with every attack. For 90 minutes, the team became a vessel for pride, frustration, memory, and hope.

At the final whistle, players from both sides embraced, swapped jerseys, and shared a moment that felt almost ordinary in an evening that was anything but. Ghalenoei sat alone in the dugout for a spell, watching his players walk the perimeter of the pitch, applauding the thousands of Iranian fans still roaring and shaking flags.

Tougher tests ahead, and no margin for error

The table offers no comfort. Iran, Belgium, Egypt and New Zealand all sit on one point after the opening round. The next two games, on paper, are far tougher than New Zealand.

Belgium await in Inglewood on Sunday. Then comes a trip north to Seattle to face Egypt next week. The football challenge is steep enough. The off-field headwinds make it even harsher.

“We’re facing more hurdles, but we’re not going to let that stop us from doing our best,” Ghalenoei said. He called the draw with New Zealand “one of the best games in the World Cup so far,” insisting the fans inside and outside the stadium had enjoyed it.

The performance suggested there is still fight, still quality, still a team capable of punching through the fog around it.

The question now is stark: in a World Cup where others seem to be drawing the map for them, how long can Iran keep control of their own journey?