After months of anticipation, Iran’s national team played in the World Cup on Monday night in Los Angeles.
Iran tied with New Zealand 2–2, the fourth draw of the day, a rarity that has only happened once before in the World Cup in 1958.
Just hours after the final whistle, the players boarded a flight back to their base camp in Tijuana.“They didn’t even give us time to recover,” coach Amir Ghalenoei said through an interpreter following the match. “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.”
Ghalenoei said “our team is perhaps the most oppressed” in the tournament.
After Monday’s match, Iran captain Mehdi Taremi said he thinks “FIFA have to help us more than this” because “everything is like a disaster” for the team.
