Iran coach says team ordered out of US right after 2-2 draw with New Zealand in World Cup opener

[groundloop]

Source: AP News

The coach of Iran’s World Cup team said it was ordered to leave the U.S. 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.”

[.....]

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.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/world-cup-iran-new-zealand-score-314655749d94fe577bb2b52ebd6b32c4

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In addition, many staff members for Iran's World Cup team, including coaching support personnel, were denied visas by the US.

[SunSeeker]

1. Yup, Stephen Miller is running our country. nt

[chicoescuela]

2. Our country sucks and I'm ashamed

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. They'll be this bad to even more people at the Olympics

Think of all the countries that Trump and his horde think are "shitholes". Athletes and officials from them will be treated as illegal people. Some will be denied visas, more turned back at the border, some will get arrested on bogus charges - I don't think the IOC will stand up for them. And any private individuals from the countries will be treated even worse.

[Prairie Gates]

4. The MAGAs will have two main problems with what they saw on Monday night

1) The Iran players look like totally normal, modern soccer players. Many are, I daresay, quite handsome, but they all have modern haircuts and react like other soccer players to goals (and fouls!), and it all seemed as if you were watching any other game. Iran's first goal was, in fact, fairly spectacular, from the initial switch of play to the lightning cross to the pinpoint header.

Moreover, the announcers discussed where some of them played their club careers and it was quite a mix, from Europe to the Arabian peninsula, to Russia, etc. Hardly the pariah nation we've been sold. Lastly, the coaches also looked normal and friendly - hard to paint them as the "severe" coaches/ party minders like in the old Soviet days.

2) The stadium (in Los Angeles) was full of pro-Iranian fans. Obviously, the vast majority of these were anti-regime Iranians in the diaspora. There were plenty of pre-Islamic Republic flags on display, and flags that just said "IRAN" in the middle rather than the Shah's flag or the IR flag. But there were also quite a few IR flags as well. When the cameras scanned the crowd there were pro-Iranian team supporters of all kinds. Needless to say, they just looked like soccer fans as well.

The whole affair looked so...I dunno...human. Hard to dehumanize people when you see them with your own eyes doing stuff that you do.

Kudos also to the New Zealanders for the great game.

[dem4decades]

5. Iran should have threatened to close the Strait again, Trump

Would have let them stay at the Beverly Wilshire and we would have paid for it. And fuck FIFA for allowing this bullshit.

[ChicagoTeamster]

6. Trump's asshole administration. Once Trump was elected FIFA should have cancelled and gone with second runner up country

Is the International Olympic Committee going to make the same mistake for 2028? Iran should have FIFA reschedule all their matches to either Mexico or Canada and do the same for all teams Trump might have a problem with.

I hope other teams speak out against this mistreatment of an athletic team.