INGLEWOOD, Calif. — After Iran played to a draw Sunday at SoFi Stadium, its second of the World Cup in as many matches, the team's coach began his postmatch assessment by backing up six months.
Among the many elements of Iranian society thrown into disarray in late February by joint strikes by the U.S. and Israel was the country's soccer infrastructure. Its domestic league stopped playing. Iran's top Iranian soccer official expressed doubt that the country would play in this World Cup — co-hosted by the U.S., Mexico and Canada — because of security concerns; when the country ultimately stayed in the 48-team field, the location of its home training base was changed from Tucson, Arizona, to Tijuana, Mexico. Several pre-tournament warmup games were canceled.
"I think that we came to World Cup in the worst condition possible," coach Amir Ghalenoei said through an interpreter. "This is something that I wanted all the world to know."
Despite that lead-up to the tournament, visa issues and what Ghalenoei has described as delays and confusion over how long his team can stay in the U.S. before and after its matches, Iran will enter its third and final game of group play this week with a chance to move into the knockout round — something it has never done in six previous World Cup appearances, dating to 1978.
"We've had two games without losing in the World Cup with the conditions that we've had," Ghalenoei said. "We had less than 16 hours to get to do training before the game. This is a great achievement, and it will be written about in the history of our football, and the future generations will talk about this and what we achieved."
After Iran's tournament-opening draw against New Zealand last Monday, Ghalenoei called Iran the "most oppressed" team in the field. He repeated complaints about the travel restrictions at news conferences before and after the match this weekend. Staff members, including the president of Iran's soccer federation and its press officers, still were not allowed into the U.S. Iran was not allowed to arrive in Southern California until Saturday despite its attempt to come a day earlier.
"This is part of our culture: In a difficult situation, we perform better," Iranian midfielder Alireza Jahanbakhsh said. "I think that united us even more. And that's one of the things that I think we've shown today."
Belgium entered Sunday ranked 10th in FIFA's world rankings, 12 spots higher than Iran. In the opening minutes, a crunching collision in front of the goal between Belgium's Romelu Lukaku and Iranian goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand left Beiranvand writhing on the grass for several minutes, holding his face. But he proceeded to save seven shots, including a stunning one-handed stop while he was lying on the ground in the second half. Belgian coach Rudi Garcia called Beiranvand the "man of the match."
Iran appeared to score in the 26th minute off a free kick, only for the goal to be disallowed after a video review determined scorer Mehdi Taremi was offside. Iran gained a one-man advantage in the 67th minute when a red card reduced Belgium to 10 men, but it still could not score.
Two hours after the game, Iran was scheduled to return to Mexico because of travel restrictions that have limited the team to arriving in the U.S. the day before each match and returning to Mexico soon after it ends.
Ghalenoei has criticized the lack of recovery time his team has received while it is commuting.
That arrangement could change for Iran's third and final group-stage matchup Friday in Seattle against Egypt . Ghalenoei suggested at a prematch news conference Saturday that Iran had been cleared to arrive in Washington two days early.
Jahanbakhsh said: "To be honest, we don't ask for much; we just ask for the same procedures for all the other 47 teams. So hopefully we can bring everyone who is involved in helping with us. I hope we can go as soon as possible to adapt to the situation and the city."
Coach Amir Ghalenoei before Iran's match against Belgium at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., on Sunday. (Alex Livesey / FIFA via Getty Images)
Ghalenoei said Saturday that he was "grateful" in one way for treatment he characterized as unfair.
"This means that it was proven how much these behaviors have harmed our nation," he said. "If we had spent billions of dollars, we would not have been able to convey the legitimacy of our country and our nation to the world, but these behaviors showed how oppressed a country we are. But I hope that the world will always be peaceful and calm and that these behaviors will not be institutionalized in the next World Cup."
Compared with Iran's first match last week, the atmosphere surrounding Sunday's kickoff featured fewer demonstrations outside the stadium against Iran's government. Several fans still sneaked in the country's pre-revolution flag, featuring a lion and the sun, after FIFA prohibited it inside stadiums during the World Cup under its rule that bans materials deemed "of a political, offensive and/or discriminatory nature."
Los Angeles is home to the largest diaspora of Iranians in the U.S., which has meant that for all of the team's difficulties reaching the stadium, once it is inside, the scene has felt like a de facto home game, a sea of white jerseys from different eras, trimmed in red and green.
Some Iranians have said they cannot cheer for the team in the World Cup because they see it as an extension of a ruling government they oppose; others have said they separated their disdain for the government from interest in seeing Iran advance in the world's most-watched sporting tournament.
"Sixteen hours [in the U.S.], two flights and a heavy game, I don't think any team in the world could have really sustained with such conditions and played like this," Ghalenoei said. "The conditions have been extremely hard for us, and our players are really giving everything. They are playing with their heart. The future generations will remember them."
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
