{"id":495207,"date":"2026-06-16T08:08:06","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T08:08:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/495207\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T08:08:06","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T08:08:06","slug":"iranian-team-claims-they-were-forced-to-return-to-mexico-immediately-after-first-world-cup-game-in-u-s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/495207\/","title":{"rendered":"Iranian Team Claims They Were Forced To Return To Mexico Immediately After First World Cup Game In U.S."},"content":{"rendered":"

Topline<\/p>\n

The Iranian soccer team claimed it was asked to depart the U.S. immediately and return to its base in Mexico shortly after its first World Cup game at Los Angeles Stadium, highlighting the impact of the U.S.-Iran war on the global competition despite ongoing truce talks.<\/p>\n

Iran’s Mohammad Mohebbi celebrates after scoring his side’s second goal during the World Cup Group G soccer match between Iran and New Zealand in Inglewood, California.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.Key Facts<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s first game of the World Cup ended in a 2-2 draw against the much lower-ranked New Zealand, which managed to take the lead twice in the game before the Iranians scored equalizers.<\/p>\n

The Iranian team\u2014whose preparations have been disrupted by political tensions\u2014arrived in the U.S. on Sunday from its World Cup home base in Mexico.<\/p>\n

After the game, the team\u2019s coach, Amir Ghalenoei, told reporters<\/a> they had intended to remain in California overnight as part of their recovery process but were ordered to return to Mexico immediately.<\/p>\n

Ghalenoei complained his team was not given \u201ctime to recover\u201d and said he was \u201creally troubled\u201d after being told they must \u201cleave immediately,\u201d after the match.<\/p>\n

Ghalenoei did not specify who ordered them to fly back to Tijuana immediately after the game, and it’s unclear if it was FIFA, a U.S. tournament official, or U.S. government officials.<\/p>\n

Tangent<\/p>\n

Before the start of the game, a group of Iranian-Americans in attendance booed<\/a> the Iranian national anthem in an apparent protest against the country\u2019s regime. Many of the Iranian supporters who had come to watch the game were wearing shirts with Iran\u2019s pre-revolutionary flag and despite a FIFA ban on political symbols. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Topline The Iranian soccer team claimed it was asked to depart the U.S. immediately and return to its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495208,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[8316,42,228137,228138,228139,228141,43,228140,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-495207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-headlines","tag-iran-vs-new-zealand","tag-iranian-football-team","tag-iranian-team","tag-los-angeles-stadium","tag-news","tag-tijuana-mexico","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}