During 101 minutes of action in Los Angeles, Iran were finally able to focus on football. The buildup had been unprecedented, messy and chaotic. But then, in the aftermath of an entertaining draw with New Zealand, Iran’s captain, Mehdi Taremi, described their World Cup as a “disaster”, explaining how the Fifa president, Gianni Infantino, went into their dressing room to hear their concerns. The head coach, Amir Ghalenoei, labelled them the “most oppressed” team at the tournament after being forced to return to Mexico after the game.
A charter flight from LAX was scheduled for 11pm local time. It was a lively end to a relatively drama-free occasion, despite pre-match protests and an underlying anxiety around how the team would be greeted by their own supporters. What, really, were the emotions flowing through their veins as they took to the pitch? A few hours earlier, Donald Trump, in France for the G7 summit, said a peace deal had been signed after almost four months of war. Infantino, who in effect recently admitted he is powerless to prevent the chaos that continues to plague Iran’s preparations and overshadow their participation, was up in the VIP seats.
Goals from Mohammad Mohebi and Ramin Rezaeian had cancelled out a smart Eli Just double. The cue of a partisan crowd provided the kind of joy Taremi conceded had been missing in recent weeks – for obvious reasons.
With the Hollywood hills visible from parts of this spectacular stadium, covered by a teardrop-shaped canopy underneath which hangs a LED chandelier the length of the pitch, Iran did not seem bogged down by political baggage.
After all, this was arguably the most politically supercharged sporting event in history given the hurdles Iran overcame just to take to the field, this in the first of three Group G games in the USA; Belgium are their opponents here on Sunday. Eleven Iran officials were refused entry, prompting them to switch their team base from Arizona to Tijuana, Mexico, where they received a warm welcome. But their training programme was delayed and they travelled to LA with skeleton staff.
Then there is the delicate nature of Iranian politics and the associated infighting. There are hundreds of thousands of Iranian-Americans based in the area of town tagged “Tehrangeles”, home to the biggest population of Iranians outside of Iran, many of whom fled religious and political persecution. But there is division among Iranians, some of whom protested at the team hotel on the eve of the game and outside the stadium here with clear messages against the Islamic Republic.
Protesters carried the pre-revolutionary flag of Iran and portraits of the former Shah of Persia. They also sold merchandise with the emblem of a sun and a lion; on the day of the game a Fifa ban on the flags was upheld by a judge after a lawsuit was filed to LA’s superior court. That did not stop dozens carrying the flags into the ground. Iran’s sports minister, Ahmad Donyamali, had said their players would abandon the match if they heard “political slogans” in the ground.
But inside this vast bowl, from the moment Taremi exchanged pennants with Chris Wood, the support for Iran was overwhelmingly positive. Unlike in their opening game in Qatar four years ago, Iran sang the national anthem, another divisive issue.
Iran, all in white against the All Whites, made a fast start, but trailed after seven minutes when Just linked with Wood, juggled the ball in the area and wellied it past Alireza Beiranvand.
It was a direct move that stemmed from Wood controlling a long kick downfield by the Millwall goalkeeper Max Crocombe. Wood and Just then combined in the area, the latter steering the ball away from Ali Nemati with his left boot and then smacking in with the laces of his right.
A loose contest meant plenty of openings. Shahriar Moghanloo made, surely, a goal-saving block, thwarting Wood after the Nottingham Forest striker wound up a shot, and Taremi cracked an effort against the post after soaringsurging to the edge of New Zealand’s 18-yard area from inside his own half.
Iran levelled when Rezaeian poked in, the 36-year-old rewarded for burning towards goal after flicking the ball infield with the outside of his right foot. Saman Ghoddos’s first-time pass into Moghanloo was sumptuous and while Moghanloo was crowded out by Finn Surman, Rezaeian ghosted past the defender Michael Boxall to send his shot past Crocombe.
It always felt unlikely the goals would stop there and Just scored his and his country’s second 10 minutes into the second half. He again dovetailed with Wood and while Wood screamed for the Motherwell striker to square, he coolly dinked the ball over Beiranvand. New Zealand again failed to hold on to their lead, Mohebi heading in via a post after eluding the centre-backs Boxall and Surman.
“We were so close to making history,” said New Zealand’s head coach, Darren Bazeley. “We’ve maybe taken a few people by surprise in showing who we are and how good we can play. We’re disappointed to come away with that sense of ‘what if?’”
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