On the brink of making the World Cup knockout stage for the first time in the nation’s history, the Iran national team is only frustrated.
“I’m tired,” Iran defender Ramin Rezaeian said after the game. “I don’t know what’s going wrong with our football because I can’t see any luck to my team, because we deserved to win the game.”
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Some might call Iran’s 1-1 draw with Egypt part of a string of bad luck. Friday’s game had plenty of disappointment on the football front: the missed penalty kick, the two shots off the crossbar, the stoppage-time go-ahead goal that Iran and fans celebrated before it was snatched back by VAR review.
Rezaeian, who scored Iran’s sole (counted) goal in the 14th minute, earned Player of the Match for his effort. It created an instant entry in the canon of players who win the honor and look upset in their photo, though Rezaeian’s sadness is particularly heartbreaking.
But Iranian captain Mehdi Taremi believes that it’s something more than bad luck.
“Small details affect the football. Yeah, we have hope, we have good energy in the dressing room,” Taremi said. “We did our best during 90 minutes [with] this situation we’ve had since the beginning till now.”
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That “situation,” as Taremi puts it, refers to the obstacles that Iran, and only Iran, have had to overcome to be at this World Cup. Four months into a war in their home country, Team Melli is playing on the soil of the country waging that war. Iran was forced to move its base camp from the U.S. into Mexico; they have had to travel without a significant portion of their staff after they were denied visas to enter the United States; they have had to fly back to Tijuana, where their base camp is located, immediately before and after games, without any time to recover.
Late Friday night, Taremi appeared to confirm that Iran would be traveling back to Tijuana right away, after a game that did not end until after 10 p.m. PT.
“How [is it] possible we always have to travel to Tijuana? We love [the] people of Mexico. We love Tijuana,” Taremi said. “But as professional players, professional competition, it’s not right.
“Now we have [to] travel again, going to Tijuana again without recovery, without nothing. It’s not fair,” he continued. “If it is fair for FIFA, OK, good to them. But it’s not fair.”
Taremi added that FIFA president Gianni Infantino had joined the team in the locker room during their first game, a 2-2 draw with New Zealand, and had assured them that things would be get better.
“It’s a disaster World Cup,” Taremi said. “Mr. Infantino came to our changing room [at the] first game and he said, ‘It’s just the beginning.’ But it’s group stage finish tomorrow. And we don’t have our logistics people here. They don’t have a visa.”
Iran’s Ramin Rezaeian and Mehdi Taremi react after the 1-1 draw against Egypt on Friday. (Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)
(Richard Heathcote via Getty Images)
He repeated the point again later, continuing to return to what they don’t have: no media people, no kitmen, no logistics. Even the head of the Iranian football federation was among those denied a visa.
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“As I said, Infantino [at the] first game came and said we will solve every problem here, but actually, FIFA did nothing,” Taremi said.
When speaking to media postgame in Farsi, Iran head coach Amir Ghalenoei pointed out the differences between Iran and other countries in the tournament, including Egypt.
“[Egypt] had played with Brazil, New Zealand, England. They had all these friendlies. Whereas we played with youth in Tijuana. These are all factors which impacted us, impacted us physically, technically, mentally,” Ghalenoei said.
The manager did not hold back when speaking about the United States, and the “obstacles” put in Iran’s way — specifically saying that the U.S. had denied them the “rational, reasonable demand” to come and stay in the country for the two weeks before the World Cup began. Iranian players did not receive their visas until one week before their first group stage game.
“The host country treated us very unfairly,” Ghalenoei said. “And this is the third time they are doing this to us. We have tough to leave from here to the airport. And we have to return to Tijuana, and it’ll take us some three hours. Their behavior towards us, has been really terrible, and I hope the world will be aware of that, because they didn’t let us come two weeks earlier. They didn’t let us to come two days earlier before every game. And all this, physically and mentally, really hurt us. But despite all these problems, we had a war as well. We managed to perform well, and these problems, look, the world is now proud of Iran, Iranians and our team. I think that was the greatest achievement we had.”
Taremi said that the team is playing with a weight on their shoulders, exacerbated by the constant travel and the numerous outside factors. And that, he said, is where some of the disappointment comes from: Because they knew that they could have done better, if their circumstances were better.
“We have to fight against everything here,” he said. “How [is it] possible now 90 minutes, you play [with] a lot of stress, a lot of this thing in our shoulders, then we have to go back again to Tijuana?
“We do our best. We always do our best. We play for our people. We want them to be happy. We want to bring the joy. We want to send a message of peace for the people in Iran, outside Iran, for the FIFA, for everyone. But there isn’t no peace about the others to us.”
Ghalenoei also steered the conversation toward hope, and the larger, holistic view of what the World Cup can mean.
“Football, nations. I think all this is separate from politics. We’ve come here to compete. We’ve come for fair play. We are prepared to play with any team, and it makes us happy. Be it United States or any other team,” Ghalenoei said. “People want to watch football. They want football to bring nations, cultures together. You saw today. Two countries. With such ancient civilizations, how they were encouraging each other. And this is what’s good to see, this is what’s important now.”
With the draw, Iran ends third in Group G with three points, trailing behind both Belgium and Egypt. What’s worse: Their path to the knockout round is now out of their hands. Team Melli sits sixth in the third-place standings, praying for losses from either Croatia, Algeria or DR Congo in order to snatch that last spot.
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Rezaeian pointed out how close Iran has gotten in group play over the past few World Cups: In 2022, a 1-0 loss to the United States led Iran to finish in third place, while the team fell a point short in 2018 after a draw with Portugal. The chance to finally advance to that long-awaited knockout berth, Rezaeian said, would prove something on the football side.
“It means everything because this is not the first time,” Rezaeian said of their poor luck in the past. “But now I think Iran show good quality, show everything to the world and our play, they played so well, we played so good and at the end, not happen what we wanted, but we have to wait for the result of the [other] teams and see what what’s going on.”
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Taremi agreed, saying that he and the team are praying for that final bit of luck, but also appreciate what they have already accomplished.
“We are here to make our history true,” Taremi said. “Tomorrow, if our dream becomes true, thank God. If not, I think we are proud of our game, our players, because of how we did the games, last three games, we are proud of. So yeah, let’s see what happens.”
