‘Part of our culture’: Iran defying hardships and dreaming of first World Cup knockout round appearance

World Cup‘Part of our culture’: Iran defying hardships and dreaming of first World Cup knockout round appearanceThe team has been limited to arriving in the U.S. the day before each match and returning to Mexico soon after its conclusion. Despite the travel restrictions and reduced recovery time, Iran has a realistic shot of making the knockout rounds.Listen to this article with a free account00:0000:00Mehdi Taremi of Iran, right, celebrates scoring a goal with teammates before it was disallowed due to offside during the FIFA World Cup 2026 Group G match between Belgium and Iran on Sunday.Stu Forster / Getty ImagesShareAdd NBC News to GoogleJune 21, 2026, 8:02 PM EDTBy Andrew GreifINGLEWOOD, Calif. — After Iran played to a draw Sunday inside SoFi Stadium, its second of the World Cup in as many matches, the team’s coach began his post-match assessment by backing up six months. Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.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 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 warm-up 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 mov...