Alireza Jahanbakhsh left the Tijuana Marriott in Tijuana, Mexico, on Saturday with his forehead pressed to the Quran, as Iran’s national soccer team headed into the last stretch before Sunday’s noon kickoff against Belgium. Outside the hotel, fans who had gathered to cheer the team watched a departure shaped as much by security as by sport.
The moment landed because it came at the center of a difficult World Cup run for Iran, whose team was staying at the Marriott in Tijuana after being forced to move its base camp from Tucson, Arizona, after the outbreak of war. The hotel entrance was barricaded and guarded by police and the Mexican National Guard, and no one could enter without a reservation or special permission.
Supporters had come from Los Angeles, San Jose, California, and Miami to stand by the team. Lucas Zarrabi said he wanted to support Iranian soccer and cheer for the players when they came out of the building, while Ali Eslami, who said he had been visiting the hotel gates nearly every day since the team landed on June 7, said seeing the squad was the most emotional thing he had felt in 50 years in America.
That show of loyalty was not simple. Some fans said they were there for soccer and the players, not politics, and others feared reprisal from fellow members of the diaspora for showing up in support. Eslami said the team was the most emotional sight of his long time in the United States, but the mood around the hotel also showed how much pressure has built around Iran’s tournament.
The pressure is not just emotional. Hedayat Mombeini said on Friday that the restrictions were having a negative effect on the team, and Abbas Eftekhari said every little technicality was making it difficult for the players and could drain them psychologically and physically. The U.S. denied Iran’s request to arrive two days before matches and required the team to leave immediately after each game, while 11 team officials and staff members did not receive U.S. visas.
That is why Saturday’s departure mattered beyond one hotel gate. Iran’s team has been living around restrictions that cut into preparation and recovery, and the question now is how long it must keep operating under them. For Jahanbakhsh and the rest of the squad, Sunday’s match arrives with the same pressure outside the hotel that has followed them since June 7.
