Iran’s World Cup run has been a logistical nightmare from the start, and now head coach Amir Ghalenoei is airing his frustrations publicly after his team got barely half a day to prepare for their crucial match against Belgium.
Ghalenoei said Saturday that U.S. authorities slashed his squad’s training time to under 16 hours ahead of the Belgium game, forcing them to cut practice short. The team had to commute from their base in Tijuana, Mexico — a setup born from the ongoing war between the two countries — and the restrictions on their stay in the U.S. have been applied differently for every match so far.
“We only managed to train half the time we usually spend on training,” Ghalenoei said. “We wanted to have optimal physical and technical preparation.” He pointed out that Belgium arrived the previous afternoon and got a full practice session in. “Look at the Belgium team. They arrived yesterday noon. They’ve managed to have proper training.”
Iran’s prep time has only gotten worse
For their opening game against New Zealand, which ended in a 2-2 draw, Iran at least had 24 hours to prepare. That window has shrunk since then. “The conditions have become even harder,” Ghalenoei said.
The core of his complaint is consistency — or the lack of it. U.S. officials have said they’re reviewing Iran’s travel plans on a case-by-case basis, and there have been talks about easing some restrictions. But Ghalenoei isn’t buying the piecemeal approach.
He revealed that for their final group game against Egypt on June 26 in Seattle, Iran has been given more control over their own travel schedule. That only made him angrier about the first two games.
“For the third game, they’ve allowed us to decide to make our own decisions with regards to planning the travel,” Ghalenoei said. “But what my problem is, why didn’t they let us come earlier for the first two games as well? If they’ve managed to do this now, why didn’t they do that for our first game and for this game?”
Infantino gets a thank you, U.S. gets mixed reviews
Ghalenoei was careful to credit FIFA president Gianni Infantino and the organization for trying to help behind the scenes. “I know for sure that FIFA and Mr Infantino are doing the utmost to ease these challenges that we are facing,” he said. “I think FIFA did its utmost to minimize the problems we have faced.”
He also acknowledged that once Iran actually entered the U.S. for games, customs and border processing went smoothly. “Once we entered the United States, they made sure that in customs everything went smoothly. I’d like to thank the US for that.” But the gratitude came with a sharp edge. “But unfortunately, it’s our training time that they did not give us.”
Iran’s original base was supposed to be in Tucson, Arizona. That plan got scrapped when the war with the U.S. made staying stateside untenable, so they relocated to Tijuana. Several staff members were also denied visas to enter the U.S., further complicating operations. The squad now commutes across the border for matches, a grind that Ghalenoei argues puts them at a significant competitive disadvantage in a tournament where every hour of preparation matters.
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