LOS ANGELES — Iran’s footballers took to the training pitch in front of journalists Thursday at their base camp in Mexico, giving the world its first glimpse of a team whose participation in the World Cup has been clouded by war with the United States.
After having moved their training camp to Tijuana from the planned base in Arizona, the squad has said very little since arriving for the tournament last Sunday.
Iran is scheduled to play their first match on Monday in Los Angeles against New Zealand.
For Thursday’s training session, journalists were given 15 minutes to see a small group of players as they ran through warm-up exercises.
Of the 26 members of “Team Melli,” only a dozen players were present, with star striker Mehdi Taremi among those who did not show.
Dressed in green jerseys, the players did some light jogging on the training pitch of the Xolos, Tijuana’s local club.
They then performed stretching and core-strengthening exercises on foam mats.
A team official confirmed to AFP that the squad is set to enter the United States on Sunday and spend the night there ahead of the match.
Last week, Iran’s ambassador to Mexico told journalists the squad would only be allowed into the US on the day of their games and would have to leave straight afterwards.
