Iran’s national soccer team arrived in Tijuana early on Sunday ahead of three World Cup matches in the United States, amid tensions that have turned the world’s biggest sporting event into a soft-power contest between the warring countries.
The squad touched down shortly after five a.m. (12:00GMT) in the Mexican city, across the border from San Diego, after an overnight flight from Turkey where they have been training for the past three weeks.
As the team’s bus pulled away from Tijuana airport, it paused briefly so members of the federation could wave to about 20 fans holding Iranian flags. A cordon of military and police escorted the team from the airport to the Marriott hotel, which will serve as their base.
Soccer is virtually a religion in Iran, a national pastime beloved by people across the political spectrum. But for Iran’s team, the tournament has been marred by fraught politics at home, the war with the US, and tensions over whether they would actually be able to set foot on US soil to play their games.
Even their presence in Tijuana is politically tinged. The Iranian federation negotiated at the last minute to move the team’s base camp from Arizona to Mexico, due to uncertainty over whether they would be granted visas and a growing feeling in Iran that the squad’s presence in the U.S. should be kept to a minimum, Iran’s ambassador in Mexico, Abolfazl Pasandideh, told Reuters.
