The Best Match of the World Cup So Far Was a Total Shocker in Every Possible Way

Sports

Is It OK to Root For Iran’s World Cup Team? Persians Are Divided.

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Jeremy Stahl

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June 16, 2026 6:06 PM

Fans holding the old, banned Iranian flag at the Iran–New Zealand game in Los Angeles on Monday.

Jamie Squire/Getty Images

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INGLEWOOD, California— As I arrived at Monday’s Group G World Cup match between Iran and New Zealand, the first thing I saw was a group of about 50 demonstrators standing on a corner outside a choked traffic checkpoint holding up signs decrying January’s mass slaughter of protesters in Iran by the Islamic republic’s government: “40,000 people murdered in two days,” the sign declared. An accurate count is not known, but at least 7,000 citizens were butchered by their government in an incredibly brief span just five months ago, to little account .

As hundreds of happy Iran soccer supporters—almost certainly opponents of the regime themselves—walked by, the loudest protester shouted, “You’re going to cheer terrorists! Good for you!”

The cry honestly sounded tinged with jealousy. The Iranian soccer team is one of the best in world soccer and has historically been beloved both in Iran and among the large Iranian diaspora that hates the regime for which the team plays. This previously unifying force, though, had become a lightning rod prior to this week’s game, with boycotts and protests promised following the horror of January.

The question ahead of this match, for all Iran fans, was: Is it OK to cheer this team?

Inside Los Angeles Stadium on Monday—in a town that is home to 230,000 Persians, the largest Iranian diaspora in the world—the answer was very much yes, as the team played to a 2–2 draw in one of the most unexpectedly thrilling games of the World Cup, cheered on by a crowd of 70,000, most of them Iran fans. The soccer was very, very fun.

What those fans witnessed was fantastic and wholly unexpected . The chatter before the game was that New Zealand was the worst team in the tournament—ranked dead last among the field at 85 th in the FIFA World Ranking, behind such minnows as Cabo Verde and Curaçao—and that the contest against 20 th -ranked Iran should not be close or interesting. Instead, New Zealand rose to the moment and nearly achieved the upset and a first-ever World Cup victory, while Iran struggled in defense for the entirety of the game before pulling off two comebacks to earn the point.

Team Iran, to be fair, had contended with more than any other side in World Cup history. Its domestic league was suspended in March due to the American–Israeli war against Iran, as most players have missed months of match play. For a long time, it was unclear whether the team would attend this World Cup, with the Iranian federation threatening to boycott and U.S. authorities threatening not to allow the team into the country. Even when the visas were granted, they were limited to two days at a time and excluded many team staffers. After the team’s base camp was moved from Tucson, Arizona, to Tijuana, Mexico, the visa situation required the team to travel across the border the day before match day and back to Mexico immediately after the game. On top of it, the Iranian federation left one of its best players, Sardar Azmoun, off the roster due to perceived “ disloyalty ” to the regime. In a prematch press conference, manager Amir Ghalenoei disingenuously shrugged off the exclusion, comparing it to Neymar missing the early phase of the tournament due to injury .

On top of it all, when game day finally arrived, many of the team’s fans booed Iran’s national anthem. And although many said they would boycott, the fans who did show up in the tens of thousands staged their own form of microprotest, with attendees holding up the “Lion and Sun” flag of the previous Iranian regime that had been officially banned by FIFA as overly “political.” Despite seeing a few desperate attempts by match stewards to get fans to put their flags away, they mostly remained in the stadium and were waved visibly during the match’s biggest moments.

Oh, and until Sunday’s peace deal, this would have been the first-ever World Cup match in which the host country was at war with one of the competing teams.

So the Iran squad, despite its heavily favored status, was not without its challenges.

Still, at the whistle, the Iranians came out as if none of that mattered and they wanted to win the entire tournament in the first five minutes. They perhaps emerged too hot. Despite wave after wave of initial early attack by Iran, 26-year-old New Zealand winger Elijah Just scored one of the best link-play goals of the tournament . In just the seventh minute, after a…