Iran coach goes on angry World Cup rant after draw with Belgium

INGLEWOOD, Calif.— On another day in another world, the talk Sunday afternoon might have centered on lethargic Belgium, which looked so beatable, or the heroic play of Iranian keeper Alireza Beiranvand, who made one of the saves of the tournament to help salvage a scoreless draw.But here came Iranian coach Amir Ghalenoei to shatter the illusion that the afternoon might be about the game itself.“We were in war conditions for six months, we didn’t have our league operating,” Ghalenoei said.

“We had only one FIFA [friendly] date and it took us 40 hours to go and play a match outside of Iran.And our league was not operating and everybody knows about the visa situation, and they know what happened to us coming to the U.S.”Just like Iran’s opening match here at the renamed Los Angeles Stadium, Ghalenoei said Iran had travel issues and was told it needed to return to its base camp in Tijuana immediately after the game instead of staying the night to recover.(The fact that flying after the game and recovering afterward is normal practice for many teams — the USMNT, for example, did so Friday after playing in Seattle — seems not to have entered this equation.)“We’ve only been here 16 hours and we have to fly back at 4 p.m.,” Ghalenoei said.

“We don’t even have enough time to recover.And our players have needed time to recover, to be prepared, but we need to go to the airport and go back to Tijuana.”Whoever wins a group that looks wide open right now — Iran’s last game is against Egypt, Belgium’s against New Zealand — would be a likely Round of 16 opponent for the USMNT.

If it’s Iran, that would be the most geopolitically meaningful sporting event in some time.Every match of the FIFA World Cup will air on either FOX or FOX Sports 1.If you don’t have cable, you can take advantage of a DIRECTV free trial to stream it all.Prefer to check out the action live and in person? Shop World Cup 2026 tickets on SeatGeek and make sure to use p...