Iran New Zealand opens World Cup Group G at Los Angeles Stadium
iran new zealand began at 6pm local time at Los Angeles Stadium, with New Zealand getting the Group G match under way against Iran. The game opened on the eve of the tournament, against a backdrop of scattered protests outside the ground and an Iran buildup that had already been disrupted.
Los Angeles Stadium kickoff
New Zealand’s first touch set the tone, but Iran quickly won the ball back from the kick-off and sent it down the right into the penalty box. New Zealand then met the attack with a tough challenge on the edge of the box and cleared the danger after Iran launched the ball back into attack. The kickoff was scheduled for 6pm local time, 11am AEST, 2am BST and 9pm EDT.
Darren Bazeley said the eve of the match brought bad news for New Zealand. Matt Garbett suffered a hamstring injury in training a couple of days before the tournament, and Logan Rogerson replaced him in the New Zealand squad. Bazeley said: “It’s devastating news for Matt Garbett, he had a hamstring issue in training a couple of days ago, and when we went through all the medical stuff it turned out worse. It was a bad one …”
Iran’s disrupted buildup
Iran arrived in Los Angeles after what Mehdi Taremi described as a difficult buildup. The Iran captain and striker said the controversy and disruption around Iran’s World Cup involvement “undermines Fifa’s message of peace,” and said he felt tension before arriving in Los Angeles on the eve of Iran’s opener. Hours after Iran arrived, a peace deal was announced.
The match sat inside a wider political backdrop that was visible outside the stadium as well as in the team’s preparations. Scattered protests took place before kick-off, including a man with a megaphone on the west side of the stadium chanting that the Iranian team represents IRGC terrorists, free Iran, and other slogans in Farsi. On the east side, about 200 people gathered.
Protests outside Los Angeles Stadium
Iran also arrived with a different kind of support at the edge of the ground. The team had strong support from Mexicans in Tijuana after they were forced to move train. That gave the opening match a sharper edge than a standard tournament first game, with one team arriving after a more settled buildup and the other carrying the noise of disruption into the stadium.
For readers following the match, the immediate development was simple: New Zealand and Iran were already on the field at Los Angeles Stadium, and the contest began under the scrutiny of protests outside and tension around Iran’s presence in the tournament. The next movement would come from the football itself, after a buildup in which the first major event was Garbett’s injury and the most visible public response was the crowd outside the venue.
