TEHRAN, Iran – Iran’s national soccer team once again failed to realize its dream of reaching the final round of the World Cup, with the wartime 2026 tournament causing widespread emotions among Iranians at home and abroad for various reasons.
Team Melli drew 1-1 with Egypt in Seattle on Friday, earning only three points from three draws and remaining in third place in Group G, completing their seventh appearance in the competition.
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The team was eliminated the next day after a series of other match results narrowly missed the eight third-place teams in the tournament that would advance to the next stage, as FIFA expanded the number of participating teams from 32 to 48.
Milad, a Tehran resident who watched all the matches that shaped Iran’s rise to the World Cup, told Al Jazeera: “This didn’t seem like it was going to happen. I couldn’t believe how we managed to get through again when we were so close.”
The situation was so unique that, among other things, the head coach pondered divine intervention and national television accused other teams of cheating and collusion.
Against Egypt, centre-back Shoja Khalilzadeh scored the winning goal in the 93rd minute and Iran looked set to automatically advance to the last 32, but the goal was ruled out by VAR as the right foot was offside by a few centimeters.
One member of the coaching staff suffered a broken nose when another staff member accidentally head-butted him during the crowd’s emotional celebration of the goal before it was overturned.
Khalilzadeh’s goal celebration included posing with sunglasses on, and Egypt, who advanced to the knockout phase, later mocked striker Mohamed Salah by posting a photo on Instagram of him giggling in sunglasses.
Disgruntled head coach Amir Galenoei told state television in a live post-match interview that he believed everyone had enjoyed the game, but that it sometimes seemed like “God was against us” as Iran were unlucky to score three goals during the tournament that were overturned by VAR.
He also condemned the difficult conditions faced by all players and staff during the unprecedented World Cup, in which the main host nation, the United States, has been at war with participating nation Iran for the past four months.
The US military bombed several islands in the Strait of Hormuz in Iran’s southern waters hours before the kickoff of the Iran-Egypt game.
Officials from the soccer federation, other staff and members of the media were denied visas to travel to the United States for the tournament due to their alleged ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), which runs Iran’s war and politics.
The team was allowed to enter the country only under unusually strict restrictions and was required to be primarily based in Tijuana, Mexico, rather than Tucson, Arizona, as originally designated.
The requirement to enter the United States within 24 hours after the game and depart on the same day was slightly relaxed, allowing him to arrive for the game against Seattle two days early.
“Completely insane.”
After the war with Egypt, Iran needed only one of three things to advance. Croatia should have lost to Ghana but won 2-1. DR Congo could not beat Uzbekistan, but won 3-1. Algeria vs. Austria needed to come up with a winner, but the match ended 3-3.
Hours before the Algeria-Austria match, Javad Chiabani, a sports presenter notorious for decades for his eccentric soccer commentary, released an Arabic video message addressed to his “Muslim brothers in Algeria”. He called for Austria to be overthrown and Iran, a war-torn Muslim-majority country, to be admitted.
Other presenters on Iranian state television and radio broadcasting the match live went through a rollercoaster of emotions after Algeria’s Riyad Mahrez scored a goal late in stoppage time to give Iran a 3-2 win.
“Now a Muslim country is doing something to keep another Muslim country in the finals,” exclaimed another ecstatic commentator, again linking the sport with religion.
He and the many Iranians watching at home were then devastated when Austria’s Sasa Kalajdzic leveled the score with his first touch into the box. The result benefited both teams, with both teams advancing to the next round, with Austria favored to face Spain and Algeria favored to face Switzerland.
Some in Iran and abroad suggested that the match was match-fixed, but Austrian coach Ralf Rangnick responded to the match-fixing allegations by saying, “If Alfred Hitchcock had written such a drama, he would probably say he was completely insane.”
Murder cases that hurt society
In their second consecutive World Cup appearance, the Iranian national soccer team was unable to gain unified support from Iranians at home and abroad due to the aftermath of public protests against the Islamic Republic, the theocratic regime that has ruled Iran since the 1979 revolution.
In January 2026, thousands of Iranians, including at least 230 children, were killed in nationwide anti-regime protests that erupted in the vast country of more than 90 million people. As with previous protests, the government has placed all responsibility on “terrorists” organized by the United States and Israel, but Amnesty International called it an “unprecedented and deadly crackdown” by the state, which included a complete internet shutdown.
Just months after a murder that left a scar on some parts of Iranian society, the soccer players have avoided commenting on the protests, but although in some cases they support the state, some believe they do not represent a united Iran.
During the World Cup, some anti-Islamic Republic Iranians protested outside U.S. stadiums using the pre-1979 lion and sun Iranian flag rather than the official flag with the word “Allah” in the center, but most of the Iranian diaspora ended up cheering for the team in packed stadiums.
Former Team Meri captain Mohammad Khakpour, who is now based in the United States, wrote in an Instagram post on Sunday that the fact that Iranians had contrasting emotions after Iran’s defeat in the tournament carries a social message.
“A rift develops when sections of society feel that Team Mary no longer represents their feelings, pain and hopes,” he said. “People may not be happy about losing in soccer, but sometimes they may be happy about the destruction of an image they don’t believe to be true.”
Farhad, 36, who lives in eastern Tehran, told Al Jazeera that decades from now, people may remember Team Melli not only for representing the Islamic Republic but also for their soccer record.
“Personally, I wish they had made it, but I’m not shocked they didn’t make it,” he said.
