Iran Opens World Cup With Draw Against New Zealand

Iran began its World Cup pursuits with a hard-fought draw against New Zealand in Los Angeles on June 15.

The All Whites took an early 1-0 lead within the first seven minutes from the boot of a charging Elijah Just, but the Lions of Iran found a way to equalize before the end of the half. While New Zealand’s defenders failed to clear the ball from deep in the penalty zone, Ramin Rezaeian drove in from the outside and chipped the ball over the goalkeeper.

The second half started off the same way, with Just finding the back of the net once again at the 54-minute mark. That second lead would last another 10 minutes until a header from Mohammad Mohebbi evened things out.

Red, white, and green covered much of the 70,000-seat arena as Iranians came out in force to support their Lions. However, videos from inside the stadium appeared to show them booing the national anthem, seemingly drawing a line between supporting their fellow Persians and the current Islamic regime.

Fans of both teams were treated to a rather evenly matched game of soccer. The shot count was 17–14 in favor of Iran, while the actual shots on goal were 8–4 in favor of New Zealand—they both had 10 scoring chances within the penalty box, and New Zealand possessed the ball 52 percent of the game compared to Iran’s 48 percent.

New Zealand was ranked significantly lower than Iran in terms of FIFA power rankings. However, more than half of Iran’s lineup had not played any league soccer since February—from before Iran’s armed conflict with the United States and Israel broke out—and the team was only allowed in the country one day before their match was scheduled. Originally set to be based in the United States, Iran’s team moved to Mexico after the conflict broke out.

The draw means that they both take home one point in the preliminary round robin group stage. But that means that their group becomes the third of eight to have a four-way tie off of two draws after one game.

The other two teams in their group, Belgium and Egypt, played earlier today in Seattle and ended in a 1–1 draw. Emam Ashour would strike first blood for Egypt 20 minutes in, and his team would hold that lead until deep into the second half. However, an unfortunate own goal from Mohamed Hany would neutralize that lead at 66 minutes in.

Iran will play Belgium at 3 p.m. ET on June 21 in Los Angeles, and New Zealand will play Egypt at 9 p.m. that same day in Vancouver.

New Zealand still has yet to win a World Cup match.

Eight of the 12 four-team groups have played the first of their three round robin games to determine who can advance to the elimination round, as of June 15. This draw marks the third group that is now locked into a four-way tie.

The first group to all tie featured Canada, Switzerland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Qatar. The second includes Spain, Saudi Arabia, Cape Verde, and Uruguay.