Iran’s national soccer team held Belgium to a 0-0 draw in Los Angeles on Sunday, earning its second point of the World Cup and preserving its chance of advancing to the next round. After the match, regime-linked media in Tehran published a message the players reportedly left in the locker room thanking Los Angeles for its hospitality and expressing gratitude to Iranians who supported the team during its two matches in the city. The note said the team had come “with pride,” competed “with honor” and was leaving “with dignity,” and concluded with a call for “peace, respect and friendship” among nations. Iran’s next match, against Egypt, is scheduled for Washington.
The message also included the hashtags “Minab” and “168,” linking the team’s World Cup campaign to a wartime symbol adopted by Iranian officials. Iran is competing under the name “Minab 168,” commemorating the strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls' elementary school in Minab on the first day of Operation Roaring Lion. Iranian reports said 168 people were killed there. The Minab reference has been echoed beyond sports: members of Iran’s negotiating delegation have worn pins bearing the same name, and senior officials have invoked it in public statements. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on X that efforts “from the football pitch to the negotiating table to the battlefield” were part of defending the dignity of the Iranian people, while parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf posted a match image alongside the message, “This is how we protect our land.”
At the same time, the team’s appearances in Los Angeles have exposed visible opposition to the Islamic Republic among some supporters. Iran International reported that some fans booed the Iranian national anthem before the Belgium match, while others entered the stadium carrying Lion and Sun flags associated with pre-1979 Iran. The outlet also said opponents of the government staged a rally outside the venue, and one attendee was seen with a sign criticizing the reported arrest of former goalkeeper Rashid Mazaheri and denouncing the killing of protesters in January. Iranian state media reported in May that Mazaheri had been arrested in West Azerbaijan province and held in Urmia Prison, with authorities alleging he had tried to leave the country illegally and bribe border guards.
The dispute over flags has become a broader symbol of competing views of Iran itself. FIFA has classified the pre-revolutionary Lion and Sun flag as political expression and barred it from World Cup venues under its code of conduct, a restriction upheld by a Los Angeles court after a legal challenge. Enforcement, however, has been uneven, with fans continuing to bring the symbol into stadiums in various forms. For many in the Iranian diaspora, especially in the Los Angeles area, the Lion and Sun represents a national identity separate from the current state. Others continue to support Team Melli regardless of their politics, arguing that backing the players is not the same as endorsing the government. That split has turned Iran’s World Cup run into more than a sporting story, reflecting a wider struggle over representation, memory and dissent on an international stage.