Iran's World Cup players take to the training pitch

Iran’s footballers took to the training pitch in front of journalists Thursday at their base camp in Mexico, giving the world its first glimpse of a team whose participation in the World Cup has been clouded by war with the United States.

After having moved their training camp to Tijuana from the planned base in Arizona, the squad has said very little since arriving for the tournament last Sunday.

For Thursday’s training session, journalists were given fifteen minutes to see a small group of players as they ran through warm-up exercises.

Of the 26 members of “Team Melli,” only a dozen players were present, with star striker Mehdi Taremi among those who did not show.

Dressed in green jerseys, the players did some light jogging on the training pitch of the Xolos, Tijuana’s local club.

They then performed stretching and core-strengthening exercises on foam mats.

Iran is scheduled to play its first match on Monday in Los Angeles against New Zealand.

A team official confirmed to AFP that the squad is set to enter the United States on Sunday and spend the night there ahead of the match.

Last week, Iran’s ambassador to Mexico told journalists the squad would only be allowed into the US on the day of their games and would have to leave straight afterwards.

Iran’s participation in the tournament, which is being jointly hosted by the United States, Mexico, and Canada, comes three months after the US and Israel launched attacks on the country of around 93 million people, setting off hostilities that saw a large swathe of the Middle East drawn in, and the global economy shaken.

Thursday’s open practice came as US President Donald Trump announced what he said was a “great settlement” to end the war with Iran, saying he expected a deal to be signed in Europe as soon as this weekend.