Iran plays pivotal World Cup match hours after country bombed by U.S.

SEATTLE — Iran will play its final group-stage match at the World Cup as its country is being bombed.

The United States launched strikes on missile and drone storage locations and coastal radar sites in Iran on Friday, June 26, hours before Team Melli is to play Egypt in a game that will determine whether the team reaches the knockout rounds for the first time. The strikes were in response to Iran's attack of a commercial ship in the Strait of Hormuz a day earlier.

The bombings are sure to increase the tensions already surrounding the game against Egypt. Local organizers designed this as the Pride Game, and both teams have objected to it. Seattle World Cup '26 organizers chose to have the game coincide with Pride celebrations in the city this weekend, and they did it long before they knew which teams would be playing in it.

The Iran national soccer team has been embroiled in political turmoil it did not create since before arriving at the World Cup. It was forced to move its base camp from Tucson, Arizona, to Tijuana, Mexico, at the last minute because the U.S. government would not allow the team to stay in the United States for a prolonged period of time.

The Department of Homeland Security also refused to allow Iran to enter the country more than 24 hours before its first two matches, both played in Los Angeles, and insisted Team Melli leave immediately after. Iran was allowed to come to Seattle two days ahead of the Egypt game.

Several members of Iran's delegation, including the president of its soccer federation, were denied visas.

"We don't ask for much. We just ask for the same procedure for all the other 47 teams," midfielder Alireza Jahanbakhsh said after Iran held Belgium to a scoreless draw on Sunday, June 21.

Though Iran's players and coaches have intentionally avoided talking about the politics behind their treatment, they have repeatedly referenced a U.S. missile strike on a school in Minab early in the war that killed 168 people, most of them children. The players arrived in Tijuana wearing "168" pins, and there have been social media posts showing them with backpacks to represent the children.

Before the Egypt game, Iran's official team account on Instagram posted slides on its story of "The Team That Never Grew Up." It included lineups of children killed in the strike and their ages when they died, along with the hashtag 168.

President Donald Trump said earlier this week that it may never be known who was at fault in the strike, despite a preliminary internal U.S. military investigation that showed its forces were likely responsible.