{"id":44020,"date":"2026-06-23T02:20:32","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T02:20:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/44020\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T02:20:32","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T02:20:32","slug":"iran-team-leaves-note-thanking-l-a-for-world-cup-hospitality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/44020\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran team leaves note thanking L.A. for World Cup hospitality"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Iran soccer team left a note in its <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/topic\/sofi-stadium\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">SoFi Stadium<\/a> locker room thanking Los Angeles-area fans for their hospitality.<\/p>\n<p>The Iranians made history with two draws in Inglewood, marking the first time <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/sports\/soccer\/story\/2026-06-21\/irans-beleaguered-world-cup-team-finds-hope-belgium-draw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the team has avoided a loss<\/a> through its first two <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/topic\/world-cup-2026\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">World Cup<\/a> games. While the matches drew <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/sports\/soccer\/story\/2026-06-16\/world-cup-iran-new-zealand-sofi-stadium-protests\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">protests against the Iranian regime<\/a>, including some booing both times the national anthem was played before kickoffs, the crowds heavily favored and cheered loudly for the Iranian team. <\/p>\n<p>Iran will close group play against Egypt at Seattle\u2019s Lumen Field on Friday night. <\/p>\n<p>Before leaving Sunday, the Iranian soccer federation and <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Ramin_Rezaian_\/status\/2068822997415370885\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">forward Ramin Rezaeian shared pictures<\/a> of the team\u2019s note of appreciation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThank you, Los Angeles, for your hospitality,\u201d the note read. \u201cAnd thank you to every Iranian who gave their heart, voice, and soul for Iran throughout these 180 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMay peace, respect and friendship prevail among all nations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Special message from the national team in the locker room to Iranians and people around the world<\/p>\n<p>Message from the national team on the locker room board:<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udcacFrom ancient Iran, thousands of years old, to today&#8217;s civilized Iran, the spirit of Iran has remained alive and strong.\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/mvW8au8cg1\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/mvW8au8cg1<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 \u0631\u0627\u0645\u06cc\u0646 \u0631\u0636\u0627\u06cc\u06cc\u0627\u0646 (@Ramin_Rezaian_) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Ramin_Rezaian_\/status\/2068822997415370885?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">June 21, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Iran has complained about U.S. government restrictions that forced them to spend limited time in the Los Angeles area before and after its matches, quickly returning to its base camp in Tijuana. But the complaints don\u2019t extend to those who they crossed paths with while practicing briefly in Carson, spending two nights in a Manhattan Beach hotel and playing two big games at SoFi Stadium.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFrom ancient Persia of thousands of years ago to the civilized Iran of today, the spirit of Iran remains alive and steadfast,\u201d the note read. \u201cWe came to Los Angeles with pride, competed with honor, and leave with dignity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Iran soccer team left a note in its SoFi Stadium locker room thanking Los Angeles-area fans for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44021,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[3323,5158,6075,24973,8,19,24972,4608,5868,306,21621,9,24970,7810,21161,7003,7,24971],"class_list":["post-44020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-top-stories","tag-egypt","tag-first-time","tag-friday-night","tag-group-play","tag-headlines","tag-iran","tag-iran-team","tag-iranian-regime","tag-l-a","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-match","tag-news","tag-note","tag-seattle","tag-sofi-stadium","tag-team","tag-top-stories","tag-world-cup-hospitality"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/116797035194983857","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44020\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}