Narbé Mansourian — a social studies teacher — had no qualms about separating the players from the politics in the country with the complicated geopolitical — and personal — history.
Iran, left, and New Zealand enter the pitch before their World Cup group stage match at SoFi Stadium on Monday. Iran’s national team played on U.S. soil for the first time in 26 years, playing to a 2-2 tie with New Zealand in front of a roaring, politically-charged, near-sellout crowd at SoFi Stadium.
For one Los Angeles teacher and youth coach whose political dissident father was executed in Evin Prison, cheering Iran meant honoring happier childhood memories and empathizing with the players. Unprecedented sports feats and historical firsts are usually joyous affairs. Something to celebrate, fun trivia to tuck away for later.played on American soil — this time on SoFi Stadium’s natural turf — for the first time in 26 years.
And for the first time, a country hosted aThere was, in the days and hours leading up to the match, protest and pushback from portions of the large, local Iranian diaspora who didn’t think it was possible to support the country’s football team without supporting the oppressive regime. After a World Cup journey hampered by war, visa restrictions and a warning from President Trump, Iran manages to play New Zealand to a draw in its opener.
But inside SoFi Stadium, thousands of L.A. ’s Iranian supporters gave the team its full-throated support. So did many new Mexican fans who’ve adopted Team Melli, which has been staying and training in Tijuana between matches as it was barred from the United States except for game days.
Most of the near-sellout crowd of 70,108 were there cheering Iran, helping propel this team under so much pressure to an And there, among the thousands of enthusiastic Iran supporters swept up in the match, was my son’s favorite soccer coach, Narbé Mansourian, with his son, 13-year-old Daniel. Narbé’s brother got his hands on a pair of nosebleed tickets and immediately handed them over to his soccer-loving relatives.
And Narbé — a 5th- and 6th-grade social studies teacher in Hollywood — had no qualms about backing these Iranian men. There were no second thoughts about separating the players from the politics in the country with the complicated geopolitical — and personal — history. Now, know this: Mansourian is no fan of Iran’s Islamic regime. He was 7 in 1983 when his father, a political dissident, was executed inNarbé remembers visiting his dad, Vazgen, at the notorious prison.
He remembers the long drive to get there, the long wait to see him and the game he and his mom used to play: “Today you are 4 years old. ” What started as a way to avoid paying bus fares for 6-year-old Narbé became the way to fool guards at prison, where only the small children were allowed to physically touch their imprisoned loved ones.
When his dad was killed at 37, Narbé said his mother didn’t immediately find out. And when she did, she initially told Narbé that he’d been sick. There was no funeral and when they went to visit his father’s grave, they found a dirt field. There were no markers, Narbé recalls.
He has kept Vazgen’s coke-bottle glasses, his watch and the still-intact little LEGO house they built together before his dad was taken to prison. Narbé has held onto so many difficult memories, including the nighttime terrors associated with bombings during the Iran-Iraq war. But there are also happier recollections. Like the stories he would make up about good guys going against the greedy.
And, yes, memories of going to soccer games with his dad. So, “absolutely, I’m going to root for the Iranian national team,” Narbé said before Monday’s match, saying that, to him, equating the Iranian national team with the country’s regime is like rooting against the Knicks because you don’t like President Donald Trump, a native New Yorker.
“It’s not like a cartoon good guy, bad guy,” Narbé said. “There’s so much gray. Because they live there. My heart goes out to them.
It can’t be easy, to kind of teeter-totter like that. ” A pre-revolutionary Iranian flag is displayed before the World Cup group stage match between Iran and New Zealand at SoFi Stadium. I should’ve expected this outstanding youth soccer coach would be most concerned with the players on the pitch.
Some fans got into SoFi on Monday with the Iranian Lion and Sun flag, a historic Iranian national and opposition flag that was banned from the stadium because FIFA desires to steer free of politics . It was a strange sight in Los Angeles, seeing stadium workers asking attendees to put away flags in an effort to censor the expression of people here.
Some of those fans turned their backs during the national anthem, which many in the stands jeered at its start. But then, once the game took hold, so did the support.
“There were many Iranians here,” Coach Amir Ghalenoei said through an interpreter. “They believe in different political affiliations, different beliefs, but they all wholeheartedly encouraged us, and I think that’s a victory for all of us. ”Mirjam Swanson is a sports columnist for the Los Angeles Times. Previously, she worked for the Southern California News Group, as a sports columnist and an NBA and WNBA beat writer.
A Southern California native, she earned the distinction of a top 10 APSE honor for columns in 2023. At prior stops, she covered golf, action sports, city government, education and the occasional unexpected bear visit.
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