Iran’s World Cup camp in Tijuana unfolds under armed guard and political shadow

An improvised base in Mexico has become Team Melli’s unlikely World Cup home as security fears, visa disputes and political divisions shape their tournament

Open-top trucks patrolled the surrounding roads outside the Estadio Caliente today, mounted by men in helmets and masks and wielding machine guns. They pass by the main entrance every few hours, guarding the massive city block, otherwise chocked with cars and smog, that the Iran national team has made its temporary, and largely improvised, home for this World Cup.

This has become business as usual here in northwest Mexico, at an arena that most teams in the domestic league hate to visit thanks to its distance from the country’s other footballing hubs and its brutal artificial turf playing surface.

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