Iran's World Cup team arrives in the United States

Iran's national football team arrived at Los Angeles International Airport on Sunday after a short flight from Tijuana, Mexico, where they had left their World Cup base camp earlier. The Airbus A320 touched down on runway 25L at 4:11 p.m. ET (2011 GMT) under sunny skies. The airport is about 15 minutes from the Los Angeles Stadium, which will host Iran's World Cup opener against New Zealand on Monday.

The team was expected to head to their hotel, where police security was already in place. Coach Amir Ghalenoei and striker Mehdi Taremi are scheduled to take part in a press conference at Los Angeles Stadium. The Group G fixture against New Zealand will be played against the backdrop of the US war with Iran, adding a charged atmosphere to a contest between two nations that have never met at the World Cup.

Iran moved their World Cup base camp from a sports complex in Arizona to Mexico late last month after the US and Israel conducted joint strikes on Iran beginning in late February. This is the first World Cup since its inception in 1930 in which a host nation is set to receive a country it is at war with.

Members of the Iranian American community have planned to gather near Los Angeles Stadium later on Sunday to protest what they called the Iranian government's ongoing human rights abuses.