"The Iranian team is not playing. The Islamic Republic's team is."
For Roozbeh Farahanipour, an Iranian-American activist and chief executive of the West Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, there is no separating football from politics at this World Cup. Before Iran has kicked a ball in Los Angeles, the team's presence is already fraught with tension.
“Iranian exiles in Los Angeles protest Fifa's ban on the Lion and Sun flag at the World Cup, calling it the 'real flag of Iran'.”
At the heart of the dispute is a flag. Fifa has prohibited fans from flying the Lion and Sun banner, the flag of Iran before the 1979 Islamic revolution, deeming it too political. But for the thousands of Iranian exiles who have made Los Angeles home, it is the only flag they recognise.
Farahanipour fled Iran in 2000 after years of political activism. He now lives in what locals call "Tehrangeles" — the Westwood neighbourhood on the city's west side, home to one of the world's largest Iranian communities outside Iran. His opposition to the government in Tehran is deeply personal.
"My mother was killed. My cousin and friends were killed," he says. "There is no peace between me and this regime."
Yet he rejects the idea that the answer lies in war, reflecting on the conflict that broke out on 28 February after the US and Israel attacked Iran. "I hate this regime and I hate this war," he says. "Nothing justifies killing innocent people."
Those contradictions are becoming increasingly familiar for Iranian Americans as Iran prepare to play three group-stage matches: two in Los Angeles — the first against New Zealand on 15 June at SoFi Stadium — and a third in Seattle.
Outside SoFi Stadium, opponents of the government in Tehran have gathered waving the Lion and Sun flag. From a distance they look like Iranian flags, but the lion and sun at the centre marks the split. For protesters, it is a symbol of resistance. "It is a stance against the Islamic Republic. This is the real flag of Iran," says Arezo, one of those gathered.
This World Cup arrives amid a fragile ceasefire, continuing hostility between Iran, the United States and Israel, and deep divisions over what Iran's team represents. For many here, the flag on the players' shirts is not theirs.