It has been 8 years since team Melli last kicked a ball in the World Cup. 8 years wait and patience for the avid and passionate fans to see their beloved Team Melli perform at the highest level of world football again. Ironically , the last time the team played was against an African team , Angola. The next match is against another African team and the champions of the continent, Nigeria.

Nigeria , coming to Curtiba with all sort of variable loads from the expectation of the Nigerian people , to their problems on and of the field , in all cases that does not matter to them as they are here in Curtiba  to conquer Iran. Far from being an indestructible team , though Nigeria has obvious shortfall that the Wiley Queiroz must have been drooling over and over. The battle of tactics will be quite interesting to watch.

This World Cup has started with a bang. While we are still in the first round with more than half of this rounds matches have not even been played, surprises are a aplenty. Who could have imagined that the tiny Costa Rica, the team that has never beaten a South American team in the World Cup before and a team that was labeled by the punters as the punching bag of the big boys in the presence of three previous world cup winners teams, Italy, England and Uruguay in the same group. Yet it can defeat Uruguay 3-1 and convincingly for that matter. This is football, where nothing is impossible.  This is the World Cup where dreams and fairy tales can become reality. This is the World Cup where the victory goes for the ones who want it more. 

Even with moderate expectation from our Team Melli , we expect a victory against the Africans. Team Melli is truly and well capable of doing that.

Team Melli will be ready to roar tomorrow with this expected line up

Ahmadi

Pooladi

Hooseini

Montazeri

Sadeghi

Heydari 

Hajsafy

Nekounam

Teymourian

Dejagah

Ghoochannejad