Markar Aghajanian Team Melli Assistant coach stated “We liked to play big games against powerful opponents , but financial severe constraints did not allow us to have such necessary preparation , however we should not have missed any opportunities to play the Africans opponents.” The opponents that Aghajanian was referring to were the reserve teams of 3 first division South African clubs.
According to ISNA, after the arrival of the Team Melli from Johannesburg, Markar Aghajanian talked to the reporters and said “Although we had a lot of problems, I believe we had a successful training camp with new players in the squad and the positive games we played as well as the logistics. These camps help to prepare the national team, similar to the camp ahead of the World Cup that we held in South Africa, which was worthwhile.”
In response to the question about the matches “ our competitors in the Asian Cup all prepared themselves by playing against high caliber opponents and quality teams, do you think the preparatory matches against inferior and modest opponent in South Africa, you are actually helping to prepare Team Melli for Asian Cup?” Aghajanian said “Our team’s total preparation was lower than our competitors and everyone knows it. We also liked to play big games against powerful opponents, but because of severe financial constraints and problems arranging games , we could not have done anything much better (…). Unfortunately, we lost a lot of FIFA days during the last few months, but we also could not afford to lose the chance to play the South African teams”
He was asked “How many of the new players that you have taken will be in the squad to Australia ?”
Aghajanian’s response was “We have analyzed each single player and filmed all the training session. The final decision has not been taken yet. In today’s and tomorrow’s technical staff meeting we will doing our studies and choose the best players in the squad list to the final before the final conclusion is reached.”
According to Aghajanian and sources in the FFIRI , the final squad list for the 2015 AFC Asian Cup will be announced on Thursday 25th December. Carlos Queiroz , who has not returned to Iran and will be taking the Christmas off abroad, is supposed to be back in Tehran on Sunday for the Palestine game. However, since the game is canceled, it is quite likely that the Portuguese coach will extend his holiday to the new year before arriving in Tehran and then taking off to Australia with the squad for the final stage of the preparation.