The reaction to the FIFA World Cup 2014 draw was mixed and to a certain extent cautions. With Team Melli being in the same group as Lionel Messi’s Argentina, no one in his right mind will think of this group as an easy passage to the next round.

Carlos Queiroz with his usual non-revealing diplomatic statements did not give away much , preferring to use diplomacy. “It is an honor . It is just for us to enjoy now. We will be playing against the best in the world and that is a great opportunity for us to progress and be a better team” The Portuguese coach said,

While Queiroz statement was measured and cautious, his counterpart coach in the group, Safet Sucic’s statement , was cheeky. Bosnia-Herzegovina’s coach had the audacity to cal Iran, only weak team group, while Iran has flogged and comprehensively defeated his Bosnian team with all their star including Dzeko , 3-2 in Bosnia.  “We can’t be unhappy despite the fact that we are in a group with Argentina, one of the title favorites. Of the other teams, only Iran is weaker” The Bosnian coach said.

[quote] Of the other teams, only Iran is weaker[/quote] Safet Sucic, coach of Bosnia-Herzegovina

Daniel Amokachi , The coach of Nigeria said “Argentina are world power , but we cannot afford to underestimate Iran or Bosnia”

While Argentina coach , clearly feeling relieved that he was not given the group of death . Alejandro Sabella , said “We did not go into the group of death, there are other groups which are more complicated and more difficult” . The Argentine coach refused to comment on the other teams of the group.

The local comments in Iran was also a mixture of comments depending on the involvement of the people quoted.

One of the former Team Melli coaches, Mansour Pourhaidary who is currently is the technical director of Esteghlal, does not believe that Team Melli will qualify to the next round. “We have to  seize fooling the fans into believing that Team Melli will qualify against much better teams who have  prepared themselves much better , particularly playing Friendly games and have a superior training schemes than ours.”

Karim Bagheri , the former Captain of Team Melli was not very optimistic about Iran chances of qualifying considering the preparations of the team so far and lack of Practice friendly matches. Bagheri however said that “our players should not only concentrate on playing against Messi and facing Argentina, as the two other teams of the group  are quite powerful and have ambitions of qualifying in their own right.”

From the current squad, Ando Teymourian sounded quite confident although not too complacent. Teymourian who was one of the pivotal players in Iran’s qualification said ‘We do not intend to go to Brazil as tourists.   We have to demonstrate  our grit and resolve in the world cup.” For Teymourian , it will be his second participation in the world Cup after the 2006 edition. He was thankful for the draw and said that was much better than other Asian teams especially Australia. “I could not have imagined my condition if we were drawn in the same group as the World Champions  Spain  and runners up  the Netherlands they way Australia has been drawn”