Tag: FIFA World Cup 2018

Carlos Queiroz set to lead Iraq.

The former Team Melli head coach will aim to qualify for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar with Iraq, a feat that has failed the Iraqis for 35 years.

Carlos Queiroz is the No. 1 candidate to lead the Iraq team, in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers, after the team parted with coach Srecko Katanec.

Srecko Katanec has led the Iraqi team since 2018, helping the team qualify for the 2019 Asian Cup as well as advance to the final qualifying round of the 2022 World Cup. However, on July 15, he decided to leave the Iraqi team after 6 months without receiving a salary.

Very quickly, the Iraqi Football Federation targeted the famous coach Carlos Queiroz as a replacement. The Portuguese born in 1953 is currently unemployed, after terminating his job with the Colombian team in December 2020.

Carlos Queiroz is one of the most famous coaches in the world. He led the Portuguese team with Ronaldo to the 2010 World Cup. After that, he had 8 years with Team Melli, achieving a historic back-to-back qualification to the World Cup 2014 and 2018. Before that, he also twice. helped Portugal’s U20 team win the FIFA U20 World Cup in 1989 and 1991.

Carlos Queiroz is likely to lead the Iraqi team to the 2022 World Cup qualifiers. Photo: Twitter Iraqi Football Federation.
Carlos Queiroz is likely to lead the Iraqi team to the 2022 World Cup qualifiers. Photo: Twitter Iraqi Football Federation.

At the club level, Carlos Queiroz worked as an assistant to Alex Ferguson at Man United in his prime. In addition, he also had a season as a coach of Real Madrid, with the team winning the Spanish Super Cup.

According to local media, Carlos Queiroz is excited about the prospect of leading the Iraqi team. However, he also asked the Iraqi Football Federation to pay him 80% of his salary in advance, which is expected to be up to 1.75 million USD/year. It is expected that this week, the two sides will agree on the final terms.

In the final qualifying round of the 2022 World Cup, Iraq is in Group A with Iran, South Korea, UAE, Syria, and Lebanon. They will open the World Cup qualifying campaign with a match against South Korea away on September 2. On September 9, they will meet Iran at home. Historically, Iraq has only attended the World Cup once, in 1986.

Beiranvand signs for the Portuguese side Boavista

Boavista is about to reinforce its goalkeeping with the signing of the Iranian international goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand in a deal that involves a loan with a purchase option, according to Maisfutebol .

The 28-year-old player, Iran’s regular first-team player, left Antwerp’s camp this Wednesday to travel to Portugal until the end of the week.

Beiranvand was the goalkeeper who defended Iran’s colors at the 2018 World Cup and who saved a penalty from Cristiano Ronaldo, in the match between Iran and Portugal in the group stage of the competition, in Russia.

Last season, Beiranvand played 12 games for Antwerp, in his first season with the Belgian club.

In his native country, Alireza Beiranvand represented Naft Tehran from 2011 to 2016, having then moved to Persepolis, from 2016 to 2020, in a club where she played with Mehdi Taremi, current FC Porto forward. He has 44 games for the national team.

The player’s manager shared a photo this evening on social media with the signing of a contract with Boavista.

Team Melli marches on to the Quarter Finals.

Iran defeated Oman 2-0 to book a place in the quarter finals stage of the AFC Asian Cup 2019. Alireza Jahanbakhsh scored Iran’s first ON 32nd minute when he cleverly stole the ball from Oman’s central defender and smartly slotted it in on the advancing Oman keeper, while on the 41st minute, Captain Ashkan Dejagah scored from a spot kick awarded after a foul on Mehdi Taremi

The first half ended 2-0 for Team Melli.

The match started with a real scare when the Omani forward, closely marked by Majid Hosseini , received a long ball that bounced luckily for him, leaving Hosseini chasing behind. The Young Team Melli central defender clumsily tripped the advancing Omani forward in the box for the Mexican referee to whistle for a penalty.

Ahmed Mubarak Al-Mahaijri, Oman’s Captain took the spot kick but the excellent reflect by Alireza Beiranvand manged to save the ball which was aimed at the far right corner. This is the second Penalty save of Beiranavnd in as many game, the first being the penalty save against Cristiano Ronaldo in the FIFA World Cup 2018.

After that scare, Iran took over the play and dominated throughout the match. All figures and stats indicated Iranian superiority. Oman could not match Iran player’s skills and physical game and depended on long balls to break the solid defense marshaled exquisitely by Mortaza Pouraliganji who did not put a foot wrong. Unfortunately, the same could not be said of Majid Hosseini. Apart from the penalty he gave away because of a reckless challenge and being caught out, Late in the second half, another situation led to him committing a foul on the runaway Omani winger. He was a lucky boy not to get a second yellow and marching order.

Ashkan Dejagah was majestic in this match. He was the maestro of the team with his excellent vision and distribution of the ball.

This is the fourth clean sheet for Team Melli, although Beiranvand, except for that penalty, was not really tested in this game.

The forward line, were far from clinical today. Sardar Azmoun , could have scored a hat trick on his own while Taremi wasted two golden chances. There have been quite a few profligate performances by the strikers which could be a serious concern as Team Melli advances further.

Vahid Amiri picked up his second yellow card of the tournament , so he will miss the Quarter final’s match in four days time.

In an earlier match, China recovered from a goal down to beat Thailand 2-1. China will meet Team Melli in the next round in Abu Dhabi.

Iran
1 Alireza Beiranvand GK
5 Milad Mohammadi DF
8 Morteza Pouraliganji DF
9 Omid Ebrahimi MF
11 Vahid Amiri FW
17 Mehdi Taremi MF
18 Alireza Jahanbakhsh 32‘ MF
19 Seyed Majid Hosseini DF
20 Sardar Azmoun FW
21 Ashkan Dejagah 41‘(PK) MF
23 Ramin Rezaeian DF

Substitutes
4 Roozbeh Cheshmi 69‘ -> (Jahanbakhsh)
7 Masoud Shojaei 88‘ -> (Azmoun)
14 Saman Ghoddos 78‘ -> (Dejagah)

Manager
– Carlos Queiroz

Saeid Ezatolahi finally expected to arrive at Reading

From Rostov to Reading, via Belgium, Uzbekistan and France.

The deal to bring Saeid Ezatolahi to Reading has been far from straightforward, but the Iranian international is set to finally arrive in England this weekend.

The 21-year-old completed his season-long loan move from Russian outfit FC Rostov on August 31, the final day of the summer transfer window.

But he is yet to arrive at Hogwood with all previous stages of the deal completed elsewhere across the globe.

“He hasn’t reported yet,” explained Reading FC boss Paul Clement.

“As we speak (on Thursday afternoon), he is in Paris.

“He was on international duty with Iran and they played Uzbekistan. He played a good, significant amount of the game and he set up the goal, so that’s good.

“He is in Paris to get his visa. Everything is in place now, the visa has been approved and we’re just waiting for it to be collected. Ezatolahi has spent a few days in Paris
“So he’s got to go back to the office to collect it, that’ll probably be on Friday and then he’s free to travel to the UK.”

“We expect him to arrive here either Friday or Saturday. He’ll do some light training on Saturday, on Sunday the players are off and he’ll start fully with everybody on Monday.”

Clement added: “After the World Cup he had some rest time. He did go back to Russia, Rostov for a couple of weeks where he was training and then there has been a period where he hasn’t been there and he’s been back in Iran.

“He lost a little bit of time but fortunately during this period where he was with the national team, clearly he’s been training and he’s already played a game.

“So he might need a bit of time, but I don’t think he’ll need that much. I’ll assess it as soon as I see him.”

Paul Clement insists there are no problems behind the scenes at Reading

The announcement of Ezatolahi’s arrival came as a surprise to many, with the deal accelerated during the final week of the transfer window.

Reading had been chasing Swansea City midfielder Jay Fulton on a permanent deal, but when that fell through they moved to snap up Ezatolahi on loan.

But Clement hopes that could turn into a longer term deal.

“I hope he has a long future here,” said the Reading manager.

“The situation with the deal at the moment is he’s on a loan for the season because when we signed him, it was obviously outside the period where we could do a permanent, so it’s on an initial loan.

Paul Clement is hoping Ezatolahi will be here for longer than one season
“Hopefully he does really well and it’s a long-term thing.

“It was brought to my attention late in the window. We had a week. During that week it was about gathering as much intelligence as possible, speaking to people he had worked with.

“A really complicated deal.”       – Paul Clement

“Fortunately I was able to have a good conversation with Carlos Queiroz (Iran’s national team boss), who spoke really highly of him.

“Then I spoke to the player and got a really good feel about him and we’re really pleased to get it over the line.

“It was a little bit complicated. You’re dealing with Russia, you’ve got the situation where he’s Iranian so you’ve got the visa issues, international clearance and those type of things.

“He had his medical in Belgium at Roeselare because it was difficult to get him here to do the medical because of the visa, but in the end we got it over the line.

“A really complicated deal.”

“We’re looking forward to working with him. I think he’s going to be a good addition to us.”

Omid Ebrahimi to sign for Qatar’s Al Ahli club.

The Qatari al-Arab newspaper reported that Omid Ebrahimi joined the Al Ahli football team in a one-year contract.

According to the newspaper, the one-year contract with Ebrahimi will be signed with Al Ahly today.

Yesterday, Esteghlal’s German coach Winfred Schafer officially confirmed  that his midfieleder will be leaving.

The 30 years old Omid Ebrahimi was one of the finest players for Team Melli in the last FIFA World Cup.  He joined Esteghlal from Sepahan in 2014. Ebrahimi has played 33 times for Team Melli which included AFC Asian Cup 2015 in Australia and the FIFA World Cup 2018 in Russia.

Late strike by Ansarifard gives Iran a narrow win against Lithuania

Karim Ansarifard scored a late winner to give Iran a 1-0 victory over Lithuania in a behind-closed-doors friendly on Friday.

Carlos Queiroz’s side, who will face Morocco, Spain and Portugal in Group B at the World Cup, went into the game on the back of a 2-1 friendly defeat against Turkey in Istanbul and struggled to create chances against Edgaras Jankauskas’ lively Lithuania side.

After going in goalless at half-time, Iran spent much of the second half pinned back by waves of Lithuanian attacks, with Justas Lasickas firing over the crossbar before substitute Povilas Leimonas failed to hit the target after a neat passing move culminated in a chance on the hour mark.

Iran came to life in the last 10 minutes of the game, piling forwards and creating a number of chances before Olympiacos striker Ansarifard tried his luck from the edge of the penalty area and found the net in the 88th minute.

While the result – Iran’s fourth victory in their last six international friendlies – will have pleased Queiroz, the manner of his side’s performance will have given him food for thought ahead of their group opener against Morocco on June 15.

This was the last friendly of Team Melli. Due to a mixture of issues, games against Greece and Kosovo were cancelled. At the last minute it was been able to arrange this game against Lithuania. The Iran was the first team to arrive in Russia and has been in Moscow for 3 days, where it will play. its fifth participation in the World Cup.

Lithuania is a fourth tier team of Europe, which has not played in any World Cup, nor is it expected to do so in the short and medium term. The team consists of local players who play in their country’s, infima league, where their first division players, would have problems playing in the third division of Spain, for example.

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Realistic chances of Team Melli in Russia.

With less than twenty days left to  the world Cup, what are the realistic chances of Team Melli against he might of Spain & Portugal? The other team in the group, Morocco, is not to be taken lightly either.

The World sport media is full of reviews about the Russia world cup and there are always those predictions of course. When it comes to Group B, the majority would pick the two European giants as the favorite to qualify ahead of Iran & Morocco. It is a fair assessment based on track records and achievements of the past.

However, time and again, football has shown us that winning is all about being the better team on the day and even being that good is no guarantee of winning the match. That is one beauty of football that makes it by far the most attractive sport in the world. So, can Team Melli surprise a few and qualify from this tough group, the answer is YES, very much so.

It is not a wishful thinking, but based on decades of observation of the team and the current style under the control of one Carlos Queiroz. If there is anything that is certain with the Portuguese master, it is his passion for tight defenses and his ideology that strong defenses can win you matches which has been his predominant tactics all through his reign with Team Melli.

Queiroz has an amazing record with Team Melli. In fact, the last time he lost an official match was 4 years ago against Bosnia in the World Cup. Since then, he only lost two friendly games against Tunisia and Sweden.

With the majority of Team Melli players making a living in European leagues,  that fear and complex about World Class European players does not affect their performance anymore. The cold feet syndrome hit the team in their first ever world cup in 1978.

This group of players can play against the best of them. The defenders will be dealing with the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, and Diego Costa like any other forwards they have dealt with before, albeit with special instruction by the Maestro Queiroz. The chances of the two stars putting a few goals still exists but it is far from a forgone conclusion.

Team Melli strength really lies in the attack. Up front is where the two golden boys of Iran can make a difference, Alireza Jahanbakhsh and Sardar Azmoun. These two can beat defenses and can score against the top ranks, but they need the supply from the midfield. Much of that support will be on the shoulders of Ashkan Dejagah , if he full recovers  , and Saman Ghoddos another amazing talent for Iran.  The success or failure very much depends on how the midfield performs in both the defensive and offensive duties.

Team Melli biggest challenge is in the goal. Number one choice Alireza Biranvand has been in abysmal form lately. Conceding goals aplenty with his club, he showed that he really lacks what it takes at top class.  The other two on the list are hardly more experienced than Biranvand with Amir Abedzadeh , the son of legendary , Ahmad Abedzadeh , just making his debut against Uzbekistan. It is certainly a worry for Queiroz and will be interesting to see his pick. Knowing that Queiroz never shies from making dramatic calls, it very likely that he might drop his number and pick the unlikeliest of choices.

Mazaheri, Zob Ahan keeper , has been in truly fine form in the Persian Gulf Pro League and with his team in the AFC Champions League, however, Queiroz might favor Abedzadeh as he is playing in Portuguese league and that might give him an edge.

Ali Karimi out of Team Melli squad for the World Cup

Ali Karimi , Team Melli player is the first casualty of Team Melli for the FIFA World Cup 2018 Russia

The Sepahan Esfahan midfield player suffered a back injury during training and was declared as unable to continue training for some time and is definite to miss the squad to Russia.

Karimi was in the first group of 35 players announced by Queiroz and had a fairly good chance to make the final 23 players list but he has fallen a victim of the injury a day before the team meets Uzbekistan for a friendly match in Azadi Stadium in preparation for the World Cup.

Munir El Haddadi appeals to switch to Morocco

10 April 2018, 16:29

Deportivo Alaves forward Munir El Haddadi has appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in his bid to switch allegiance from Spain to Morocco.

CAS said in a statement that Munir had appealed jointly with the Moroccan Football Federation (FMF) after Fifa turned down his request on March 13.

The appeal included a request for a decision by mid-May “in order for the player’s sporting nationality to be decided prior to the commencement of the Fifa 2018 World Cup,” said CAS.

Fifa rules bar players from switching allegiance once they have played a competitive international even if they hold dual nationality.

Munir, 22, made a single appearance for Spain, in a European championship qualifier against Macedonia in September 2014, when he came on as a substitute and played less than 15 minutes.

“This was my decision and I knew what I was doing. Since I was young I have played in Spain and this was my idea,” said Munir at the time. “I spoke with people in Morocco and told them that I wanted to play here instead.”

Munir, who was born in Spain and has a Moroccan father, was raised at Barcelona’s famous youth academy where he made his professional debut and is currently on loan at Alaves.

He has also spent one season on loan at Valencia.

Fifa’s stakeholders committee is studying a proposal to make the rules more flexible in such cases.

Cape Verde’s football federation suggested the rule be relaxed in cases where the player has played only one or two games for his original national side but has no realistic chance of a recall.

“It’s a good time to have a look at this and see if there are solutions, without hurting the integrity of the game,” said Victor Montagliani, head of the stakeholders committee, in October.

Spain and Morocco have been drawn in the same group at the World Cup alongside Portugal and Iran.

Queiroz hopeful to make it to Round 16 in the World Cup 2018

Iran coach Carlos Queiroz said in an interview with Agência Efe that he believes he can take his team to the Round of 16 at the 2018 World Cup in Russia and chose the country where he was born in Portugal as a ” Group B” favorite, completed by Spain and Morocco.

In charge of the Iranian team since 2011, Queiroz has made the Team Melli one of the top teams in Asia, beating virtually all regional rivals in the World Cup preparation round.

Despite the confidence in his team, Queiroz acknowledges that Spain is not only favorite to pass the stage, but also to the title.

“Iran is a country that is not on the list of priorities for the press, but the work we have done in recent years deserves a little more attention. Overall, Asian football is not always present in the news, unless you speak Japan and Korea, which have a lot of influence in Europe in general, “he said.

In the friendly of this Fifa day, Queiroz chose to face two rivals of the region. First, playing Tunisia, who are in Group G of the World Cup. Then he takes his team to face Algeria, who competed in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, but did not qualify to Russia 2018.

“We always have a lot of difficulties during the preparation. There are some issues we are always struggling with, such as financial difficulties and relations with other countries, which are sometimes not easy for Iran. But we always try to do our best and, with colleagues, seek solutions, “explained the Portuguese head coach.

“We are going to play with Tunisia, Algeria and Turkey, which everyone knows is very strong even though they are not in the World Cup, as well as with Greece and Lithuania, we are better than we were in the last World Cup when we practically did not play with anyone,” he said.

Asked if group B is the group of death, Queiroz stressed that the two favorites are Spain and Portugal, but said nothing is decided. For him, Iran and Morocco are outsiders but will try to qualify for a place in the last 16 of the World Cup.

“It is no secret that Spain and Portugal are favorites, but I do know that Iran will be there, and it is very difficult to know who will advance, I do not want to choose, but it will be them (the Spanish team) who will decide, but I want Iran and Portugal to move on, “he said.