Carlos Queiroz gathered Team Melli squad around the hotel to conduct a early training and warm up session this Friday morning.
The new look team is short of few Legionnaires mainly the 3 Russian contingent Sardar Azmoun and Saeed Ezatollahei from Rostov and Alireza Haghighi of Rubin Kazan, while those playing in Qatar league are all present.
Guam is arriving to Tehran full of confidence after two wins out of two as they have guaranteed themselves to stay above Iran even in case of a loss. The tiny Pacific island state would have traveled an epic journey to make it to Iran. The squad is expected to arrive in Tehran a full few days before the match.
The selection of several young players has changed the complexion of Team Melli to the extent that many faces will be unfamiliar to the majority of the fans. From the old guard , Ando Teymourian , Montazaei , Dejagah , Hosseini and Khosrow Hedari are still available to add much needed experience to the squad.
The last time Queiroz used the youth team in a friendly against Uzbekistan , the new players performed admirably well and won the match. However , as soon as Queiroz reverted back to the old squad , for the official qualifiers , the team faltered against Turkmenistan and came out with a disappointing draw.
The one admirable move by Queiroz this time round is his dropping of Masoud Shojaei and Karim Ansarifard. Shojaei , for the last few years an Achilles heel of team Melli has faced massive criticism from the media and the fans in the stands for his lackluster displays. But by the sheer fact that he was playing in Europe, albeit either at end of the table teams or lower divisions, he found favors with the Portuguese coach. Finally Queiroz has faced the reality that this particular player has passed his best years.
Ansarifard has suffered similar drop of form but that is mostly attributed to his lack of consistency, changing clubs every season and not settling well with his teams. Ansarifard is still a quality player who is expected to return to form and back in favor with Team Melli after he settles down and maintain a team for a few seasons.
The match in Azadi will be Team Melli’s first home game in the FIFA World Cup 2018 qualifiers.