Tag: Lisbon

Mehrdad Mohammadi signs for Portuguese club CD Aves

Mehrdad Mohammadi, the 25 years old Sepahan midfielder has reached an agreement with the Portuguese side Clube Desportivo Aves to play for 3 seasons starting from 2019/20 season.

Mohammadi, whose twin brother Milad plays for Russian side Akhmat Grozny, has been enjoying an exceptional season with Sepahan , playing 29 matches and scoring 6 goals. The team under Amir Ghalenoei challenged Persepolis for the title until all the way to the end of the Persian Gulf League, eventually ending as Runner up.

CD Aves , is a small club in Portugal established in 1930. They won promotion to the top division of the Portuguese league in 2017/18 season when they finished runners up in the Iranian forward Segunda Liga. They achieved the same in season 2005/06. The pinnacle of CD Aves achievements is winning the Cup (Taça de Portugal) last season 2017/18.  The coach of CD Aves is the veteran Portuguese coach Augusto Inácio who has coached Foolad Khuzestan in 2007/08 and before joining CD Aves he was in Egypt as head coach of Zamalek.

CD Aves is currently uncomfortably laying in the 14th position in the Primeira liga with 36 points and 2 matches to go. The club is still not safe from relegation as the team in 16th place, Chaves has one match in hand with 32 points.

Vila das Aves is an industrial town and civil parish (freguesia) in northern Portugal with a population of less than 10,000 people. It is about 350 km north of capital Lisbon and 70 km from the Spanish boarder.

Team Melli wins against Benfica

Lisbon: Team Melli , currently on a training camp in Portugal , defeated Benfica reserve team 1-0 in the Portuguese capital Lisbon.

The match , played in mid morning , was the second and the last match in the camp . Sardar Azmoun scored Iran’s only goal from a header after a cross from Andranik Teymourian.

The match was conducted in an unusual format. The Games went on for 60 minutes in the first half followed by a break then another 30 minutes . Both sides rotated their complete squad in the match.

First half line up was : Alireza Haghighi (30′ Mohsen Frouzan) , Vourya Ghafouri, PejmanMontazeri, Mehrdad Pooladi , Amir Hossein Sadeghi,Omid Ebrahimi, Sourosh Rafei , Andranik Teymourian ,AliReza Jahanbakhsh , , Masoud Shojaei, SardarAzmoun

In the second half , the team was completely changed as the line-up were the following. Alireza Biranvand , Jalal Hosseini, Khosro Heydari, Hashim Beigzadeh, Ehsan Haj Safi, Vahid Amiri, Ahmad Abdullah Zadeh, , Morteza Pouraliganji ,   Ashkan Dejagah, Karim Ansarifard , Reza Ghoochannejhad

Captain , Javad Nekounam was the only player who did not play due to flu.

 

The team will return back to Tehran from tonight in two groups.

Team Melli will play Benfica Reserves !

Iran’s Team Melli will be playing a friendly match against the reserve team of Benfica in preparation for the AFC Asian Cup! The match will be played at 10:30 in the morning next Tuesday 14th October 2014.

Team Melli squad is currently in Carlos Queiroz homeland and so far has managed to arrange two matches only, one of which would have been a real test for Team Melli which has lost valuable preparation time for the upcoming premiere Asian Competition. Due to procrastinating of Queiroz and Kaffashian on signing a contract extension, Team Melli had no coach or a program until a few weeks ago.

The match against full strength Benfica, would have been a strong duel to test Queiroz’s much favored defensive system. However, since the famous Portuguese club and three times European Cup holder is involved in the Champions League and the National Team of Portugal is busy with the European Cup qualifiers, Benfica coach Jorge Jesus has preferred to field the reserve team giving his main players enough rest for the tough schedule ahead.
Benfica will be meeting Sporting Covilhã in the Portuguese cup on 18th October.

On the other hand, Iran opponents in the group have been having a busy schedule from the summer as UAE has played strong oppositions like Paraguay , Lithuania, Norway, Georgia & Armenia while Qatar played the likes of Uzbekistan, Peru, Morocco, Indonesia and Macedonia.

It is rumored that a friendly match against Palestine is on the cards next for Team Melli, but it has yet to be finalized.

 

24 players short-listed for Team Melli

The shortlist of 24 players making it to Portugal has been announced by FFIRI after the last round of the Persian Gulf League matches have been completed. The team will be flying to Lisbon tonight (Saturday 4th Oct) where two tests matches are arranged against Portuguese clubs Estoril and Benfica. Team Melli will be utilizing the FIFA days for this camp. 

The selection of the players, as always, raised a few questions on who selected the team? Mehdi Rahmati inclusion in the list did not last long as expected, while there is no place for one of the stars of the league, Mohammadreza Khalatbary. While khalatbaruy was showing his worth in the match against Persepolis on Friday with a splendid assist to Mehdi Sharifi to score a last minute winner, neither of the two made the 24 players list of Queiroz.

Vahid Ameeri - Naft Tehran
Vahid Ameeri – Naft Tehran

However, by some divine rights, Mehrdad Pooladi who has not kicked a ball in official competitions since the last match in the FIFA World Cup and currently has no club after he failed to sign with a Qatari team, is included in this squad!

Ahmad Abdullahzadeh Foolad Khuzestan
Ahmad Abdullahzadeh Foolad Khuzestan

There is also a question mark on the selection of Karim Ansarifard , a player who has not featured in many of Osasuna matches this season and sometimes he is not even included in the bench , yet he is selected for Team Melli ahead of many capable active playing forwards.

On a positive note, the list includes several rookies mostly from Naft Tehran and Foolad Khuzestan clubs. Ahmadzadeh , Rafei . Ameeri, Pouraliganji and Ghafoori are players that have been instrumental in their teams this season and have been duly selected for the squad. The old guards who have failed to impress with Team Melli in the FIFA World Cup are still there with the exception of Baithashour and Davari who are not able to join due to club or other commitments.

The biggest surprise must be the absence of any players from one of the two most popular teams in Iran, Persepolis. The club has been suffering a dreadful form and sacked coach Daei lately. That is the first time such non-inclusion of a Persepolis players has occurred. On the other hand no players from the league leaders Tractorsazi have been included. This raises many questions about the selections and if they are based on current form and performance or is it player’s reputation or other factors..

 

Goalkeepers

Alireza  HAGHIGHI (Penafiel), Alireza  BIRANVAND (Naft Tehran), Mohsen FROUZAN (Esteghlal)

 

Defender

Mehrdad POOLADI (No Club), Hashim BEIGZADEH (Esteghlal), ,Jalal HOSSEINI (Al Ahli QAT) , Pejman MONTAZERI (Umm Salal SC  QAT), Morteza POURALIGANJI (Naft Tehran),  AmirHossein SADEGHI (Esteghlal) , Vourya GHAFFORI (Sepahan)

MIDFIELD

Andranik TEYMOURIAN (Esteghlal), Javad NEKOUNAM (Osasuna ESP), Ahmad ABDULLAZADEH (Foolad Khuzestan), Omid EBRAHIMI (Esteghlal),, Ehsan HAJSAFY(Sepahan), Ashkan DEJAGAH (Al Arabi QAT),  Soroush RAFEI (Foolad Khuzestan), Masoud SHOJAEI (Al Shahaniya QAT),  Khosrow HEYDARI (Esteghlal).

 

FORWARDS

Reza GHOOCHANNEJAD (Al Kuwat SC KWI), Sardar AZMOUN (Rubin Kazan RUS), Karim ANSARIFARD  (Osasuna ESP), Vahid AMEERI (Naft Tehran) , AliReza JAHANBAKHSH (NEC Nijmegen NED)