Team Melli continued training in Moscow with a session at the FC Strogino training ground on Saturday.

That session revealed that Carlos Queiroz’s team has enough energy and motivation to play in the FIFA World Cup 2018 and embark on an exciting event, but is it enough to confront three big obstacles in form of Morocco, Spain and Portugal and deliver? The answer to this question becomes more complicated when considering all prevailing circumstances. It is reported that Mehdi Taremi and Ashkan Dejagah did not take part in training but were involved in a special recovery program and probably will not be involved with the team due to injury at this time!

However, Queiroz speaks highly and confidently about his team and he is not prepared to undermine, convey any sign of frustration or disappointment to his squad. He is still the no 1 hope of the Iranian national team to face Morocco, Spain and Portugal. As in the past World Cup, his tactics against Nigeria and Argentina and the skilled manner that he analyzed both the opponents, resulted in respectable results in the 2 matches.

Now that four-year has passed and the coach has gained more experienced and his knowledge of the players has improved, he has a few shortcomings in posts in comparison to the Brazilian World Cup. Just where he had peace of mind, the team has a weakness. Where in Brazil players in the class of Javad Nekounam and Andranik Teymourian gave the team great confidence and experience,  now Queiroz does not have that luxury.

This is perhaps the only clear dark spot of Team Melli. Queiroz has a great deal of concern in filling the area because the role of defensive midfielder in his strategy is a very vital one. This time Team Melli faces a big vacuum. Saeed Ezzatollahi is suspended for the first game and Omid Ebrahimi has not yet reached the ideal form since recovering from his longish injury.

That is why Queiroz is thinking of options and using of other players in this post to fill this gap. Perhaps Karim Ansarifrd might be asked to change his post from center forward to defensive midfielder. Rozbeh’s Cheshmi is another candidate; however it seems that Omid Ebrahimi’s can be better choice than any other despite his less than optimum form.

Queiroz, of course, has a much greater concern in the goal, but no matter what the circumstances are, his option are quite limited and it does not seem that he will have a better option than calamity Alireza Beiranvand. That makes both the players and fans quite nervous. The memories of him concede goals like confetti only weeks ago, is still quite clear in everyone’s mind. Despite that, the Persepolis goalkeeper’s experience makes him a better choice in Russia.

Biranvand may be considered as the man in the goal for Team Melli in Russia, Queiroz however has shown that he is unpredictable. His pick for the same post in Brazil was Alireza Haghighi , not the no 1 choice, but Queiroz was spot on in 2014.  If Brunvand is to be the custodian of Team Melli, he certainly needs a lot of guidance from a good sports psychologist – who can be Queiroz himself – to talk to him and mentally prepare the unpredictable Persepolis keeper,  for a big time and they don’t come bigger than the FIFA World Cup.

In other posts, there does not seem to be a particular or a major problem. Team Melli has players who play major roles for their clubs outside of Iran and understand the status of the World Cup and its significance. So Queiroz is confident that of them and would not worry about other posts.

However, it seems that Queiroz will still take a surprise course  of action in the Iranian national team. Perhaps the change of posts of one or two players, and perhaps his technical thoughts and great ability to read the game, will make all the three great opponents ponder and fight to get satisfactory results. We should wait and see.