Category: AFC Asian Cup 2015

15/01/201515/01/2015

Team Melli through to AFC Asian Cup quarter finals

Team Melli have clinched a berth in the AFC Asian Cup quarter finals after beating Qatar 1-0 in ANZ Stadium ,Sydney.

The only goal of the match was scored by Sardar Azmoun in the 52nd minute after brilliantly turning his marker and beating Burhan Qassim in Qatar goal.

With UAE beating Bahrain 2-1 earlier , Iran and UAE will be competing for the table lead in the final match on Monday. UAE have a 1 goal better goal difference and need only a draw to top the group.

#	Team	MP	W	D	L	F	A	D	P	Last 5 matches
1	UAE	2	2	0	0	6	2	+4	6	W W
2	Iran	2	2	0	0	3	0	+3	6	W W
3	Bahrain	2	0	0	2	1	4	-3	0	L L
4	Qatar	2	0	0	2	1	5	-4	0	L L

15/01/2015

Sardar Azmoun starts against Qatar.

Carlos Queiroz has opted to start with the young Team Melli striker Sardar Azmoun instead of Reza Ghoochannejad up front against Qatar in otherwise unchanged team.

this will be the first official match for the 20 years old Rubin Kazan player. Azmoun has already opened his scoring account with Team Melli scoring lately against Iraq in the final friendly game before the Asian Cup.

15/01/2015

Sardar Azmoun waiting for his chance.

Barely 20 years old , but with a confidence of a veteran.

Sardar Azmoun, the young Team Melli players stunned the football circles all over Iran by being recruited by the Russian Club Rubin Kazan while he was 18 years old. The Russian were tipped by their scouts about this brilliant young Iranian playing for Iran’s national youth team and decided to take him aboard from such early age hoping to produce a quality striker and a big investment.

Azmoun soon found himself in the city of Kazan and way far from home. Unlike countless Iranian footballers who could not truly settle outside their domiciles, Azmoun soon became familiar with the surroundings and liked what he has seen.

Playing for the youth team for almost two seasons, Azmoun was slowly introduced to the full team. The young man did not disappoint either, scoring goals and assisting for his team.

Azmoun was picked by Queiroz in the preparations for the World Cup; however he did not make the final list of 23 players to Brazil. Quite disappointed by this, Azmoun however, did not show any disrespect or contempt for that decision. He said, with confidence that his turn will be coming one day.

No sooner than the next big tournament for Iran, the Asian Cup. Once again Queiroz picked Azmoun for the Asian Cup campaign. Celebrating his 20^th birthday in the South African training camp, Azmoun was one of the most hard working player in the camp. Under the professional environment of the Russian league, Azmoun has picked up quite a few things that is giving him a world of good towards his future career and the most important of it is confidence, diligence, professionalism and dedication.

All those attributes are not much good without the talent and skills. Fortunately, Sardar Azmoun has plenty of both. A strong physique, skillful carrier of the ball who has a elusive skills in turning defender, quick thinker, good header of the ball and lethal finisher are some of the skill that Azmoun has and developing. Although Azmoun has not had enough opportunities to display such skills at top level for Iran, it was evident during his earlier years while playing for Iran national youth teams, that he is an exceptional talent and a star in the making.

Azmoun had one opportunity to stake a claim with a big exposure, when he played for Team Melli in their last Friendly against Iraq in Australia. The solitary goal that he scored had the combination of many of his inherit skills and the finishing was simply marvelous for the 20 years old striker.

Carlos Queiroz has already shown that is brave enough to introduce young players at top level, being himself an old hand in training young players and winning 2 world titles for his country’s youth team. Whether he will give Azmoun his real chance in Australia is dependent on several circumstances one of which is the match results. Azmoun accepts the realities “As a young player that with low experience, I and my younger teammates must really work hard to gain the trust of the coach for a place in the lineup.” His expectations are low in the AFC Asian Cup 2015 in Australia but ambitions quite high. He is also known to be a enduring character.

14/01/201514/01/2015

Iran vs. Qatar : “keep it tight at the back”

14th January 2015

In addition to being the match that could decide Team Melli qualification, the match against Qatar on Thursday, will also be another test of Carlos Queiroz’s defensive game plan. A win by Team Melli will take it to the sixth consecutive quarter finals appearance of the Asian Cup. Iran’s proud record started in 1996 edition , in which Team Melli played in 5 consecutive tournament and never losing a match in regulation time.

Iran will be facing a wounded Qatar, and that could be a two edged sword. The multi-National team of Qatar could have already conceded although publically they are putting up a brave face and a defiant attitude. On the other hand, they still believe that there is nothing to lose, they still stand a chance for qualifying and end up playing their best football, the one that we have seen they can excel in, in front of Team Melli.

Ismaeel Abdulatif batteling with Morteza Pouraliganji

Djamal Belmadhi has assembled a decent team including many new faces. He dispensed with the Latin American contingents as they were failing to deliver and instead he picked a few North Africans and players from his native Algeria to replace the likes of Fabio Cesar, Andrés Sebastián Soria. Neutralizing foreign players is a fundamental standard procedure in Qatar sport including the National Football team.

The result against UAE was hardly an indication of Qatar weakness neither was it in any way and sign of the might of the UAE team. The difference between these two Gulf nation teams are minimal hence a 4-1 result was a freak result that should not be read too much into.

The reality remains that Qatar is strong opponent for any team and still stands a chance in the tournament. The Qataris will be hoping that Thursday’s match will be the turnaround point in their fortunes.

On the other hand, Iran is placed comfortably in the table. A win will be a perfect result, but a draw is not going to be a disaster either. No Team Melli fan should hold his breath hoping that Team Melli will be going to the jugular either. Carlos Queiroz will stick, and religiously so , to his strong defensive ideology regardless to the opposition.

Since the World Cup and the term parking the bus was associated with Team Melli , even the offensive minded Iranians are becoming convinced with the Queiroz ideology in a classic bandwagon effect. The reality is that Team Melli does not have the ingredients of an lethal offensive team , so why play some tactics that the coach does not have the right resources for it? It makes sense to everyone even with a stronger position and a few field advantages over Qatar, for Team Melli to play the same old game plan hoping for a low margin win.

If you do not have the players like Khalatbary to run havoc on defenders , or a schemer such as Mojtaba Jabbari or Ali Karimi to masterfully orchestrate the midfield and feed your forwards, then offensive plans have to be shelved and Queiroz stick to “keep it tight at the back” approach.

Carlos Queiroz has to be credited with introducing the new players in the defense line, hopefully he would give more playing time to Azmoun and Jahanbakhsh instead of the inert Shojae, whose selection remains an enigma with his pathetic and lethargic performances.

also It will be a tight match but surprises in football can be expected. We hope those would be in the shape of a handsome victory for Team Melli.

Reza Ghoochannejad chased by Hussain Ali Baba of Bahrain

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Head 2 Head

This will be only the second time that Iran and Qatar meet in the Asian Cup. The first was in Doha in 1988 edition when Team Melli beat the host nation Qatar 2-0 with goals from Karim Bavi and Farshad Peyous. That match was also the first official game between the two teams.

H / A / N	Matches	W	D	L	Goals	+ / –
Home	6	4	2	0	16 – 4	+12
Away	13	7	3	3	15 – 11	+4
Neutral	0	0	0	0	0 – 0	+0
Total	19	11	5	3	31 – 15	+16

Date	Comp.	H / A / N	Final score	Stadium	Attendance
04.06.2013	World Cup Qualifier	A	1 – 0	AlSadd Stadium , Doha	11872
12.06.2012	World Cup Qualifier / Round 4	H	0 – 0	Azadi Stadium , Tehran	80000
29.02.2012	World Cup Qualifier / Round 3 – Group E	H	2 – 2	Azadi Stadium , Tehran	55000
06.09.2011	World Cup Qualifier / Round 3 – Group E	A	1 – 1	Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium , Doha	8125
28.12.2010	Friendly	A	0 – 0	Khalifa Stadium , Doha	3000
28.12.2009	Friendly / Qatar Intl. Friendly Tournament	A	2 – 3	Suhaim Bin Hamad-Doha Qatar Stadium	3000
09.11.2008	Friendly	A	1 – 0	Al Saad Stadium , Doha	5000
11.08.2008	WAFF	H	6 – 1	Takhti Stadium , Tehran	5000
10.01.2008	Friendly	A	0 – 0	Al Saad Stadium , Doha	2000
24.03.2007	Friendly / Friendly	A	1 – 0	AlGharafah Stadium , Doha	7000
13.10.2004	World Cup Qualifier / WCQ	A	3 – 2	Doha	3000
18.02.2004	World Cup Qualifier / WCQ	H	3 – 1	Azadi – Tehran	0
01.08.2001	Friendly / Friendly	A	1 – 2	Doha	0
27.09.2000	Friendly	A	2 – 1	Al Sadd Stadium , Doha	5000
07.11.1997	World Cup Qualifier / WCQ	A	0 – 2	Doha	20000
03.10.1997	World Cup Qualifier / WCQ	H	3 – 0	Azadi – Tehran	70000
01.06.1996	Friendly / Friendly	A	1 – 0	Khalifa Stadium , Doha	10000
17.05.1996	Friendly	H	2 – 0	Takhti Stadium , Tabriz	30000
02.12.1988	Asian Cup / Group 1	A	2 – 0	AlAhli FC Stadium , Doha	20000

14/01/2015

IRAN BRACED FOR STERN QATAR CHALLENGE

14 January 2015

Michael Church

Sydney: Qatar’s heavy defeat at the hands of the United Arab Emirates has not lulled Iran coach Carlos Queiroz into expecting anything other than a challenging encounter when his team face off against the Gulf Cup holders in their Group C meeting at Stadium Australia on Thursday.

The UAE handed the Qataris a 4-1 thrashing in their clash in Canberra on Sunday while Iran earned a 2-0 victory over Bahrain in Melbourne that leaves Team Melli knowing victory over Djamel Belmadi’s side will take them into the quarter-finals.

Queiroz has a full squad available to him after Andranik Teymourian shook off the effects of fatigue from the opening game, with cramping keeping him out of Tuesday’s training session, and the Portuguese coach believes his side face a tough challenge against the 2011 quarter-finalists.

“The game was one of those games, it’s a result that happens. It could go in both directions,” said the former Real Madrid coach. “UAE played well. They played the aces they should play, but the result does not show exactly what happened in the game. We don’t follow that trend.

“Qatar are a good team with good players, good coaches and in the last 14 games they won eight games and drew four and only lost against UAE and in another game. That shows that the team is very strong, they are a good team that will create a lot of problems for us for sure. We know the quality of the Qatar team.

“But the most important thing for us is knowing that you play Qatar tomorrow, and to know what we’re going to do tomorrow. It’s not about Qatar tomorrow (Thursday), it’s about us and how we’re going to express our game and play and have fun and play quality football and put that on the pitch.

“I prefer to be focused on my team, not so much concerned on the team from Qatar. We know they had a bad result, but bad results don’t show that a team is bad, just like a good result doesn’t show a team is good. Since yesterday we have only had one thing in mind: the Iran national team and how we are going to play against Qatar.”

Iran impressed in their opening game of the tournament and Queiroz will be encouraging his players to express themselves in a similar manner against the Qataris.

“We try to put in practice on the pitch a simple and accurate plan,” he said. “We have a team, we need to express our football with discipline with organisation and with something special in mind, to do our best in 90 minutes to try and win the game and this is the plan. This is what I used to say to my players.

“According to the limits of the team spirit and the team principles they must express themselves and fly and swim free because they have a team behind them and they must play for them. The plan is simple. They know we have in front of us one national team with a very, very deep and strong preparation.

“Fourteen games in the legs is a serious preparation to play this Asian Cup. Good players. They have achieved good results in the last 14 games, so we know that the answer can be: Do it together, united and together as a team.”

14/01/2015

QATAR DETERMINED TO BOUNCE BACK

www.afcasiancup.com

14 January 2015 Michael Church

Sydney: Djamel Belmadi is hoping his Qatar team can put their disappointing 4-1 loss at the hands of the United Arab Emirates behind them as they prepare to take on three-time AFC Asian Cup winners Iran at Stadium Australia on Thursday evening.

The Algerian coach was still at a loss to explain the Group C defeat in Canberra on Sunday as the Gulf Cup champions prepared for the crucial meeting with Team Melli off the back of their first defeat in 11 games.

“We lost the opening game because we played (it) like a friendly game,” said Belmadi. “It was not our day or our real level, especially after the good competition in the Gulf Cup.

“We expected something different. But now it’s the past and we have to make a reaction. Of course we are all disappointed. They have got the ambition to make a different game tomorrow.

“My main job was to work more psychologically than something else. Of course, we had to analyse what happened in this game and to correct it.

“But I know this group that I have. I have chosen them and I know that we are able to change things and we can do much, much better even when things look difficult, even for some people impossible. But for us, it’s not impossible and we’ll try to show it tomorrow.”

The Qataris face an Iran side that won their first game 2-0 against Bahrain and for whom victory in Sydney on Thursday evening would mean securing a place in the quarter-finals.

With Carlos Queiroz’s side having impressed at the FIFA World Cup finals in Brazil in June, Belmadi knows his team face a tough challenge to pick up their first win of the tournament.

“It will be a decisive game against a big team that qualified for the World Cup and who played against strong teams at the World Cup. We are prepared and we know it’s going to be a tough game,” he said.

“But we’re also used to playing against teams that are stronger on paper than us, like Morocco and Australia. The team is relatively young and the average age is 23 years old and even though we’re here for the competition we’re here to learn and to learn fast. The same team played at the Gulf Cup and we ended up winning the competition.

“We have a plan and like always we will try to find the solution because it’s a good team, well organised, really aggressive and they don’t give you too much space, so we will have to find a solution. Every team has some weakness, like the others. We will try to find this weakness and try to find the way to score and to win this game.”

13/01/2015

Iran ‘unprepared’ for Asian Cup but ready to fight.

By: Attilla Mosony

International sanctions and lack of support from its own federation have threatened to derail Iran’s Asian Cup campaign. But the team says those setbacks have provided extra motivation to win.

As the top-ranked Asian Cup side, Iran carries the weight of expectations of a football mad nation of 85 million. But numerous issues have hindered the team’s lead up in the past six months.

So much so that coach Carlos Queiroz has declared his side the least prepared nation at the tournament. He says international sanctions and a lack of financial support from its own federation have threatened to derail the country’s Asian Cup campaign.

“Unfortunately we come to a situation that’s even worse than the World Cup, the international sanctions against Iran, we are struggling in all other actions and plans”

FIFA is still withholding almost $10 million in World Cup appearance money as a result of the sanctions, which led to the cancellation of training camps and pre-tournament games.

Since the World Cup in Brazil, the Iranians have only played one friendly match, against South Korea, before arriving in Australia. But despite the less than ideal preparations they are still considered one of the favourites. Striker Reza Ghoochannejhad insists his side can handle the pressure.

“Everybody is excited to play against Iran, and everybody is motivated, especially because we are coming from the World Cup, but this is the situation right now we can’t complain, we can’t make excuses,” he told SBS.

And for the large community of Iranian expats living in Australia the Asian Cup is a fantastic opportunity to watch their heroes live. On Sunday night 17,000 passionate fans turned up in Melbourne to create a little slice of Tehran.

The 2-nil victory over Bahrain was a huge relief for the team and fans following a troublesome build-up to the tournament. Queiroz says his side is determined to get on with the job by using its recent setbacks as motivation.

“We come here with our soul, with our art with our spirit, as we did before the World Cup, with our training session, using those problems and issues as sources of our inspiration

Iran face Qatar in its second group C match in Sydney on Thursday night.

13/01/201513/01/2015

No serious injury fears in Team Melli squad.

Amir Hossein Sadeghi , Andranik Teymourian and Masoud Shojae carry slight knocks that is not considered to be too serious according to Team Melli medical staff.

Teymourian & Shojae played against Bahrain and both received a slight knock in the game , while Sadeghi is believed to had these knocks during the training sessions in Australia. Amir Hossein Sadeghi was an unused substitute in the Bahrain game which Team Melli won 2-0.

All the three players are being given special treatment and recovery training.

Dr. Khanlori also confirmed that Hashim Beigzadeh , who was replaced by Khanzadeh is suffering from a broken bones in his palm. “We could have placed a special protective element as a precaution in order to make him ready for playing , but at the end we decided not to take a risk.” The head of Medical staff of Team Melli announced.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Hossein Haymathi , who is in-charge of Team Melli squad security, a task which involves keeping an eye on Team Melli players whereabouts and movements , denied that any players have been reprimanded or cautioned for indiscipline, according to his statement to ISNA. The security section ensures that tight measures are implemented to deter the squad from meeting undesirable personnel from abroad especially opposition figures and remind everyone that they are being closely watched. However, the official declared tasks of this security apparatus is ensuring discipline and conforming to curfew hours , routine tasks that are assigned to Team Mangers in every other squad.

“As you might have witnessed, other squads like Oman and Bahrain have quite a lot of freedom of movements and their players are seen to be coming and going out at will. Our team is much more disciplined and abide by the rules” . Haymathi said.

About the rumors of the caution for 3 players “That is totally false. We have not cautioned any player no singled out any squad member for disciplinary issues. Amir Hossein Sadeghi, Andranik Teymourian and Masoud Shojae have left the hotel for some medical treatment with the approval of Team Manager.”

It is not clear if Mr. Haymathi is attached to the FFIRI the Iranian Government Security and intelligence system.

Alireza Haghighi and Amir Hossein Sadeghi

13/01/2015

Kaffashian leaves Team Melli in Australia and returns home!

Ali Kaffashian , the head of FFIRI has decided that he has seen enough of Team Melli after one match and will return back to Tehran to attend to “Important issues” according to him !

Kaffashian also attended the AFC congress in Australia.

While it is customary for the highest rank officials in the football federations of countries to head the delegations in important tournaments like the FIFA World Cup and AFC Asian Cup , Ali Kaffashian , prefers to differ and does not share the same enthusiasm of other football fans or officials in watching and being close to Team Melli in their quest to win the Asian Cup.

In a short quote to the press in Australia, Kaffashian said “Mohammad Nabi is more than capable to handle all the issues with the team and manage the squad.” It has to be noted that a couple of weeks back , Kaffashian has fired Mohammad Nabi from his post for few hours and announced his decision to the media, before discovering that Team Melli will be without a Manager a few days before flying to Australia. A sudden U-turn allowed Mohammad Nabi to return to his post, although it seems to be a temporary measure .

Team Melli started the Asian Cup confidently with a win against Bahrain, will be playing Qatar 15tth Jan and UAE 19th Jan in Group C.

12/01/2015

Queiroz fuming despite Asian Cup win over Bahrain

Iran coach Carlos Queiroz let rip at Bahrain for their “dangerous” tackling after his side won a tempestuous Asian Cup clash 2-0 on Sunday.

The Portuguese accused Australian referee Ben Williams of failing to control the Group C match in Melbourne.

“I was not happy because after nine, 10, 12 fouls, stopping the game systematically. The referee must take action,” Queiroz said.

“There were some aerial duels where especially their No 12 [Faouzi Aaish] elbowed my players and, as you know, the elbow is very dangerous.”

Ehsan Hajsafi’s volley in first-half stoppage time lit the touchpaper for Iran,who are seeking to end a 39-year wait for a fourth Asian Cup title, before Masoud Shojaei added a second in the 71st minute to end Bahrain’s resistance. But Queiroz, who had two spells as Alex Ferguson’s assistant at Old Trafford, was furious at what he said was a lack of consistency from referee Williams.

“For a referee so quick to show a yellow card when one of my players didn’t hear the whistle, I was completely surprised that when he sees Bahrain’s negative game, after 10 fouls in a row, he didn’t give them a single yellow,” the former Portugal and Real Madrid coach said.

Asia’s top-ranked side, Iran almost opened the scoring after 20 minutes when the dangerous Ashkan Dejagah forced a smart stop from Sayed Abbas in the Bahrain goal. But Bahrain had already served notice that they were not about to simply roll over as their bulldozing Nigerian-born striker Jaycee Okwunwanne blazed wide during the frenetic early skirmishes.

Sayed Shubbar then squandered a golden opportunity by heading over as Bahrain threatened to capitalise on a sluggish start from Iran.

It was then Hajsafi who, with almost the last kick of the first half, expertly trapped a looping clearance with his left foot and instantaneously smashed it past Abbas with the outside of his right boot from just outside the box.

“It was a brilliant, fantastic goal,” Queiroz said. “A goal to grace any stadium in the world. Bahrain made it difficult for us, but we deserved to win and should have scored more goals.”

Tempers flared in the second half when Iran goalkeeper Alireza Haghighi barged into Aaish, Bahrain’s playmaker, who appeared to block off the keeper as he attempted a quick throw.

Moments later, Shojaei popped up to steer a right-footed shot just inside the post from another corner to trigger wild celebrations from a crowd of 17,000.

“You saw what happened with the goalkeeper,” Queiroz said. “He tried for a quick transition and the No 12 stopped him.

“The laws of the game are clear – an elbow is a yellow card, no doubt about that.”