Tag: Ali Daei

Iran in the third seed of World Cup draw.

The Iranian national football team was placed in the third round of the FIFA  World Cup 2022 in Qatar.

With nearly all matches except a few played in the World Cup qualifiers, the ranking of the teams present in this period of competition was also determined. Based on this, the Iranian national team will be in Seed 3 as in the previous period. The draw for the World Cup will be held on Friday in Doha, and Team Melli will know its opponents.

* What does it mean to be in Seed 3?

The placement of Iran in Seed 3 is a good thing, because a team from Seed 4, which is lower than Iran in terms of points in the FIFA rankings, will be in our group.

* Which teams will we not be in the same group with Iran?

Also, considering the ranking of Iran in the World Cup, Team Melli will definitely not be in the same group with the teams in seed 3. Iran will not be drawn in the same group with the other Asian teams such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Japan, and South Korea. Also, if Australia or UAE qualify for the World Cup through the playoffs, this team will not be drawn with Iran. Thus, the Iranian national team will definitely not be grouped with the teams of Senegal, Serbia, Poland, Morocco, Tunisia, South Korea, Japan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and “UAE or Australia” (in case of reaching the World Cup).

World Cup qualifiers are as follows:

Seed 1  Belgium (1), Brazil (2), France (3), Argentina (4), England (5), Spain (7), Portugal (8), Qatar (52)

Seed 2: Denmark (9), Netherlands (10), Germany (11),  Mexico (12) , USA (13), Switzerland (14),  Croatia (15), Uruguay (16)

Seed 3: Senegal (18), Iran (21), Japan (23), Morocco (24), Serbia (25), Poland (28), South Korea (29), Tunisia (36)

Seed 4: Canada (33),  Cameroon (38),  Ecuador (46), Saudi Arabia (53), Ghana (61), , 3 playoff teams

* Mexico and USA are still on the face, No, for all intents and purposes, we should consider these two teams among the teams that have qualified for the 2022 World Cup.

Note: In the World Cup draw, teams from different continents, except Europe, will not be grouped with a team from their own continent, and from Europe, a maximum of two teams can be in the same group.

 

Ali Daei will participate in the draw ceremony.

Iran’s legend and former Team Melli coach will be one of the 7 selected football personalities who will be drawing the names out of the pot.

12 years later it is confirmed that Ahmadinejad fired Ali Daei!

 in April 2009, after  Team Melli’s defeat against Saudi Arabia in the FIFA World Cup South Africa 2010  qualifiers, it was suddenly announced that Ali Daei, the head coach of the Team, had been fired. The dismissal came while the Iranian team still had a good chance to advance to the World Cup, but with the dismissal of Daei and the presence of Afshin Ghotbi, Team Melli finally failed to qualify for the World Cup in South Africa and experienced a major setback.

Daei had repeatedly stated after the incident that his dismissal had nothing to do with the Football Federation and that institutions higher than the federation had decided to fire him. Although this claim was initially denied by the then president of the Football Federation, Ali Kafashian, over time, various interviews with federation officials and members of the national team at the time confirmes Daei’s claims.

However, today, Saturday, Mohammad Akhundi, who was the spokesman for the Physical Education Organization at the time, confirmed that the dismissal of Ali Daei, was a decision taken by the office of the Presidency and in particular the president himself (Mahmoud Ahmadinejad).

In this regard, Akhundi said “this decision was taken and announced in the presidential palace. They called me to announce the news, but I said that it was the responsibility of other people and the football federation to do so and not the PEO.” He added: “We refused to announce the dismissal of Ali Daei in the Physical Education Organization.”

The former spokesman for the Physical Education Organization, who was a guest in a radio program, was asked “Is it true that Ahmadinejad took that decision on his own?” He said: “What I know unofficially is that the President himself made this decision, but officially it came from the presidential Palace!. The justification for Daei’s dismissal was the pressure of public opinion, those around the group concluded that Ali was not to continue.

Akhundi was asked if Ali Daei’s dismissal was due to the fact that he did not allow Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to enter the locker room between the two halves of the Iran-Saudi game: “I have no information about this.” A former spokesman for the Physical Education Organization said: “That change (dismissal of Ali Daei) was wrong. If Daei continued, we would have probably qualified to the World Cup.”

Cristiano Ronaldo finally breaks Ali Daei’s record.

Cristiano Ronaldo was able to change the outcome of the game on the night of his outstanding solo performance.

Equal with Ali Daei as the Worlds Top international striker, Ronaldo needed just one goal to hold the record on his own. The chance to achieve that came quite early in the match against the Republic of Ireland in the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 European qualifiers.

Portugal was awarded a penalty and after a long-drawn discussion and VAR which seriously took a long time, Ronaldo took the penalty but Ireland’s young keeper Gavin Bazunu saved.

But despite a lackluster performance by the 36 years old, the ending was a thriller. In the 89th Minute, Ronaldo scored the equalizer for Portugal and in the dying seconds of the match, he scored the winner in injury time,  both goals coming from headers.

In midst of his excitement, the Manchester United forward took off his jersey in celebration and was given a yellow card.

Later, Cristiano Ronaldo has extended a heartfelt apology to his Portugal teammates despite guiding them to a thrilling 2-1 comeback win over the Republic of Ireland. Ronaldo missed a penalty in the opening exchanges of the game but made up for it with his late brace that sealed the win for Portugal.

 After achieving this record, he thanked Ali Daei on his personal page on Instagram, with the following message: