Tag: Alireza Haghighi

20/11/201420/11/2014

Team Melli outlook after the Korean Experience.

Despite the team’s victory against South Korea, there is still a long way to go for the team to reach the optimal conditions for success. The everlasting concerns about team preparation, game plan and form of the players and eventually how it will reflect on Team Melli in the Asian Cup still bothering the fans and critics.

In a rare opportunity to watch match Team Melli in action, the fans displayed their apathy towards the team by the very disappointing attendance figure. It was also disappointing for the opposition coach Uli Stielke who was excited to see 100,000 vociferous fans filling a stadium creating a fantastic atmosphere that he heard so much about. It was not to be for many reasons.

Neither the coach nor the players managed to obliterate the concerns of the majority of the fans who are apprehensive about Team Melli chances in the AFC Asian Cup. That the preparations are flawed, inadequate and even worst , no progress if any has been seen in the team since before the World Cup, was quite evident in the match against the Koreans. The only positive was the winning result by the smallest of margins, which might be a good psychological advantage over their archrivals, comes the day Iran meets the Koreans. This time however, they will not meet in the Quarter finals stages like the last 4 editions of the Asian Cup.

The prime concern lies in the fact that Queiroz has no intention of fundamentally changing anything in this team in any form. Sure, he will have some cosmetic changes here and there to silence some of the critics, but essentially, the core of the team , the principle style of play , the defensive mentality , and the parking of the bus does not seem to change anytime soon. Queiroz has already made it clear that his team “Does not need a revolution” hinting that the changes in the Asian Cup will be to the absolute minimum.

The other point of concern is that there is a huge gap between the expectations and definitions of success by the fans and critics on one side and the coach and Federation on the other side. Queiroz keeps talking about the excellent performance of the Team Melli in Brazil , while the majority of the fans in Iran were expecting their Team Melli to qualify to the next round. The polls at teammelli.com are one such reflection of the fans beliefs. There is quite a difference between qualifying to the next round and being the bottom of the group.

If you are a fan of beautiful football, then watching Team Melli in action is not exactly your cup of tea. The lack of organization, poor ball distribution, poor finishing and many more shortcomings was evident in the performance against South Korea. Offensive play is perhaps an afterthought in Team Melli. Against Korea, there was a grand total of one shoot only on the Koreans goalkeeper that was saved, while on the other side Alireza Haghighi had to deal with several shoots from different angles.

Another serious criticism of the way Carlos Queiroz arranges his team, is his insistence on selecting Masoud Shojaei. A player who promised so much in his early years, but time and again has failed to deliver. These days, Shojaei is lucky to find an employer in the shape of a second division Qatari team that has just won promotion, and guaranteed for immediate relegation based on their results so far in QSL. Shojaei , is simply not a player of international quality. On technical and character terms, he lacks what it takes to be a productive player in the midfield or the flanks. Whatever Queiroz tries, he simply cannot convince the average fans that Shojaei is worthy of selection even on the bench. Queiroz has put his faith is some players despite the criticism such as lack of match practice, a good example would be Alireza Haghighi. His trust in the Rubin Kazan bench warmer paid off. This was a case where his trust in the player was rewarded by a good performance in the 3 matches in Brazil. He simply cannot say the same of Shojaei, period.

While very few people see the technical merit of Shojaei’s selection, it is hoped that it is not one of those dogmatic, stubbornness and defiances of Queiroz which he is quite capable of.

Despite the win against South Korea, always a sweet feeling and matter of pride even in a meaningless match , the reality is that it was far from convincing , aspiring and hopeful display of football.

This year Iran played 10 games and scored 9 goals only. This is the worst figure for 24 years since 1990 to be precise when that team Goal per game was 0.78 per match compared to 0.9 for 2014.

Under Queiroz there is a marked and yet steady decline in figures that reflects the offensive capability of the team. Queiroz took over in 2011 after the Asian Cup in Doha, in 2012 and 2013 the team scored 19 goals each years with average of 1.36 and 2.38 respectively.

Last 5 years records

Year	MP	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	GPM
2010	12	8	2	2	19	10	9	1.58
2011	15	12	2	1	36	5	31	2.40
2012	14	5	6	3	19	10	9	1.36
2013	8	6	1	1	19	6	13	2.38
2014	10	3	4	3	9	9	0	0.90

MP: Match played – W Won – D Drawn – L Loss – GF Goals For(Scored) – GA Goals Against (conceded) – GD Goal Difference – GPM Goals Scored Per Game

Note: Carlos Queiroz first game in charge was against Madagascar on July 2011

30/07/2014

3 Team Melli players among holder of fake certificates.

The name of 21 player has been disclosed by the Football league commission as holding fake certificates of Military End of Service.

A two years mandatory military service is still a requirement for Iranian Males and usually starts after school graduation. Under certain circumstances like illness or complicated family issues, a waiver can be given by the government.

Some time ago, rumors have started that many Iranian players are holding fake “Certificate of End of Service” or “Certificate of Waiver” that is issued by the Military authorities. The strong rumors prompted the Football League to investigate and examine the certificates. It is not clear whether this examination has been applied across the board or only on certain suspects cases.

The Football league, thereafter publicized the name of the 21 players that included current Team Melli players. The FFIRI has limited authority on the subject and does not have any legal power beyond requiring these players to play for teams with a military background.

This is another oddity of Iran’s football, as the players under military service are allowed to play what is theoretically a full professional career, yet also carry out a full time military duty! In reality, famous players, hardly do any Military or community service as dictated by law and instead they play professional football for military teams before being allowed to return to their original clubs.

The identification of Military teams is another subject that it has never been cleared by the lawmakers. Tractorsazi Tabriz, and Malvan Bandar Anzali are considered as military team, although ther association with the armed forces are vaguely defined. Malvan used to be the Navy team but it has been released to the Anzali Duty Free zone for a few years now.

It is not clear whether the Iranian Prosecutor General or the District Attorney of the government will take any action against the violators or persons who issued the fake certificates, a crime punishable by law.

Among the published list, there are 3 current Team Melli players , AliReza Haghighi who played all the 3 matches in the World Cup , Bakhtiar Rahmani and Hossein Mahini

Other Team Melli players are Ali HAMOUDI and Arash AFSHIN.

Two young team players are also included Milad Gharibi and Shahab Karami.

It seems that from the number of players involved from the South , the Master producer of fake documents , doesn’t live far from Ahvaz where he seemed to have done a good business but definitely illegal and fraudulent acts.! Afshin_Arash

28/07/2014

Alireza Haghighi to join FC Penafiel

Reports of Alireza Haghighi joining the Portuguese Second Division FC Penafiel has been circulating in the Iranian media for a few days , but as of writing of this report , there has been no official announcement by the player himself or the club that Iran’s no. 1 goalkeeper in the FIFA World Cup will be joining Penafiel.

A Segunda Liga team , situated in the city of the same name, Futebol Clube Penafiel finished 12^th in the league last season. The club’s website is under maintenance and was not available for confirmation of the deal. However , a fan site mentioned the introduction of the official new kit for the upcoming season as the venue for introduction of Alireza Haghighi top the club.

Apparently , the ex-Persepolis and Ruben Kazan keeper got lost in Portugal and missed the ceremony.

23/06/2014

Dream of a young Boy fulfilled.

Nearly twelve years ago , a 14 years old boy by the name of Alireza Haghighi had a dream. His dream was to become like his hero Ahmadreza Abedzadeh , Team Melli’s goalkeeper and one of the heroes of the 1998 Iran World Cup team that clinched the only victory of Iran in the World Cup so far.

The aspiring tall boy, with lots of dreams and not short of confidence either was part of the Iran boys team when he was interviewed by Jam ‘e Jam magazine. In one emphatic sentence Haghighi made his ambition quite clear, he said that he is planning to become like his hero Ahmad Abedzadeh and play for Team Melli in the World Cup. How prophetic this young by was.

Haghighi was not all talk either but quite a skillful goalkeeper with remarkable reflexes and towering presence over the players of his age. The Persepolis young keeper went on to represent the National Team at all ages levels. He went on from boys to youth to Olympic teams and finally the Full Team where he has made 8 appearances so far.

In December 2011, the Russian Club Rubin Kazan sent a transfer request to Persepolis for Haghighi. By 2012 Haghighi has signed a 4 years contract with the Russian Premier League club. For the whole season, however, Haghighi was not able to dislodge Kazan main keeper and eventually he was loaned back to Persepolis on July 2013 for a 5 moth contract. He marked his return by playing in Hazfi cup but that was about it. This was not a completely good move for the aspiring keeper who wanted to be the No. 1 goalkeeper for Persepolis but Daei preferred the Brazilian Nelson over Haghighi much to the annoyance of the Iranian. Relations between Daei and Persepolis on one side and Haghighi on the other deteriorated with the news taking the rounds that Daei has sacked Haghighi his reserve keeper and asked him not to attend training for being a disturbing element and unsettling influence on the rest of the team.

Haghighi returned back to his club Rubin Kazan. In an attempt to rescue his season , Rubin Kazan arranged another load deal with a struggling second division Portuguese club called Sporting Covilhã who were fighting for survival and drop to the obscurity of Portugal’s third division.

Haghighi had no choice but to agree to the deal in order to maintain his form and play regular competitive football. Of course it was a far cry from the chance of playing a role in a famous Russian club that has even defeated Barcelona in a Champions league match once or play with Persepolis against Esteghlal in front of 100,000 fans in Azadi. The obscurity of second division Sporting Covilhã has threatened to send Haghighi into Oblivion until Queiroz came calling!

Haghighi (26 years old) was named in the origin 30 players list that was sent to 2014 FIFA World Cup. Raised eyebrows were aplenty to this peculiar selection by Queiroz. In reality, Haghighi did not even play one single league match since January 2012 in Iran or Russia, to justify his selection. His only competitive in Iran while on loan was two Cup matches against unknown non-league teams.

While Queiroz was bemoaning the fact that none of Team Melli players have European Champions League experience, it was a bizarre act for him to select a player who had no league action at all in two seasons, expect for the 12 matches he played in Portugal lower division.

The icing on the cake was Alireza Haghighi’s inclusion in the final 23 players list to Brazil.

In the first match of the 2014 FIFA World Cup , the selection of Haghighi against Nigeria, made many fans nervous, but that young boy’s dream has already been fulfilled and there was no turning back. Haghighi Kept a clean sheet. His performance was solid enough for Queiroz to pick him up again this time in a much more demanding task of defending his goal against the likes of Higuain , Aguero , Di Maria and the great Lionel Messi of Argentina.

In truth, Haghighi played magnificently well against one of the title contenders , made a great save against Higuain early on and was minutes away from keeping a memorable clean sheet except for that great Messi. Fate was not on his Iran’s side as the Barcelona hero Messi scored in the injury time and he made the difference. Haghighi could not be blamed for that goal either.

The story of the young boys coming good continues.

Alireza Haghighi Team Melli record

2002 Iran U-15 7

2004–2005 Iran U-17 5

2005–2006 Iran U-20 6

2006–2010 Iran U-23 4

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MARCO TRICK

publico.pt

Tehran Tarantula.

In football, the nicknames go beyond the mere reflection of the physical aspect, and sometimes even replace the baptism names. The “Five Violins”, a name that Tavares da Silva created the famous advanced line of Sporting 1940s, refers to a total harmony between performers, the “Black Panther” of Eusebio’s evokes physical power and speed. These are the best known Portuguese football. In South American football, many goalkeepers are “el gato”, which gives an idea of agility, field players can be “cholo”, “flaco”, etc..Maradona Maradona and his name will always be synonymous with his own, but some people have created a religion around Maradona and you call God.

One of the most famous nicknames in the history of world football who won the Lev Yashin, the great Soviet goalkeeper. He was the “Black Spider”, not only because they always wore black (and dressed, from head to toe), but because it was an agile, athletic and seemed to have more than two arms outstretched keeper. Seeing the Argentina-Iran last Saturday, which ended with the Argentine 1-0 victory, another work of art by Lionel Messi, I felt like inventing a nickname for Alireza Haghighi, Iran goalkeeper who plays for Sporting da Covilhã and only failed to stop the big shot of the Argentine “Flea” of Barcelona. Here it is, with alliteration in “T”: the Tehran Tarantula.

21/06/2014

A great injustice and a greater heart break

A last minute individual piece of brilliance by the greatest football player in the world , Lionel Messi has deprived Iran of a very deserved draw at least. Messi scored in the 90th minute after receiving the ball outside the box with only one player shadowing him from distance , Reza Ghoochannjad and Nekounam further few feet away. Messi , took his time adjusted and shifted sideways then curled a fantastic ball to the far right of Haghighi whose flight was not good enough to stop the ball hitting the net. One moment of defensive lapse against the best player that cost Team Melli dearly.

Close range save by Haghighi against Higuaim.

That was not the full the story. The Serbian referee blatantly , unjustifiably failed to observe a foul by Zabeletta on Ashkan Dejagah in the second half. fear and recrimination has lead this referee to ignore one very obvious penalty call.

Team Melli was unlucky no to score when a right cross from Pooladi found Ghoochannejad who headed straight at Romero in Argentina’s goal , the lose ball was cleared by Argentina defense.

The greatest save of the match and probably the World Cup so far came from a similar side when Heydari crossed for the fast advancing Dejagah , who headed delightful and powerful into the goal, but a magnificent fingertip save denied Iran a well deserved goal.

Then cam the heart break at the end.

The fans should be proud by Team Melli’s performance against one of the strongest teams in the world. It was the combination of injustice by a poor referee and one moment of magic by Messi that denied Iran. There were some unsavory scene at the end of the game when some bench Team Melli players protested against the referee.

21/06/2014

Queiroz uses a robot in Team Melli training.

ISNA reported that Carlos Queiroz has used a novel method to simulate the level of attack that Argentina and in particular Lionel Messi can create on Iran bu using a Robot!

The Robot was shooting powerful balls towards the goalkeepers. Alireza Haghighi was bombard with such shoots during the practice session yesterday. However , it is not clear how Queiroz has simulated the abilities of the wizard Messi to dribble past the defenders.

Team Melli will be playing its crucial match against Argentina today Saturday 21st June 2-14 in Belo Horizente at 13:00 local time (16:00 GMT)

Argentina is leading the table with 3 points followed by Iran and Nigeria each with one.

Bosnia without a point from one defeat against Argentina , will meet Nigeria in the second match of the group later on Saturday.

19/06/2014

Ghoochannejhad: We’ve got nothing to lose

19 Jun 2014

FIFA.com

It is safe to say that the crowd at this past Monday’s Iran-Nigeria game at the Arena da Baixada in Curitiba were not exactly bowled over by the spectacle. After all, the match yielded the sole goalless draw of the first round of 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™ group-stage action.

There is no doubt Iranian goalkeeper Alireza Haghighi was busier than his Nigerian opposite number, Vincent Enyeama, but the rest of Team Melli looked supremely drilled tactically. Up top, Reza Ghoochannejhad worked tirelessly and, despite failing to hit the net, scored 7.53 in the Castrol Index, outperforming several bigger – though not longer! – names including a certain Lionel Messi.

The 26-year-old voiced his delight at the point gained in an interview with FIFA: “It was a tough match. We knew they were a physically strong team, but that didn’t stop us putting in a good performance. We pressed them constantly and our tactics nullified their game.”

Coach Carlos Queiroz was unstinting in his praise for the marksman, whom he personally convinced to represent Iran rather than the Netherlands, where the hotshot played at youth level. “He put in an excellent shift.

“We were focused on keeping it tight defensively against an extremely physical Nigeria side and, despite the fact that he frequently found himself isolated up front, he still managed to press the opposition. I was impressed by his performance and I hope my players give him more support against Argentina,” the Portuguese coach added.

The Charlton forward is adamant that the AFC side are out to build on their solid start to reach the Round of 16 for the first time in four appearances at the finals: “The point will give us confidence and mentally speaking the team have never been stronger. We dropped [two] points but we did what we set out to, which is gratifying. We’re physically and mentally ready to take on Argentina and I’m hoping to score against them.”

Free from pressure
Ghoochannejhad’s bullishness should not be mistaken for cockiness: he simply believes that all the pressure is on the two-time world champions and their talisman, Lionel Messi. The Iranians, meanwhile, will be unencumbered by expectations, and any sort of positive result will be a bonus ahead of their final group fixture against Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“We have to enjoy it and follow the coach’s instructions to the letter. We’ve got absolutely nothing to lose in this match,” stressed the man who enabled Iran to qualify top of their group with his winner against Korea Republic. “Argentina are among the favourites this year, while the same can’t be said for us. All the pressure will be on their shoulders and we will have to show our resilience, like against Nigeria,” he went on.

Even if Team Melli are defeated by La Albiceleste, they will still have a chance of making it through the group going into their meeting with the Bosnians, whom they have beaten in four of five friendly encounters. Despite this auspicious statistic, Ghoochannejhad is refusing to count Iran’s chickens before they have hatched: “This is the World Cup and that’s no way to approach things; [right now] the most important match is the Argentina game. We have to try to get a good result before we can talk about qualification.”

As he has made abundantly clear, the man nicknamed ‘Gucci’ isn’t looking past Messi and Co and is aiming to mark the game in style: by putting the ball past Sergio Romero to open his World Cup account.

15/05/201415/05/2014

The dilemma of Iran goalkeeping selection.

The most taxing selection for Carlos Queiroz must be the goalkeeper. Even if Team Melli coach does not admit it in public, the 4 goalkeepers that have accompanied him to Austria training camp are far from optimum in experience, current form , dependability, and/or reliability.

Starting with Sousha Makani , with a grand total of two caps both in meaningless friendly games, Makani has an acute lack of experience at international level. However, Foolad Khuzestan keeper’s eccentric character and temperament can be a serious liability for the team. Only yesterday , Makani conceded two goals in the quarter finals of the AFC League Champion , both of which were due to elementary mistakes that has no place in a stage like the World Cup.

Daniel Davari , is another young goalkeeper who has just been relegated to the second division of the German Bundesliga. The young German/Iranian keeper has 3 caps so far which is paltry for any player to be given a major role in his team in the World Cup. Like Makani , Davari has yet to show a strong performance to ease the worries of the fans. His two soft goal conceded in Azadi against Guinea in Iran’s last friendly international. left the local Iranian fans awe struck as they were under impression that they were witnessing another legend in the class of Nasser Hejazi. Davari’s poor form was again witnessed in the match against Bayer Munich in the Bundesliga, a game which was televised in Iran for the fans to see yet another disappointing performance from the young promising keeper. So , neither the experience , nor his current form gives the fans the confidence in Daniel Davari’s ability to deliver. It will take anything between an insane person or a very brave coach to start with Davari in the goal comes June the 16^th.

Reza Haghighi , is another mysterious selection for Queiroz. A selection that defies the coaches text book.Hardly anyone in Iran can claim that they have seen Haghghi actually play competitive football match for a longtime. He was transferred to Rubin Kazan in the Russiain league in 2012 were he never managed to win a regular place and was a reserve goalkeeper for the whole season. Next season the Russian club loaned him to his original Club Persepolis. Yet again, Haghighi was second fiddle to the superb Brazilin keeper, Nelson. Alireza Haghighi’s frustration with being reserve created a few headaches in the team which forced Ali Daei , Persepolis coach to send him back to Russia. Rubin Kazan already had their quota of goalkeepers for the season so they searched around but could not find him anything better than a loan to a second division Portuguese club Sporting da Covilhã. And wallla, Alireza Haghghi is immediately picked for Team Melli by Queiroz to the astonishment of the critics and the media!.

Neither the form of Haghighi , (admittedly he did play 14 games for his club !) , the method of his selection or his experience at international level (4 caps) , can qualify him for being the regular starter for Team Melli.

That leaves the last one in Rahman Ahmadi. This goalkeeper was always in the fringes of team Melli for years. However, he was sparingly selected but his real break came with Mehdi Rahmati’s un-ceremonial farewell last year. When Queiroz called upon him at a crucial stage of World Cup qualifiers, the Sepahan goalkeeper did not disappoint. He has 10 caps, 8 of it won as recent as 2013-14 season, however he remains undoubtedly the best choice in experience and form. His age and demeanor of being a calm character can also play a vital role in commanding his defense line.

Nonetheless, the no 1 goalkeeper for Sepahan & Team Melli, suddenly found himself on the bench in the last few matches of the season for his club , giving way to the second fiddle an ex-Team Melli keeper Shehab Gordan !

With one experienced goalkeeper, even though he has 10 caps which is meagre at international level, this position is one major headache for Carlos Queiroz. The Portuguese coach has always been a guarded person and a staunch believer in solid defense. Between the woodwork, his options are limited at this stage. Queiroz might rue the fact that he overlooked the most experienced goalkeeper in Iran, Mehdi Rahmati at such crucial stage. Perhaps diplomacy and leniency added to a bit of tolerance and forgiveness would have gone a long way to ease some of the goalkeeping worries for the World Cup.

Only time will tell.