Tag: Hadi Aghili

04/09/2017

End of the road for Jalal Hosseini

The Persepolis central defender, a veteran of 108 games for Team Melli and 8 goals will be appearing for the last time against Syria.

Seyyed Jalal Hosseini , who has been a fixed player for his club Persepolis winning the league title last season, has not featured in Carlos Queiroz’s team this year although he was included in the squads for the FIFA World Cup qualifiers.

At 35 , Jalal Hosseini is obviously not as versatile and quick as he used to be years back. He has formed a strong partnership with Pejman Montazeri in Team Melli for the last few years , but his loss of pace , his temperemnt and certain lack of self-control has reduced his chances of appearing for Team Melli and relegated in the pecking order for defenders by Queiroz.

In essence, Carlos Queiroz is a great believer in youth energy and for the six years he has been at the helm of Team Melli , the Portuguese coach has introduced many new players while he easily dispensed with the service of the most senior member of Team Melli without affecting the overall performances or result of the team. In Hosseini’s case, the performance of his club teammate Mohammad Ansari was quite assuring and hence he seems to be the perfect replacement for the aging Hosseini.

Like Mehdi Rahmati, Hadi Aghili, Andranik Teymourian, Khosrow Heydari, Mohammadreza Khalatbari, Mehrdad Pooladi , AmirHossein Sadeghi, Mojtaba Jabbari , Gholamreza Rezaei , Mohammad Nouri, and Mohammad Nosrati before him, the Persepolis defender is bidding farewell after a fine 10 years career with Team Melli which included participation in the FIFA World Cup 2014 and three AFC Asian Cups 2007, 2011 and 2015.

22/04/2017

Hadi Aghili hangs his boots.

Team Melli former central defender has retired from football. Hadi Aghili who is currently on the books of Sepahan , announced that he is quitting football altogether.

The 36 years old defender had a turbulent career marred by indiscipline and revolt. 5 years ago, he was banned from Team Melli at his prime when he suddenly quit Team Melli camp because Queiroz did not name him in the starting line up. He never played again after that episode although he was pardoned.

The current season saw another of Aghili’s antics as he had issues with the former coach Abdollah Veisi. The dispute resulted in the coach sidelining Aghili for most of the season. Although Veisi was sacked and replaced by Kranjcar, the Croat coach did not see it fit to field out of practise Aghili in his team.

Aghili played 69 matches for Team Melli and scored 10 goals registering himself as one of the top scoring defenders in Team Melli history. Aghili never played in the World Cup although he was destined to be one of the squad member during 2014 World Cup.

02/02/2015

Is there a shift in Iranian fans’ mentality ?

An intriguing enigma has developed lately in Iran’s football that might be the beginning of a new era, at least from the fans side of the, if not with the whole of the system.

Iran has the largest football fan base in Asia, even more that China that has several folds more population. People just love football in this country and if you have ever missed it , you should look at the attendance of the local derby between Perpsolis and Esteghlal , the two highest fanbase teams in Iran and beyond. It is always one of the biggest match attendance in the world.

Persepolis and Esteghlal are the two most popular teams in Iran.

Like many other countries, football fans in Iran have more loyalty to their clubs than the national team. For decades these two teams had a monopoly on the number of players in Team Melli. It was unthinkable of announcing a squad without any player from the reds of Persepolis or the blues of Esteghlal.

Not anymore. The original squad for AFC Asian Cup 2015 did not have a single player from Persepolis. That was a historic first. The trend of breaking the monopoly if the 2 top teams on Team Melli started way back during Branko Ivankovic days and reached its peak a decade or so later during Carlos Queiroz. Former Team Melli managers will deny it, but it is a common knowledge that pressure was excreted upon them to include as many as Persepolis and Esteghlal players in the team to assure the federation of fans attendance and support in the 100,000 capacity Azadi Stadium.

After the elimination of Team Melli from the Asian Cup, Queiroz embarked on a vicious ward of words against Amir Ghalenoei and Hamid Derakhshan accusing them of treachery, amongst many other allegations. Team Melli head coach war of attrition with local club coaches has started sometimes ago, but his conflict with Persepolis and Esteghlal coach seemed to have hit the peak after the failing of the Asian Cup.

Queiroz in a feeble attempt to justify the team’s elimination pointed the fingers at Ghalenoei and Derakhshan as contributory factors to the team’s failure!

Essentially , Queiroz was telling them “You are getting a taste of your own medicine!”

Aside from the others reactions to Queiroz tongue–lashing, many Persepolis and Esteghlal fans took exception to it and defended their club coaches, some in fact even marched with banners and had to be restrained by security personnel at the two clubs respective training grounds.

Up to here, the plot is progressing normally as expected under such circumstances but the shock that has awaken everyone was in NAVAD TV show. The popularity of Carlos Queiroz when a poll was conducted in Navad TV reached an overwhelming 88%!

Let us carefully run through some facts.

Fact 1) the absolute majority (greater than 80%) of Iranian football fans polled before the Asian Cup, believed that Team Melli will win the title or be in the final match at least. Less than 10% thought Iran will not make it past the quarter finals. So, we assume that 80% of the fans are quite disappointed by the result.

Fact 2) Team Melli has failed to progress beyond the group matches in the World Cup , ranked by FIFA as 31 out of 32 teams with some embarrassing performance figure. It has failed to win any championship or titles, even the good old WAFF championship, failed in Asian Cup , and very miserably so in the Asian Games( U 23 team).

Fact 3) Team Melli has not been displaying a pretty or entertaining football with a stern defensive style and mostly sticking to the same faces and names.

Fact 4) Carlos Queiroz has made more enemies in Iran that anyone can think of. From Omid Namazi , Rahmati , Aghili , Salih etc and all the way to Ali Karimi who abandoned ship in the last hours.

The above mentioned are facts, not speculations or rumors. So, how on earth one can explain the popularity of such a character?

Is there a shift in mentality in Iranians fans? are they sick of the archaic Iranian establishment ? Are they tired of Iranian coaches and their antics? Are they sending some kind of a message to the hierarchies? Are they “Blue eyes worshippers” as Ghalanoei alleged ?

In Europe and certainly some of the Persian Gulf Countries, National Team Managers that have achieved much better than Queiroz have lost their jobs, yet Iran is an exception. It defies the common logic for a coach to have such popularity without being able to win anything.

Not that Carlos Queiroz is to be blamed for the whole of Iran’s football deficiencies, but in essence, he is part of the system that has disappointed and failed the fans and an important one for that matter. It is criminal to shield him from criticism while blame the failing on the rest of the establishment.

In any case despite the fact that Queiroz has not won anything for Iran, he managed to win the heart of the fans.

NOW..

Go Figure.

10/12/201410/12/2014

Khalatbary sends a sublime message to Queiroz

MohammadReza Khalatbary inspired Sepahan , defeated Gostarish Foolad Tabriz 4-1 to regain the leadership of the Persian Gulf League. Khalatbary helped himself to a hat trick beginning from the first few seconds of the match with less than a minute played when he scored from an acute angle after easily dribbling past two defenders to hammer the ball in the roof of the net.

Khalatbary scored his second with a lovely taken free kick immaculately sent to the furthest end from the hapless Gostarish goalkeeper.

In the second half, a bit of the old trickery and juggling by Khalatbary , lead to a foul on him in the penalty area. There was no doubt who was going to take the spot kick. Hadi Aghili, Sepahan’s Captain is the regular penalty taker, but a bit of a pleading by Khalatbary and a bit of common sense , gave the left footed winger his chance to complete his hat trick . Khalatbary, obliged and chipped the ball while wrong footing Gostarish keeper.

It was a 5 star performance from Khalatbary who played a major role in Sepahan offensive onslaught on the team from Tabriz. Such inspiring performance augured well for Sepahan and Hossein Faraki in their quest to win the title once again. With Khalatbary at his best, it is difficult to see any defender catching up with him. The only black mark on this performance today was his temperament. The player has yet to learn from years of playing professional football and can be easily intimidated by the opposing team if they elect to play dirty against him.

Khalatbary , who was controversially omitted from Team Melli final list to the FIFA World Cup 2014 and never picked up after it again , played with grit and determination as he was on a mission. It was nothing but marvelous. He has also sent a clear message to Team Melli and Queiroz. With such a sterling performance, Khalatbary does not need to go to the media , shed tears, claims injustice , claim he is been robbed of his rightful place in Team Melli. The Sepahan winger did it in style and by letting his goals and performance do the talking. As luck has it, good old Carlos Queiroz was not in the Fooladshahr Stadium to witness the magic of Khalatbary.

In the post match press conference, Khalatbary was asked about the allegation on Kranjcar and his alcohol consumption. , he responded by saying ” I have the highest respect for this man. As a person and as a professional. I categorically reject any such accusations against him. I have no idea who initiated such rumors, but I can assure you that it was none of Sepahan players or staff because we simply did not notice these alleged violation and consumption of alcohol. It is a shame when people resort to such dirty tricks against others, I feel sorry for those who tarnish the image of a genuine man”“

Mohammdreza Khalatbary’s performance against Gostraish , was a breath of fresh for the disappointing Iranian football which has little to cheer about nowadays.

A special mention has to go to Ehsan Hajsafy. His performance and adaptability, surge of speed, shooting and crossing was a mark of a great player in the making. No doubt , Hajsfay is on the radar of many top teams in Europe.

10/08/2014

Hadi Aghili “The crashed aircraft was the same one we used last week”

Sepahan and former Team Melli defender expressed his shock and regret at the aircraft crash that occurred this morning in the vicinity of Mehrabad airport in Tehran. The crash site is not very far from Azadi sport complex.

Aghili said “This aircraft and the crew on board was the same one that our team used last week on our trip to Tabriz. The crew of the flight was extremely pleasant and we enjoyed their services, I am horrified and shocked to hear that it crashed near Mehrabad. I am speechless. All I can say is that I really feel sorry for the innocent victims who lost their lives when it came down. My deepest condolences to their families, it could have been us on broad of that aircraft.”

The Twin engine Turboprop , Iran 140 , which is a local made version of the Ukrainian designed Antonov AN-140 crashed this morning, after departure from Mehrabad airport. Witnesses say that one of the engines was on fire and it crashed at high-speed in AzadiShar , a small residential community west of the airport. Meharabad is now the domestic airport of Tehran, while Imam Khomeini is the international airport. These type of aircraft are extensively used by football teams in their domestic travels.

Iran has a poor safety record in Civil Aviation . It has one of the highest fatality rates in Air accidents in Asia. Most of the problems are attributed to old equipment , poor maintenance and lack of spare parts , due to sanctions imposed by the Americans and European governments on Iran Civil Aviation.

08/06/2014

Zlatko Krancjar “Iran is as good as Bosnia and Nigeria”

The Croat coach of Sepahan believes that Team Melli is as good as Bosnia-Herzegovina and Nigeria.

Zlatko who has just returned back to Esfahan to oversee players’ contracts negotiation and the opening of transfer window for the coming season, was in Austria during Team Melli’s training camp. Kranjcar attended some of the Friendly matches and commented ” I watched the friendly matches in person and despite the results all ending in a draw, I believe the team has improved and continues doing so. I don’t think either of Bosnia-Herzegovina or Nigeria are better than Iran. I do hope they play as good as they can in the World Cup.”

Kranjcar a former coach of Croatia National Team, was speaking in a press conference arranged by the club. Kranjcar talked about several Team Melli players of his team. On Mojtaba jabbari and Arash Afshin, Kranjcar said that both of them were recruited while he was away, He was not consulted whether these players fit the teams plan and style. During the season , they did not deliver and their time with the club was not successful. That is why I am here early this season so that I make sure that we recruit the right players who suit the team requirement and fit with the other players”

“Omid Ebrahimi and Mohammad Gholami will not be with Sepahan next season.I did want Ebrahimi to stay but could not agree on the terms. The good news is that Hadi Aghili has re-signed a three years contract with Sepahan, We also managed to keep Shehab Gordan in the team,”

“Shojaa Khalilzadeh was disappointed because he did not make the final list of Team Melli , but he needs to focus more on his game, mitigate his mistakes and lower his risk taking during the games”

“Yaghoub Karimi will remain with Sepahan for next season” Karimi , who was part of the initial 30 man squad of Queiroz , has threatened to leave Sepahan at the end of last season if Kranjcar remains the coach. Apparently he needs to eat his words now.

Niko Kranjcar, the son of Zlatko who plays for QPR and recently promoted to the premier division , has been ruled out of the Croatia team for the World Cup due to an injury he suffered in the last game of the season.