Masoud Ebrahimzadeh – Team Melli

Team Melli training will start in earnest after an initial squad was announced earlier today by Carlos Queiroz. Iran is facing Qatar on the 22nd of March and then 5 days later, will play against China in Azadi.

Two wins will go a long way in assuring the qualification for the FIFA World Cup 2018 Finals.

The squad includes domestic league players plus two from Qatar Star League while the European based players are excluded. According to FIFA rules, the club will only release the players 3 days before the official match, hardly allowing the players to gel in the team training.

the 19 selected players will commence training after the last round of the AFC champions League matches. All Persepolis players were selected despite the fears that the Queiroz might play hard ball and take revenge after his verbal war with Branko Ivankovic. and sending the Persepolis contingent back home from the training squad in Dubai.

One significant omission of the list is Andranik Teymourina , the captain and veteran Team Melli midfielder whose performance have been on the downhill this season. However , two players who have not been faring much better than Ando, have made the list.

Jalal Hosseini, (35 years) another veteran of the team made the list despite his poor all round performances with Persepolis this season. The aging central defender was blamed for two of the goals scored against his team in that match against Al Rayyan in the AFC Champions league 3-1 defeat , while more significantly , his slow pace and suspect control cost Persepolis dearly in several matches in the League.

Another Persepolis player who made the list , not on merit, is Ramin Rezaeian. The player has been suspended from his club for indiscipline and was thrown out of the team, yet he was selected by Queiroz despite being out of match practise.

On the bright side, Morteza Tabrizi who has been one of more significant Zob Ahan players, made the list after some excellent games in the league and the AFC Champion league. Ehsan Pahlavan and Sasan Ansari are two new players who have joined the squad for the first time, While Masoud Ebrahimzadeh makes a return after some absence.