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AFC U19 Championship draw

Yangon: Iran U19 team has been drawn alongside the host Myanmar, Thailand and Yemen in Group A in the AFC U-19 Championship 2014. The 16-nation competition will be staged in the two venues of Yangon and Nay Pyi Taw in October with the top four teams qualifying for the FIFA U-20 World Cup to be played in New Zealand next year. Myanmar, who are hosting the tournament for the first time The semi-finalists of the AFC U-19 Championship 2012 Uzbekistan and Australia will join the previous edition’s hosts UAE and Indonesia in Group B. Both Uzbekistan and Australia had managed a place in the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Turkey where Uzbekistan bowed out in the quarter-finals. The losing finalists of 2012 Iraq are seeded in Group D where they face the challenges from DPR Korea, Qatar and Oman. Iraq had a brilliant run-in in the U-20 World Cup after finishing fourth. The Group A and B matches will be played at the Yangon’s Youth Training Centre Stadium while the Group C and D matches will be held at the Zeyar Thiri Stadium in Nay Pyi Taw. The semi-finals and final will be staged in Yangon. The Groupings Group A: Myanmar, Iran, Thailand, Yemen Group B: Uzbekistan, Australia, UAE, Indonesia Group C: Korea Republic, Japan, China, Vietnam Group D: Iraq, DPR Korea, Qatar, Oman

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Iran
Iran
افتخار پارس
HONOR OF PERSIA
 
يك جهان ، يك ملت ، يك تيم
A WORLD, A NATION, A TEAM.
 
رويايت را محقق كن
CAPTURE THE DREAM
 
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افتخار پارس
HONOR OF PERSIA

Queiroz named as a possible candidate for Man Utd job.

After the sacking of David Moyes from his job as Manchester United coach, there has been global discussion on who will replace the departed Scot at old trafford. In BeIn sports TV show Football today, a leading journalist who has revealed the news of Dave Moyes sacking in the Daily Telegraph before it was announced by the club, said that Carlos Queiroz is definitely one of the candidates for the United job.   Mark Ogden & Andy Dunn the guest journalists on the show on Wednesday agreed that Queiroz will continue the legacy of Alex Ferguson and since he is managing Iran , he will jump at the opportunity of coaching Manchester United if asked. With all the recent developments, especially after the Iranian government indicated it will not bankroll FFIRI expenses, the chances of Carlos Queiroz continuing with Team Melli remains extremely slim.

Futsal Team Melli held by Russian club.

Futsal Team Melli played its first friendly match against Norilsky Nickel club in Moscow, The match ended 1-1 with Iran's goal scored by Vahid Shafei. The two teams then went onto penalties shoots to decide a winner. 9 penalties were played by each team with Iran scoring 6 of them , the Russian club scoring 7 and declared the winner of the contest. The hero of the penalties was non other than the Iranian Mostafa Nazari playing for Norilsky Nickel who managed to save several penalties from his compatriots and former team mates. Mostafa Nazari has been recently discarded by the Spanish coach of Team Melli Jesús Candelas, for the upcoming AFC Futsal Championship 2014. Nazari , a prominent player and arguably the best futsal keeper in Iran , has his differences with the federation and coaches of Team Melli. The professional futsal club competing in the Russian Futsal Super League has 3 Iranian players on its roster. In addition to the goalkeeper Mostafa Nazari , Hossein Tayyebi and Ali Asghar Hassanzadeh also play for Norilsky Nickel. Futsal Team Melli next game is against MFK Mytishchi, another Russian league club on Thursday.

Team Melli camp Johannesburg: update News.

Carlos Queiroz has deployed some interesting tactics for the first friendly match of Team Melli in South Africa. In the match that was played in the base camp of team Melli in Johannesburg, and in a pitch which did not resemble a football pitch, Queiroz decided that the opponents coach would referee the match while his assistance including Majid Saleh will be assistant referees! Furthermore , Queiroz decided to play with 10 men only from minute 80 of the match, presumably  to test how his players will perform under pressure of one players short.  The South African team failed to score against Team Melli in the last 10 minutes , however it is not clear if the Africans have fielded a full strength team for this practice match. In a post match statement , Queiroz said that his objective from this training camp practice matches is to improve the physical conditioning of the players "The result of the matches do not bother me one bit. I am more concerned on the physical side of my players and how to improve it in this short time that is available to me. We need to be tough both physically and mentally, improve our running and endurance."  said the Portuguese coach. "I am determined to take the team to Brazil and perform to our best ability provided we have unequivocal and full support form everyone (...)" Meanwhile , Esteghlal player who joined the camp late , have been given a stern physical training to bring them back in shape. Some of the players were running with performance measuring devices for recording their vital sign. Team Melli real test of this camp will be on the 2nd of May when they face the full national team of Mozambique.

Big win for Team Melli in its first trial.

Johannesburg In the first practice match of its South African camp , Team Melli defeated Moroka Swallows 5-0 Moroka Swallows , is a mid table team based in Johannesburg which plays in the Premier Soccer League The first half ended 2-0. Team Melli goals were scored by Payam Sadeghian (30) , Reza Nourozi (37), Mohammadreza Khalatbari (50) Karim Ansarifard (70 & 85). Team Melli starting line up consisted of : Makani ; Mahini, Hosseini , Khanzadeh, Ale Nemeh , Pooladi , Haddadifar, Haghighgi , Khalatbari, Sadeghian , Nourozi. However , Carlos Queiroz rotated all the players except for Amir Hossein Sadeghi and Alireza Birnvand. On Wednesday , Team Melli will play against the Kaiser Chiefs.

News: Team Melli in South Africa

The current Team Melli camp has been joined by additional two previously unannounced coaches from Brazil. Mohammad Nabi , the manager of Team Melli said these two coaches are recruited form Corinthians club of Brazil and will be replacing the departed Tony Simoez who reigned his post a couple of months back. The two unnamed coaches are added to the coaching staff team compromising of the recently recruited Majid Saleh , Oceano , Aghajanian, and Gasper.

On the other hand , the mystery of the team that was supposed to be facing Team Melli in a friendly match was finally unveiled hours before the kickoff. South Africa’s Moroka Swallows club will be the first opponent of Team Melli on Tuesday morning.

Team Melli officials refused to name the opponent teams until the last moments preferring secrecy to keep Team Melli rivals in Group F of the FIFA World cup in suspense and reducing the possibility of them observing Team Melli in action (…)

Today’s match will be the first test of the conditioning of the Iranian players. Much of the work carried out in South Africa was focused on the physical side to prepare Team Melli against the teams with better physical conditions and endurance. Mohammad Nabi re-emphasized the previous statements by Queiroz that this camp was set up for the domestic league players of Team Melli addressing their shortcomings in running , physical aspects and building body strength. Players in European leagues, do not need such training according to Queiroz.

The names of the other two or possibly three opponents of Team Melli in friendly matches remains a mystery.

Other major development of the cam p came from Queiroz who has decided to cut short the camp duration by 5 days. Team Melli coach was not very pleased by the start where he had to travel to Johannesburg with only 11 players out of 28 he selected for the camp.

The reason for cutting short the camp duration was offered by Mohammad Nabi . He said” Iranian players are very emotional lot and the long time away from their families is disturbing them ! In order to take some deserved rest and be with their families, we have decided to cut short the camp by a few days”

Mohammad Nabi also emphasized that the players who did not join Team Melli on the flight to Johannesburg are mot to be blamed and held accountable for their absence. They were under instruction from their clubs and hence are not culpable. He stressed that there is a big difference between an act such as Hadi Aghili when he left the camp or Mojtaba Jabbari who decided he will retire, both unilateral and personal decisions and the players of Team Melli held back by their clubs.

Team Melii futsal team heading to Russia after convincing wins in Uzbekistan.

Iran's Futsal team has left to Russia after playing two friendly matches in Tashkent against Uzbekistan.

In the first match against the Asian rivals in Tashkent , Team Melli managed to defeat the host in front of their home crowd with ease coming out 6-1 winners. Mohammad Shajari , Farhad Fakhim, Maysam Khayyam , Vahid Shfaei (2 goals) and Alireza Vafaei scored Iran';s goal in the match played on Saturday.

On Sunday , the second match was played with the Uzbek team determined to make amends for the heavy defeat , but their efforts were only slightly better as the managed to score two goals but still conceded 6 by Iran for the result to finish 6-2 . Iran goals were scored by Farhad Fakhim, Farhad Tavakoli, Alireza Vafaei , Mehdi Javeed, Ahmad Ismaelpour and Mehran A'lighjadr.

After the Uzbekistan tour, Team Melli proceeded to Moscow where it will play two matches against the top Russian clubs, with a possibility of a third match.

Futsal team Melli is preparing for the upcoming AFC Futsal championship to be held un Vietnam beginning April 30th. Iran is grouped with Indonesia, China and Australia.

Rahman Ahmadi on his way to South Africa.

Team Melli's number one goalkeeper , Rahman Ahmadi is reported to be on his way to South Africa to join the Training Camp.

Ahmadi is the only Sepahan player to be released from his club duties although the Esfahani team has to play its final and crucial match this week against Al Hilal of Saudi Arabia which determines the team that qualifies for the next round of the AFC Champions League. Recently Ahmadi has lost his starting place to his rival in the team , Shehab Gordan. The other 5 Sepahan players named in the Team Melli list , will remain with their club, pending further developments.

The announcement that Rahman Ahmadi is joining the team is a good news for TEam Melli as the squad was missing an important player in the Sepahan goalkeeper. Despite his low counts of his international caps, being under-shadowed by Mehdi Rahmati, Ahmadi remains the most experienced and arguably the best choice for Team Melli against the other young and inexperienced candidates that Queiroz has picked for the team.

After the weekend match between Bayern Munich and Eintracht Braunschweig, were Davari let in two soft goals against the Bundesliga champions, one filtering between his legs, Queiroz was probably alarmed by lack of experience between the posts and despite his initial exclusion of all Sepahan players , he elected to recall the most vital of the 6 players.

3 goalkeepers in Hamed Lak , Alireza Biranvand and Sousha Makani are already included in the South Africa training camp while Davari and the rest of the European based players are not invited due to club commitments and ongoing league competitions.

Players trickling to Team Melli camp in South Africa.

Mehdi Mohammad Nabi , the Manager of Team Melli has announced that more players will be joining the camp in the next few days

Mohammad Nabi who is the chief administrator and the supervisor of Team Melli , himself did not join the squad on the day of their departure to Johannesburg via Dubai, which irritated Carlos Queiroz. The Portuguese coach sarcastically commented on Mohammad Nabi's absence from he group especially since many problems developed including the refusal of Sepahan and Esteghl;al to release their players. Neither Mohammand Nabi nor Kaffashian were in Tehran at the time.

According to the FFIRI official  , the Qatari club Um Salal has agreed to release Pezman Monatzeri in order for the defender to join the South Africa camp. Qatar league season is over, but the Cup matches are still on going. Um Salal is not involved in those cup matches. Montazeri will join the team on Sunday

Mohammad Nabi stated that Hamed Lak has arrived in Johannesburg Saturday morning while Ansarifard, Makani , Bakhtiyar Rahmani , Mehrdad Jamaati and Alireza Biranvand will be arriving Saturday afternoon and start training with the rest of the squad on Sunday. The Esteghlal contingent includes Sadeghi, Ando Teymourian, Heydari , Beigzadeh in addition to Majid Saleh the assistant coach , will be arriving on Monday.

Mohammad Nabi also said "We are continuing our effort with AL Kuwait FC in order to release Nekounam " Such a move seems quite illogical especially since Nekounam is a key player for Al Kuwait FC which is challenging for the league title and the season is not over yet in Kuwait.

There was no comment on Sepahan players who were crossed off by Queiroz for unknown reasons.