Team Melli had experienced one of its most successful years in recent history.
Under the guidance of the Portuguese Head Coach Carlos Manuel Brito Leal Queiroz, Team Melli played a total of 10 matches in 2017 of which, half was as part of FIFA World Cup Russia 2018 Qualification rounds in the Asian Zone.
in 2017 Team Melli continued its strong showing in the World Cup qualifiers and ended up qualifying for the finals with two rounds still to play.
There were more achievements to be proud of on field performance and results by Team Melli. The first was the completion of all the matches in both rounds of qualifications undefeated.
5 matches in the World Cup qualifiers were played in 2017 on the top of 13 played since 2015 without a single defeat.
The defensive record was second to none as Team Melli conceded only 5 goals in its 18 matches . Only 3 teams managed to score against Iran throughout the qualifiers, Turkmenistan, Oman and Syria.
On the same token, the mighty Koreans with their European based players and Uzbekistan ,one of the tough opponents, China and Qatar failed to score home or away against Team Melli
The fans enjoyed Team Melli scoring 36 goals in the qualifiers too,with Sardar Azmoun being the star scoring 11 goals. Mehdi Taremi was second highest with 8 goals in the qualifiers.
Team Melli also enjoyed the highest ranking in FIFA’s system on July 2017 reaching 23rd place in the world. In AFC ranking ,Iran continued at the top of Asian table for the 4th year running.
Qualification to the World Cup was achieved with a remarkable 7 points lead over second place nemesis South Korea.
The FIFA WC Qualifier 2018 Table
Asian Zone – Round 3 group A
| Team | MP | W | D | L | F | A | D | P | ||
|
Iran | 10 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 10 | 2 | 8 | 22 | |
|
Korea Republic | 10 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 11 | 10 | 1 | 15 | |
|
Syria | 10 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 9 | 8 | 1 | 13 | |
|
Uzbekistan | 10 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 7 | -1 | 13 | |
|
China PR | 10 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 8 | 10 | -2 | 12 | |
|
Qatar | 10 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 8 | 15 | -7 | 7 |
Matches
OVERALL TABLE
| P | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | % | |
| Official | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 60% |
| Non-Official | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 3 | 5 | 80% |
| Total | 10 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 14 | 5 | 9 | 70% |
FIFA RANKING 2017
| World | Asia | Date | Month | MP | W | L | D |
| 32 | 1 | 2017 | November | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 34 | 1 | 2017 | October | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 25 | 1 | 2017 | September | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 24 | 1 | 2017 | August | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 23 | 1 | 2017 | July | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 30 | 1 | 2017 | June | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 28 | 1 | 2017 | May | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 28 | 1 | 2017 | April | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 33 | 1 | 2017 | March | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 32 | 1 | 2017 | February | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 29 | 1 | 2017 | January | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 10 | 7 | 0 | 3 |
[box title=”
Ranking Data
” style=”bubbles” box_color=”#c8c8ba” title_color=”#0d0c0c” radius=”6″]Team Melli highest FIFA world ranking was on July 2017 where it reached 23.
The lowest year ranking was registered on October 2017 where it reached 34
Average ranking of 2017 is : 29 [/box]
PLAYERS records 2017
The highest goal scorer:Sardar AZMOUN6 Goals (8 matches)1 goal scored for every 60 minutes played Goal rate = 75% |
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The most minutes played:Morteza POURALIGANJI776 minutes |
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The most matches played:Saeid EZZATOLLAHI10 matches |
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Full stats of players 2017
| Name | Start | Subst. | total | Goals | Yellows | Reds | Miutes |
| ABDOLLAHZADEH, Ahmad | 2 | 1 | 3 | 169 | |||
| AGHAEI, Saeed | 2 | 1 | 3 | 228 | |||
| AMIRI, Vahid | 3 | 6 | 9 | 373 | |||
| ANSARI, Mohammad | 2 | 2 | 149 | ||||
| ANSARIFARD, Karim | 4 | 4 | 2 | 300 | |||
| AZMOUN, Sardar | 5 | 3 | 8 | 6 | 1 | 479 | |
| BIRANVAND, Alireza | 9 | 9 | 1 | 774 | |||
| CHESHMI, Rouzbeh | 2 | 3 | 5 | 254 | |||
| DEJAGAH, Ashkan | 5 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 338 | ||
| EBRAHIMI, Omid | 2 | 3 | 5 | 271 | |||
| EMANI, Akbar | 2 | 2 | 78 | ||||
| EZZATOLLAHI, Saeid | 9 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 705 | ||
| GHAFOORI, Vourya | 5 | 5 | 407 | ||||
| GHODDOS, Saman | 2 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 217 | ||
| GHOOCHANNEJAD, Reza | 3 | 3 | 6 | 294 | |||
| HAJSAFY, Ehsan | 7 | 7 | 1 | 511 | |||
| HOSSEINI, Jalal | 2 | 2 | 4 | 313 | |||
| JAHANBAKHSH, AliReza | 7 | 1 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 532 | |
| KANANI-ZADEGAN, Hossein | 1 | 1 | 76 | ||||
| KARIMI, Ali | 3 | 3 | 6 | 349 | |||
| LAK, Hamed | 1 | 1 | 91 | ||||
| MAZAHERI, Rashid | 1 | 1 | 46 | ||||
| MOHAMMADI, Milad | 5 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 501 | ||
| MONTAZERI, Pejman | 3 | 3 | 273 | ||||
| PAHLAVAN, Ehsan | 1 | 1 | 27 | ||||
| POURALIGANJI, Morteza | 9 | 9 | 2 | 1 | 785 | ||
| POURGHAZ, Ezzatollah | 2 | 2 | 18 | ||||
| REZAEI, Kaveh | 1 | 2 | 3 | 148 | |||
| REZAEIAN, Ramin | 5 | 3 | 8 | 506 | |||
| SHOJAEI, Masoud | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 168 | ||
| TAREMI, Mehdi | 6 | 1 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 525 | |
| TORABI, Mehdi | 2 | 2 | 182 |