Tag: Alireza Mansourian

Team Melli U-22 Squad finalized

FFIRI announced the final list of 23 players forming Iran's squad to the AFC Asian U-22 Cup to be held in Muscat, Oman. Team Melli U-22 is in Group C with Japan , Australia and Kuwait. After the return of the team from Kish Island training camp and following playing a friendly match against South Korea, Alireza Mansourian, the team's head coach , announced his resignation while the first choice replacement Human Afazeli has finally responded positively to his appointment after agreeing terms with the football federation. Afazeli pleaded with all concerned to support the team . The announced list is missing a few significant players , like Payam Sadeghian , Mohsen Mosalman , Sardar Azmoun and Alireza Jahanbakhash. These players were not released by their clubs. However, the positive that emerged is that the core of this squad have already been playing together at different age levels teams for Iran/ The matches schedule
2-Jan-14 19:00 C Japan Iran Royal Oman Police Stadium, Muscat
14-Jan-14 19:00 C Iran Australia Royal Oman Police Stadium, Muscat
16-Jan-14 16:30 C Iran Kuwait Seeb Stadium, Seeb
  The Squad
  Player Club
1 Afshin ESMAELZADEH Birama (POR)
2 Ahmad ZENDEROH Mes Kerman
3 Alireza BIRAVAND Naft Tehran
4 Amin JAHAN-ALIAN Sepahan Esfahan
5 Amir ABEDZADEH  Perspolis
6 Amir Arsalan Mottahari Moghavamat Tehran
7 Ammar NIK-KAR Parseh Tehran
8 Behnam BARAZAI Rah Ahan
9 Ehsan PAHLAVAN Sepahan Esfahan
10 Fardin ABEDINI Gostarish Tabriz
11 Farzin KAROUSIAN Mes Songon
12 Kaveh REZAEI Saipa
13 Masoud RIKI Fajr Sepasi
14 Mehdi SHIRI Malavan Anzali
15 Mehdi TARMI Iranjavan Bushehr
16 Mohammad Amin HAJ-MOHAMMADY Naft Tehran
17 Mohammadreza KHANZADEH Zob Ahan
18 MohammadVahid ESMAEILBEIGI Mes Kerman
19 Morteza POURALIGANCHI Naft Tehran
20 Navid KHOSH-HAVA Tractorsazi Tabriz
21 Peyman MEERI Parseh Tehran
22 Shahab KARAMI Foolad Khuzestan
23 Shahriyar SHIRVAND Tractorsazi Tabriz

U-22 coach Mansourian resigns, Afazeli to take over.

Alireza Mansourian has resigned as the coach of Team Melli U-22, days before the start of the AFC Asian U-22 Cup. Human Afazeli will take over from Mansourian , according to FFIRI officials, although Afazeli has said that a deal has not been set as he needs to discuss terms with the football federation. Mansourian , who had a long meeting with the federation officials on Tuesday , emerged from the meeting announcing his resignation because of the difficulties he has recently faced in his job. The main reason as quoted by the ex-Esteghlal midfielder was the reluctance of club coaches in releasing players for the U-22 camp or friendly games. “Under such conditions, I don’t see myself continuing coaching the team “ Mansourian was quoted It is also believed that Mansourian was not very happy about the disclosure of the news that the Portuguese coach Vingada is on the brink of signing a 3 years contract to coach the Olympic team. That move by FFIRI was seen as a stabbing in the back by Mansourian who always thought that he is in charge of the Olympic or U-23 team despite the non-existence of an official contract. Human Afazeli has acted as the coach for the Olympic team on emergency basis before. The last time Afazeli was in charge, he relinquished the task to Mansourian during the qualification rounds for the London Olympics. Afazeli is an experienced  young coach who has worked with several top coaches in Iran , including Branko Ivankovic. Afazeli was also the assistant coach of Team Melli during Daei’s era.  

Sadeghian stars in Team Melli U22 win

Kish island , Persian Gulf

Team Melli U-22 scored a narrow win in a friendly match against South Korea in the warmth of the Persian Gulf Island of Kish this afternoon.

The friendly match was in preparation of both team for the upcoming AFC U-22 Cup which will be held in Oman in a fortnight.

The Iranians had a lightening start when they opened the scoring as early as the 7th minute through Yaghoub Karimi who  slotted the ball home to make it 1-0 for Iran. Two minutes later the Koreans were stunned when Payam Sadeghian made it 2-0 for  Alireza Mansourian's men.

The two quick goals by Team Melli U-22 forced the Koreans to raise their game and go on to overdrive which yielded result when Lee JongHo scored for the Korean team and reduce the deficit to the minimum. 2-1 was indeed the result that the teams carried to the dressing room at half time.

In the second half, the Koreans started as the better team and played some neat football and eventually managed to score the equalizer. Lee Jong Ho scored his second and his teams second at 74th minute.

While both teams seemed to be content with the result , Sadeghian pounced on a ball and scored Iran's winner right on the 90th minute.The match ended 3-2 for the hosts.

 The scorers Karimi , Sepahan midfielder , and Sadeghian of Perspolis are 2 of a few number of players in the U-22 squad who have been selected or played for the senior team Melli.

The two teams are supposed to meet again on Friday , but there is already some talk about postponing the match to some other time.

Iran is in a difficult group with Japan . Australia and Kuwait in the inaugural championship in Muscat Oman.