Tag: Mohammad Rashid Mazaheri

24/03/2021

3 Team Melli players leave camp after positive corona test results!

Team Melli's first training session was held today in preparation for the friendly match against Syria.

The team is camping at at the National Football Center and the session started from 11:30 am today (Wednesday). After the start of training, Dragan Skocic briefed the players for a few minutes, then followed by various exercises..

Team Melli is missing a few regulars this time mostly due to travel restriction due to covid19. Amir Abedzadeh was not invited to the camp due to quarantine laws on Madeira Island in Portugal , Alireza Jahanbakhsh and Saman Ghoddos due to flight restrictions from England, Morteza PouraliGanji and Sadegh Moharrami are both on the injury list while and Kaveh Rezaei has tested positive for coronavirus. Meanwhile, Mehdi Ghaedi, Aref Gholami and Mohammad Rashid Mazaheri, all three players from Esteghlal, left the camp due to positive corona test. This training session lasted for 70 minutes with a focus on light physical work. The second training session will be conducted tomorrow (Thursday).

23/10/2019

Payam Niazmand approaching a record.

Two seasons ago, the 17th season of the Persian Gulf Premier League, Esteghlal Goalkeeper Seyed Hossein Hosseini reached a milestone with his club by keeping a clean sheet fo 872 minutes., the longest any goalkeeper has managed in the history of the league competition. This season, the 19th edition, Payam Niazmand (Sepahan Esfahan) and Mohammad Rashid Mazaheri's (Tractorsazi Tabriz) are rapidly challenging that record by their excellent performances for their clubs.

The two Team Melli goalkeepers are in close competition with each other to break that record and also for the title of the best goalkeeper of the season. The two goalkeepers have kept their doors closed for 630 minutes (7 consecutive matches) minutes this season, however, Niazmand also kept a clean sheet from last season final game, while he kept 80 minutes from the previous match so his tally of clean sheet stands at 802 minutes. in order to break Seyed Hossein Hosseini's record, the 24 years old Niazmand needs to keep one more clean sheet for more than 70 minutes of the next match against Saipa at home. On the other hand, while Naizmand and Mazaheri have been exceptionally good this season in the league, the regular Team Melli custodian, Alireza Beiranvand has not been so fortunate as his rivals. Beiranvand has conceded 5 goals and his team Persepolis has dropped to the 5th position. The goalkeeper who was instantly a hit after saving Cristiano Ronaldo's spot-kick and a penalty against Cambodia failed to repeat the same against Bahrain.

Persian Gulf Pro League Table & Standings

Pos	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	+/-	PTS	Form
1	Sepahan	7	5	2	0	10	0	+10	17	W W W D D
2	Tractor	7	5	2	0	8	0	+8	17	W W W W D
3	Shahr Khodrou	7	5	1	1	8	3	+5	16	W W D L W
4	Foolad	7	3	3	1	6	4	+2	12	W W D W D
5	Sanat Naft	7	3	3	1	5	3	+2	12	D W W D L
6	Persepolis	7	4	0	3	5	5	0	12	W L L W W
7	Naft MIS	7	2	5	0	7	5	+2	11	W W D D D
8	Esteghlal	7	2	3	2	10	7	+3	9	W W D L D
9	Nassaji	7	2	3	2	12	14	-2	9	L D D W L
10	Pars Jam	7	1	4	2	6	7	-1	7	D L D W D
11	Machine Sazi	7	2	1	4	9	13	-4	7	L D W L L
12	Saipa	7	2	1	4	9	14	-5	7	L L L L W
13	Paykan	7	1	2	4	13	14	-1	5	L L D W D
14	Zob Ahan	7	0	4	3	5	9	-4	4	L L D D D
15	Gol Gohar	7	0	3	4	3	8	-5	3	L L L L D
16	Shahin	7	0	1	6	4	14	-10	1	L L L L D

Last updated: 23 October 2019

05/10/2019

Analyzing Wilmots' selection.

Marc Wilmots started his first official match with Team Melli in the FIFA World Cup 2022 qualifiers with a 2-0 win away to Hong Kong, is determined to build his own team rather than rely on the previous one created by Queiroz.

In an evolutionary move, the Belgian head coach of Iran's national team made a few changes to his players' list for the next two matches against Cambodia at home and away to Bahrain. Wilmots is determined to show that he plans to evaluate and pick new players. The new squad list indicates that the Belgian coach has a great deal of confidence in the domestic League players, unlike his predecessor.

Wilmots invited Mohammad Mohebbi (21 Years) and Morteza Mansouri (29 years), two key players for current league leader Sepahan, for the first time. Wilmots' decision to continue including Siavash Yazdani and Mohammad Naderi's in the squad is another proof that he has much confidence in the domestic league players.

Although neither Yazdani or Naderi played in the match against Hong Kong, however, they were preferred over the experienced but ageing Vouria Ghafouri of Esteghlal. The four new players along with the regular defence players Majid Hosseini, Morteza Pouraliganji, Hossein Kanan-Zadegan will significantly lower the overall average age of Team Melli squad

The most notable omission in the list, however, must be the exclusion of Alireza Jahanbakhsh, who has been a regular fixture in the national team's camps for the past seven years. Jahanbakhsh has just recovered from a slight knee injury and was a non-utilized bench player in today's 3-0 Brighton win against Tottenham Hotspurs in the English Premier League.

Jahanbakhsh has been having an unfortunate time since his move to Brighton at the beginning to last season. The record signing by Brighton failed to score a single goal in all competitions last season. With the change of the head coach, Jahanbakhsh failed to even make it on the bench for his club and has yet to feature in the Premier League this season. His performance with Team Melli in the AFC Asian Cup was far from brilliant either.

Wilmots has also created a serious competition in goal for the ever-present Alireza Biranvand. In contention for the number one spot in the goal are Payam Niazmand and Mohammad Rashid Mazaheri, who have both managed to keep a clean sheet record after six weeks of Persian Gulf Premier League competition matches.

Biranvand, despite some flashes of brilliance, with the penalty save from Cristiano Ronaldo is the top of his achievements, has many suspect moments and quite a questionable temperament. Many critics believe that Niazmand is a better goalkeeper but lacks the international experience of Beiranvand.

Persepolis with five players, Tractorsazi Tabriz with four and Sepahan Isfahan with three players have the highest number in the new list of Team Melli squad. Esteghlal also has only two players after Vouria Ghafouri and Seyyed Hossein Hosseini were crossed off the final list.

Team Melli will play against Cambodia on Thursday, October 10, in Tehran and then travel to Bahrain to play against their national team on October 15th.