Tag: Nicaragua

Team Melli defeats Nicaragua in Azadi.

Iran’s last home game before the FIFA World Cup ended up in a mundane 1-0 win for Team Melli. Torabi scored the only goal in the First half.

Nicaragua, ranked 120 steps below Iran, managed to limit World Cup-bound Team Melli to two shots on target in the entire 90 minutes +, one of which ended up in a goal.

Behind the closed door and playing with mostly domestic league players, there was little to be gained from the World Cup preparations perspective, except for perhaps some last-chance look by Queiroz and his coaching staff on which domestic league players will make it on the plane to Doha

Playing weaker teams, however, had always been a risk and that proved true this time against Nicaragua. Omid Ebrahimi, one of the veterans of the team and almost certain to be included in the World Cup squad, left the field of play after only a minute or two from being substituted in, falling a victim to a clumsy challenge by the Nicaraguan player. He was treated on the field but then left on a stretcher. His conditions looked serious enough for him, to miss the World Cup.

The goal scored by Mehdi Torabi in the 15th minute was perhaps the only decent move by Team Melli in the entire match. Noorafkan gifted an accurate pass to Torabi who beautifully controlled the ball while neatly wrong-footing his marker, before slotting powerfully into the Nicaraguan goal.

The rest of the match was concentrated mostly in the middle of the field. Surprisingly, the Nicaraguan players seemed to be the more energetic of the two sets of players. Coming from tropical weather to Tehran, all of them protected themselves against the cold temperature by wearing gloves. However, they were more energetic than Team Melli players despite their long trip. The guests were not shying from any tackles and challenged every ball, sometimes too roughly, and gave the host a run for their money.

On a positive note, Queiroz introduced 3 new young players by giving debuts to Aria Brazegar, Mehdi Hashemipor, and Ali Sadeghi. Barzegar who was on the starting lineup had a truly dreadful debut as he could not pass or shoot any decent ball. The others substituted in, however, showed some nice touches and enough confidence even daring to try long-range shots.

Team Melli meets Tunisia next. A much more serious challenge. However, the whole squad will be available by then.

Iran meets Nicaragua in a friendly international.

Team Melli will meet Nicaragua in Azadi this evening at 19:30 behind closed doors in the first of the last two matches before the FIFA World Cup.

Under Queiroz, Team Melli has been training full-time in an effort to maximize the utilization of the time before the start of the FIFA World Cup. The camp’s objective was to allow the coaching team to recognize the players’ shortcomings and readiness. The training camp was restricted to the domestic league players, except for the periodic appearance of Khalizadeh, Kananizadeghan, and Ebrahimi from Qatar Star League which has taken an early break until after the World Cup. The rest of the Team Melli players who are in Europe were absent.

The whole training camp has been under the shadow of the recent widespread protests across the country following the death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of the moral police. Since a few Iranian players have dared to speak up against the regime recently and the silent protests of many players in all forms and shapes, including not celebrating goals in matches, the FFIRI, AKA the regime, has put a strict virtual barrier around the camp. Players and officials are not allowed to speak to the press unless prior permission is obtained from the security or Herasat. Queiroz is an exception, however, he has been fully briefed on what he is allowed to utter and must follow the party guidelines.

 It is not known how much this Political turmoil had an effect on the players’ morale.  In any case, Team Melli should not have much of a problem facing Nicaragua even with the second-string lineup.

The opponent for the day, Nicaragua is one of the weaker teams in CONCACAF. Coached by  Marco Antonio Figueroa the central American team is playing the match against Iran after 3 consecutive defeats against Surinam, Ghana, and Qatar. The Nicaraguan national team is ranked 142 in the FIFA ranking and currently has no member of the team playing in Europe., A few of them play in neighboring countries’ leagues.

Nicaragua achieved its first qualification to a major international competition in 2009, as they qualified for the 2009 Gold Cup as the last entrant from Central America, after a 2–0 win over Guatemala in the fifth-place match in the 2009 Nations Cup.[However, the team has never qualified for the FIFA World Cup.

Due to American influence throughout the country’s history, baseball has more of a following as both a pursuit and spectator event in Nicaragua than football.

Iran’s last friendly match will be against Tunisia in Doha.

Two more friendly games for Team Melli.

According to the official website of Iran’s football federation FFIRI, Mehdi Mohammad Nabi, the vice president of the federation, said: “Following the start of the preparation process of the national team for a powerful presence in the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, a friendly international match has been finalized against Nicaragua was determined. “Team Melli and Nicaragua will face off on November 10th in Tehran at 19:30. Furthermore, Mohammad Nabi said: “The national team will face the Tunisian national football team in their last preparatory meeting before the start of the World Cup. This meeting will be held on November 16th in Doha, Qatar.

Team Melli has never played Nicaragua and this central American team will be the 124th country that Team Melli has faced in its illustrious history. On the other hand, Iran and Tunis met twice with Tunisia winning once and the other match ending in a draw.