Upcoming Matches (*=probable): 14.11.2014 - Iran vs Kenya (Friendly)* 18.11.2014 - Iran vs South Korea (Friendly) 16.12.2014 - South Africa vs Iran (Friendly) 19.12.2014 - Zimbabwe vs Iran (Friendly)* 28.12.2014 - Iran vs Palestine (Friendly) 4.1.2015 - Iran vs Iraq (Friendly) 11.1.2015 - Iran vs Bahrain (AC 2015) 15.1.2015 - Iran vs Qatar (AC 2015) 19.1.2015 - Iran vs UAE (AC 2015) 31.3.2015 - Sweden vs Iran (Friendly)*
Cancelled. On the other hand the Sweden friendly has been confirmed by the Swedish football federation. http://www.fotbollskanalen.se/sverige/sverige-moter-iran-medvetna-om-att-man-har-utmaningar/
Aaaand the Zimbabwe friendly is cancelled. wtf is this for preparation... Hopefully the rumors about the SA match are true
I am looking forward to see the match against Iraq. Btw congrats on South Korean match. well deserved win!
Just wondering, what do Iranians consider to be Team Melli's five most memorable matches? This is what I guess. Iran 3-0 Saudi Arabia at the Asian Cup, 1996 Iran 6-2 South Korea at the Asian Cup, 1997 Iran 2-2 in Melbourne, 1997 Iran 2-1 at the World Cup, 1998 Iran 1-0 South Korea in Ulsan, 2013
Personally, for me it is: Iran 4-3 South Korea (Asian Cup 2004) Iran 2-1 Japan (World Cup 2006 Qualifying) Iran 0-1 Argentina (World Cup 2014) Iran deserved to win against Argentina, what a great match it was and how sad it ended. Truely the best game I have ever seen from Iran. I want revanche on them next time.
Iran 2-2 Australia in Melbourne, 1997. That match was just special. Iran was so bad, it was unbelievable. If it weren't for Abedzadeh, we'd be losing by double digits. Lazaridis was just beasting down the left flank and we had no answers for him. But then somehow they managed to make mount a come back, and it was truly football magic. Loved that match. Not in terms of quality - I've never seen Iran play such a poor game - but in terms of team spirit. And of course lots of Australian tears. #priceless
I heard that the coach of Australia made fun of Iran in the first leg, and the Australians booed the Iranian national anthem in the second leg. For me Iran-South Korea was very memorable. I was at school during that game and was hoping that Iran would somehow win to qualify, and was very excited to see they topped the group afterwards (I'm not even Iranian).
performance wise, i would rate Iran vs yugoslavia slightly higher than Iran vs argentina. argentina was stronger but yugoslavia was still a top 10 team and we matched them without playing defensive. yes we did play more defensive than them but we did not play "defensive" a la Iran vs argentina. it took the best free kick taker in the world vs our backup keeper to make the difference.
I live in Sydney and have two tickets to give away for tonight's game. Please PM me if you're interested
Words can't describe how nervous I am for this game. It's equal if not worse than versus Argentina at the World Cup.
My prediction is 1-0 to either side (more likely to be Iran) or going to the penalties. Quieroz is not stupid enough to change his tactics because he has an 'easier' opponent. I see this becoming a bit of a boring match. But whatever to get a job done I guess.
Queiroz' tactics make me nervous as hell, it's always risky and one-sided. We have no game-plan if we fall behind early. This has always been my concern, what if we concede early? We barely come back in the game since we only win 1-0. Wishful thinking: Iran 1-0 Iraq Reality: 0-0 AET, heading to penalties.
I'm beginning to think it would have been better if Iran didn't beat UAE to top their group, because after seeing how Japan played against the UAE I think Iran would have been able to beat Japan.