Queiroz announces new Team Melli squad

Persianfootball.com – TEHRAN, Shortly after the return to Tehran following the friendly match defeat in Oman, Iran boss Carlos Queiroz announced a new 25-man squad for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers.

There have been quite some victims of the 1-3 in Muscat; Mohammad Nosrati, Pejman Nouri, Reza Haghighi, Bakhtiar Rahmani, Karim Ansarifard and Mohammad Gholami were crossed off the initial 35-man list.

With Hamed Lak and Amir-Hossein Feshangchi, two players who did not feature against Oman were sent home as well.

Also out is the injured leftback Mehrdad Pouladi, who will not recover from surgery in time.

But even some players who had initially been invited but could not yet join the team have been dropped. Daniel Davari, Ali Hamoudi and Omid Nazari seem to be surplus to requirements.

In addition to the 23 survivors – among them the two u-23 players Mohammad-Reza Khanzadeh and Mohsen Mosalman – Rubin Kazan’s Alireza Haghighi and Esteghlal’s Amir-Hossein Sadeghi received a late invitation to the camp.

Ashkan Dejagah of course had always been missing from the roster due to his injury.

Iran will face Qatar (June 4), Lebanon (June 11) and South Korea (June 18) in the final three World Cup qualifiers which will make the difference between direct qualification for Brazil 2014, a playoff berth or elimination.

The planned dress rehearsal versus Iraq on Monday is, unfortunately typically for Iran, all but certain after problems in deciding on the venue of the game.

Below comes the new Team Melli list.

Goal:
Rahman Ahmadi – Saipa Karaj
Alireza Haghighi – Rubin Kazan, RUS
Sousha Makani – Naft Tehran

Defense:
Khosro Heydari – Esteghlal Tehran
Hossein Mahini – Persepolis Tehran
Mohammad-Reza Khanzadeh – Persepolis Tehran
Jalal Hosseini – Persepolis Tehran
Pejman Montazeri – Esteghlal Tehran
Shoja Khalilzadeh – Mes Kerman
Amir-Hossein Sadeghi – Esteghlal Tehran
Ehsan Hajsafi – Sepahan Esfahan
Hashem Beikzadeh – Esteghlal Tehran

Midfield:
Javad Nekounam – Esteghlal Tehran
Andranik Teymourian – Al Kharitiyath, QAT
Omid Ebrahimi – Sepahan Esfahan
Ghasem Hadadifar – Zob Ahan Esfahan
Mojtaba Jabbari – Esteghlal Tehran
Mohammad Nouri – Persepolis Tehran
Mohsen Mosalman – Zob Ahan Esfahan

Attack:
Masoud Shojaei – CA Osasuna, ESP
Gholamreza Rezaei – Persepolis Tehran
Mohammad-Reza Khalatbari – Sepahan Esfahan
Mehrdad Oladi – Malavan Anzali
Reza Ghoochannejhad – Standard Liege, BEL
Farzad Hatami – Esteghlal Tehran