Team Melli kick off preparations in South Africa

Persianfootball.com – JOHANNESBURG, Carlos Queiroz arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa, with a depleted squad today to kick off the preparations for the 2014 World Cup.

28 players had been invited for the first stage of preparations, but the two foreign based players Javad Nekounam and Pejman Montazeri and the 15 players of the Asian Champions League participating clubs could not show up in time.

Reportedly the players from Tractor Sazi, Foolad, Sepahan and Esteghlal will arrive this week after the round 5 matches of the Asian club competition and therefore miss round 6 and two possible playoff matches.

So far, only 11 players, among them no single goalkeeper, have taken the trip. Therefore Alireza Beiranvand, Naft Tehran’s young keeper, has been invited to join the camp as well.

The team is supposed to play three test matches versus South African club teams and a friendly match against Mozambique.

Queiroz will then announce a new squad for the following training camp in Austria in May, during which matches against Belarus, Montenegro and Angola are scheduled.

Should some players not join the South African camp on time, they might well be dropped from the squad and miss the World Cup, as Queiroz had previously threatened.