|
FNA - The UAE national
football team leave for Tehran on May 31 to play Iran in the 2010 World Cup
qualifiers Asian Group E. The match will be held at Azadi stadium in Tehran
on June 2.
Iran's national football team head coach Ali Daei has named his 26-man squad
for the national team's 2010 World Cup qualifier match against UAE.
Iran have collected two points from the opening two games of Group Five and
sit in second place behind leaders UAE. Syria and Kuwait are the other
members of the group.
Captain Mehdi Mahdavikia is back in the squad following his return to
fitness and fully recovered Osasuna star Javad Nekounam also joins the squad
after a lengthy injury-layoff.
Other notable additions to the new squad are inclusion of Freydoon Zandi,
former Iran National team left winger who has not been called up to squad
since his appearance in World Cup 2006.
Another notable addition is Hansa Rostock forward, Amir Shapourzadeh's first
Call-up to Iran National team following his short spell at Iran B team in
June 2007.
Among UAE-based players, Reza Enayati is called up to Iranian squad for the
first time since his spell at the 2007 Asian Cup, while UAE league's top
scorers including Mehrzad Madanchi , Iman Mobali and Javad Kazemian are
missing from the list.
Daei called up his last 7 players after Perspolis-Sepahan Championship
encounter here on Saturday.
Iran's National team coach invited Mehdi Vaezi, Alireza Nikbakht Vahedi,
Hossein Kaebi and Mohsen Khalili from Perspolis, and Hajsafi, Bengar and
Aghili from Sepahan to Iranian squad ahead of the UAE match.
Iran commenced their training camp in Ardabil on Sunday May 18.
Iran is in Group five of Asian World Cup qualifying tournament with Kuwait,
Syria and the United Arab Emirates.
Iran squad:
Goalkeepers: Mehdi Rahmati, Ebrahim Mirzapour
Defenders: Jalal Hosseini, Rahman Rezaei, Satar Zare, Morteza Asadi, Hashem
Beigzadeh
Midfielders: Mohammad Alavi, Mojtaba Shiri, Majid Gholamnejad, Ebrahim
Sadeghi, Mehdi Mahdavikia, Javad Nekounam, Freydun Zandi, Andranik
Teimourian, Ali Karimi, Masoud Shojaei, Maziar Zare, Mohamadreza Khalatbari,
Mojtaba Jabbari, Gholamreza Rezaei
Strikers: Amir Shapourzadeh, Reza Enayati, Hadi Asghari, Ruholah Bigdeli,
Milad Meidavoudi.
The match will be the third for UAE in the qualifiers, they beat Kuwait 2-0
in Abu Dhabi and drew 1-1 with Syria in Damascus. They top Group E with four
points and will be looking to clinch the three points in Tehran.
The UAE team will be playing four matches in the qualifiers in a period of
20 days in this hot climate. After Iran match on June 2nd, they meet again
with Iran in Abu Dhabi on June 7.
Then an away match against Kuwait on June 14 and the last match in group E
will be against Syria in Abu Dhabi on June 22.
The UAE coach Bruno Metsu kept an eye on the national team players during
the league matches in recent weeks. However most of the names who took part
in the last qualifiers match against Syria will be present in Iran.
Esmail Mattar, Faisal Khalil, Majid Naser, Rashid Abdul Rahman, Ahmad Dada,
Saleh Obaid, Haydar Allo Ali, Bashir Saeed, Darwish Ahmad, Hilal Saeed, will
be on top of the list.
|
