Football World Cup 2014 / Iran

This article covers the Iranian national football team at the 2014 World Cup . Iran took part in the finals for the fourth time and in a finals in South America for the second time . The final round in South America in 1978 was also the first final round for Iran.

qualification

Iran started qualifying in the second qualifying round. The team prevailed against the Maldives , which also had to compete in the second round.

In the third round, Iran met Qatar , Bahrain and Indonesia in Group E and qualified for the fourth round together with group runner-up Qatar and scored the most goals of all teams in the third round.

In the fourth round, groups were played again, but the teams were only divided into two groups of five teams each. In Group A , Iran took first place in front of the equally qualified team from South Korea , Uzbekistan , Qatar and Lebanon and qualified for Brazil. The qualification was only made perfect on the last matchday with a 1-0 win in South Korea, because in contrast to the third round, the Iranians now score significantly fewer goals - only in the 4-0 win against Lebanon more than one goal was scored. In addition, games against Lebanon and Uzbekistan were lost for the first time. The third-placed Uzbek team, which only had to give way to South Korea due to the worse goal difference, could not prevail against Jordan in the fifth round and thus not qualify for the intercontinental playoffs against Uruguay.

All home games took place in the Azadi Stadium in Tehran , which only had a crowd of 100,000 for the game against Qatar on June 12, 2012.

Second round

Game results

date	place	Home team	-	guest	Result	Goal scorers for Iran
07/23/2011	Tehran	Iran	-	Maldives	4: 0 (1: 0)	Ansari (4th, 62nd), Karimi (67th), Daghighi (86th)
07/28/2011	Male ( MDV )	Maldives	-	Iran	0: 1 (0: 1)	Khalatbari (45th + 1)

Third round

Pl.	team	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Iran	6th	3	3	0	017: 500	+12	12
2.	Qatar	6th	2	4th	0	010: 500	+5	10
3.	Bahrain	6th	2	3	1	013: 700	+6	09
4th	Indonesia	6th	0	0	6th	003:260	−23	00

Game results

date	place	Home team	-	guest	Result	Goal scorers for Iran
02.09.2011	Tehran	Iran	-	Indonesia	3: 0 (0: 0)	Nekounam (53rd, 74th), Timotian (87th)
09/06/2011	Doha ( QAT )	Qatar	-	Iran	1: 1 (0: 0)	Aghili (46.)
10/11/2011	Tehran	Iran	-	Bahrain	6: 0 (3: 0)	Hosseini (22nd), Jabari (34th), Aghili (42nd), Timotian (61st), Ansari (75th), Rezaei (83th)
11/11/2011	Riffa ( BHR )	Bahrain	-	Iran	1: 1 (1: 0)	Jabari (90th + 2)
11/15/2011	Jakarta ( IDN )	Indonesia	-	Iran	1: 4 (1: 3)	Midavoodi (7th), Jabari (21st), Rezaei (25th), Nekounam (73rd)
02/29/2012	Tehran	Iran	-	Qatar	2: 2 (1: 1)	Dejagah (4th, 50th)

Fourth round

Pl.	team	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Iran	8th	5	1	2	008: 200	+6	16
2.	South Korea	8th	4th	2	2	013: 700	+6	14th
3.	Uzbekistan	8th	4th	2	2	011: 600	+5	14th
4th	Qatar	8th	2	1	5	005:130	−8	07th
5.	Lebanon	8th	1	2	5	003:120	−9	05

Game results

date	place	Home team	-	guest	Result	Goal scorers for Iran
06/03/2012	Tashkent ( UZB )	Uzbekistan	-	Iran	0: 1 (0: 0)	Khalatbari (90th + 3rd)
06/12/2012	Tehran	Iran	-	Qatar	0-0
09/11/2012	Beirut ( LIB )	Lebanon	-	Iran	1: 0 (1: 0)
10/16/2012	Tehran	Iran	-	South Korea	1: 0 (1: 0)	Nekounam (76.)
11/14/2012	Tehran	Iran	-	Uzbekistan	0: 1 (0: 0)
06/04/2013	Doha ( QAT )	Qatar	-	Iran	0: 1 (0: 0)	Ghoochannejhad (66.)
06/11/2013	Tehran	Iran	-	Lebanon	4: 0 (2: 0)	Khalatbari (39th), Nekounam (45th + 1, 86th), Ghoochannejhad (46th)
06/18/2013	Ulsan ( KOR )	South Korea	-	Iran	0: 1 (0: 0)	Ghoochannejhad (60th)

In total, coach Carlos Queiroz , who has been Iran's coach since April 2011, used 39 players, none of whom played all of the games. Mohammad Reza Khalatbari and Seyed Hosseini played most of the games (15 of 16) . Goalkeeper Seyed Rahmati , who was in goal in the first 13 games, as well as half of the team after the defeat on November 14, 2012 against Uzbekistan, was no longer considered from the following game. The top scorer was Javad Nekounam with six goals, who was used in 13 games. The by 2012 for VfL Wolfsburg playing Ashkan Dejagah , the previously-national junior had gone through all the German and the German squad of U-21 EURO 2009 was one, was at the game on 29 February 2012 against Qatar its debut in the Iranian A National team and scored both goals for Iran. In addition, he was used in three other qualifying games.

preparation

Games before the World Cup:

• 0March 3 in Karaj against Kuwait ( qualifying game for the 2015 Asian Cup , for which Iran had already qualified): 3: 2 (1: 1)
• 0March 5 in Tehran against Guinea : 1: 2 (goalscorer for Iran: Ghoochannejhad / 55th)
• May 18 in Kapfenberg ( Austria ) against Belarus : 0-0
• May 26 in Hartberg ( Austria ) against Montenegro for the first time : 0-0
• May 30 in Hartberg ( Austria ) against Angola : 1: 1 (goalscorer for Iran: Ansarifard / 57th)
• 0June 8 in São Paulo for the first time against Trinidad and Tobago : 2-0

Training camp: From April 13th, a 24-day training camp with games against local club teams took place in Johannesburg . A scheduled game against Mozambique has been canceled.

Squad

A preliminary list of 30 players had to be submitted to FIFA by May 13, 2014. The final list of 23 players had to be received by FIFA by June 2, 2014 at the latest. Sousha Makani will be suspended from the match on June 16, 2014 after a match ban imposed by the FIFA Disciplinary Committee .

On May 7, 2014, the preliminary roster with 30 players was named, which was reduced to 23 players. Iran was the only country to name five goalkeepers in the preliminary roster. Four players were also in the 2006 World Cup squad when Iran was eliminated in the preliminary round.

No.	Surname	Club before the start of the World Cup	International matches *	Länderspiel- gates *	Date of birth	Games	Gates				World Cup participation	World Cup games (total)	World Cup goals (total)
goalkeeper
01	Rahman Ahmadi	Sepahan Isfahan	011	00	July 30, 1980	0	0	0	0	0
22nd	Daniel Davari	Eintracht Braunschweig	004th	00	January 6, 1988	0	0	0	0	0
12	Alireza Haghighi	SC Covilhã *	005	00	May 2, 1988	3	0	0	0	0
Defense
17th	Ahmad Alnameh	Naft Tehran FC	009	01	October 20, 1982	0	0	0	0	0
20th	Steven Beitashour	Vancouver Whitecaps	006th	00	February 1, 1987	0	0	0	0	0
02	Khosro Heydari	Esteghlal FC	048	00	September 14, 1983	3	0	0	0	0
04th	Jalal Hosseini	Persepolis Tehran	084	06th	3rd February 1982	3	0	0	0	0
13	Hossein Mahini	Persepolis Tehran	022nd	00	September 16, 1986	0	0	0	0	0
15th	Pejman Montazeri	Umm-Salal SC	021st	01	September 6, 1983	3	0	0	0	0
23	Mehrdad Pooladi	Persepolis Tehran	020th	00	February 26, 1987	3	0	0	0	0
05	Amir Hossein Sadeqi	Esteghlal FC	015th	01	September 6, 1981	3	0	0	0	0	2006	0	0
midfield
19th	Hashem Beikzadeh	Esteghlal FC	017th	01	January 22nd 1984	0	0	0	0	0
11	Ghazem Hadadifar	Zob Ahan Isfahan	017th	00	July 12, 1983	0	0	0	0	0
08th	Reza Haghighi	Persepolis Tehran	007th	00	January 31, 1989	1	0	0	0	0
03	Ehsan Hajsafi	Sepahan Isfahan	059	03	February 25, 1990	3	0	0	0	0
06th	Javad Nekounam	al Kuwait Kaifan	138	37	September 7, 1980	3	0	1	0	0	2006	2	0
18th	Bakhtiyar Rahmani	Foolad Ahvaz M	003	00	November 22, 1991	0	0	0	0	0
14th	Andranik Teymourian	Esteghlal FC	078	08th	March 6, 1983	3	0	1	0	0	2006	3	0
attack
10	Karim Ansarifard	Tractor Sazi Tabriz	041	09	April 3, 1990	1	0	1	0	0
21st	Ashkan Dejagah	Fulham FC A	014th	04th	5th July 1986	3	0	0	0	0
16	Reza Ghoochannejhad	Charlton Athletic *	014th	10	September 20, 1987	3	1	0	0	0
09	Alireza Jahanbakhsh	NEC Nijmegen A	006th	01	August 11, 1993	3	0	0	0	0
07th	Masoud Shojaei	UD Las Palmas *	050	05	June 9, 1984	3	0	1	0	0	2006	1	0
Coaching staff
	Carlos Queiroz	Trainer			March 1, 1953						2010	4th
	Oceano da Cruz	Assistant coach	54	8th	July 29, 1962
	Dan Gaspar	Goalkeeping coach			August 27, 1955
	Mikko Kujala	Fitness trainer

(*) only the games and goals that were played or scored before the start of the World Cup are given (as of May 30, 2014 after the games against Belarus, Montenegro and Angola, source (data before the game against Belarus))

1. ↑ M = The club became champions of its country in the 2013/14 season, A = The club was relegated from the highest league in the country, * = The club plays in the second highest league in its country.
2. ↑ ^{a b} With Portugal
3. ↑ ^{a b} As a player for Portugal

Finals

Group stage

Curitiba Belo Horizonte Salvador Guarulhos

Venues (red) and quarters (blue)

When the final round was drawn on December 6, 2013, Iran was drawn into Group F with Argentina, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Africa champions Nigeria. There was previously only one game against Argentina on March 22, 1977 for the 75th birthday of Real Madrid , which was lost 4-1 after a 1-1 draw on penalties. Bosnia and Herzegovina have been opponents in friendly matches five times, the last time on August 12, 2009. Four games were won and one game ended in a draw. This makes Iran the most common non-European opponent of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Up until the World Cup, Nigeria were the opponents in Hong Kong on January 28, 1998 . The game was lost 0-1. Iran had not played in any of the three venues before the World Cup.

The crew quarters were Caesar Park SP Int'l Arpt Mged by Pullman in Guarulhos .

rank	country	Gates	Points
1	Argentina	6: 3	9
2	Nigeria	3: 3	4th
3	Bosnia and Herzegovina	4: 4	3
4th	Iran	1: 4	1

• Mon., June 16, 2014, 4:00 p.m. (9:00 p.m. CEST) in Curitiba Iran - Nigeria 0: 0
  
• Sat., June 21, 2014, 1:00 p.m. (6:00 p.m. CEST) in Belo Horizonte Argentina - Iran 1: 0 (0: 0)
  
• Wed., June 25, 2014, 1:00 p.m. (6:00 p.m. CEST) in Salvador da Bahia Bosnia and Herzegovina - Iran 3: 1 (1: 0)
  

Sports impact

In the FIFA world rankings , Iran, previously the best-placed Asian team, fell 6 places from 43rd to 49th place due to the preliminary round and was then only the second best Asian team.

Web links

• All qualifiers of Iran
• All matches of the preliminary round at a glance

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Match report Iran - Qatar 0-0
2. ↑ ^{a b} Friendly: Iran 1-2 Guinea
3. ↑ Regulations for the 2014 FIFA World Cup ™, para. 29 List of players, rest time, preparatory phase
4. ↑ fifa.com: "Game suspensions to be served in the final round of the FIFA World Cup ™"
5. ↑ kicker.de: "Queiroz also nominates Dejagah Davari is part of Iran's expanded World Cup squad"
6. ↑ Iran - Belarus 0-0 . weltfussball.de. Retrieved April 15, 2019.
7. ↑ Montenegro - Iran 0-0 . weltfussball.de. Retrieved April 15, 2019.
8. ^ Iran - Angola 1: 1 . weltfussball.de. Retrieved April 15, 2019.
9. ↑ Release List of Players ( English , PDF) FIFA. May 16, 2014. Retrieved April 15, 2019.
10. ↑ fifa.com: team quarters
11. ↑ fifa.com: "World Champion Germany takes over the top position"