With less than four months to the FIFA World Cup, Sochi in Russia hosted a two-day team seminar February 27-28, for the 32 nations participating at the upcoming sporting event slated for June 14-July 15.
The seminar was essentially the last opportunity for countries to look behind the scenes and find out about key elements of the World Cup organization. A series of informative sessions was held, covering different aspects of the upcoming competition, from security to technical issues.
On behalf of Iran, Carlos Queiroz, the Portuguese head coach of Team Melli, took part in the workshops.
Iran is all set to make its second consecutive FIFA World Cup appearance, the first time the team will have graced two world finals in a row. And as was the case at Brazil 2014, the Iranians will have Carlos Queiroz, 65, at the helm.
“It’s essential for us to have detailed information on the technical aspects of the World Cup and how it’s going to unfold,” said Quiroz.
Absent from the big stage for eight years, Team Melli made its return to the world finals four years ago and built on that achievement by becoming the first Asian team to book a place at Russia 2018, following a near-perfect qualification campaign.
Looking ahead to the competition, the Iran coach spoke to FIFA.com about the new challenges facing his side and the test they will face in a tough Group B, where he will come up against his compatriots, having coached them in South Africa 2010.
Pointing to the path Iran has been through for the World Cup, Queiroz said, “with the experience of Brazil 2014 under our belts and with several players having since moved to Europe, we’ve become more solid and competitive.”
“Playing in the Asian leagues is not the same as playing international football. We’ve become a better side. We’re the best Asian team in the FIFA Ranking, we didn’t lose a game in the qualifiers, and we only conceded a couple of goals. That’s why we’re going to Russia with a very clear dream in mind.” he continued.
Queiroz told FIFA about the dream of his team. “We want to get through to the second round, but that is obviously going to be a very difficult task. Everyone’s agreed that we’re in the hardest group in the World Cup, as we’ll be coming up against two title contenders, Spain and Portugal. But our duty is to go and improve on past performances and keep making progress, not just at Russia 2018 but at the upcoming Asian competitions and the next World Cup qualifiers,” the head coach explained.
Commenting on having Cristiano Ronaldo on the other side of the pitch (when confronting Portugal in the tournament), Queiroz said, “he’s the best player in the world. But when the match starts there are just two teams who are trying to win.”
“The memories stay with you, of course they do, especially in shared projects, like we had at Manchester (United) and the Portugal national team,” the Portuguese talked about his shared memories with Ronaldo.
Other Ronaldos
“That was a long time ago, though. The South Africa World Cup was (just) a few years ago. Time has changed and now I’ve got other Ronaldos with me. They’re important players… the likes of (Alireza) Jahanbakhsh, (Reza) Ghoochannejad, (Ali) Karimi and so on. These are the Ronaldos I’ve got to look after now and who I’ve got to pay attention to achieve the success we all want,” Queiroz noted.
He also talked about his experience of coming up against Lionel Messi at the previous world cup “I’ve always said that Messi is an extraordinary player. He’s out of this world. If he were human, he wouldn’t have had that magical moment in that match (Argentina beat Iran in the group phase with a late Messi goal).”
Asked how important is it for Quiroz to be able to count on players who play their club football in Russia including Sardar Azmoun, Saeid Ezatolahi and Milad Mohammadi, Quiroz said, “it’s very important, no question. It’s all part of the development process for Iranian players. In 2011 we had just one player based in Spain, but now we’ve got nearly 60% of the starting line-up playing in Europe, three of whom happen to be in the Russian league. This is going to be important for the team because it’s going to build our knowledge and give us more of an affinity with the Russians. That just shows you all the different ways in which Iranian football has progressed over the last eight years.”
The Portuguese is the longest serving manager in the history of Iran’s national football team after serving for about seven years from his appointment in 2011.
Iran will play Morocco, Portugal and Spain respectively on June 15, 20 and 25 in the World Cup. To prepare the team, Queiroz has planned seven friendly matches with Turkey, Greece and Lithuania from Europe, Tunisia and Algeria from Africa and Syria and Uzbekistan from Asia in the remaining time until the Russian event.
