Nation team training – Day 1

Today’s training began at 18:00 Tehran local time, and from the foreign based players only Ali Karimi was present.

In today’s training, the players practiced shooting and technical skills under Hossein Faraki. The goal keepers practiced separately under the supervision of Begovic and sajadi.

According to the Iranian head coach, Branko Ivankovic, Sepahan’s Khatibi and Rahmati will join the camp after Sepahan’s Asian Champions League match against Al Ain on Wednesday. Hossein Kabi is expected to join the training camp on Monday. All the other foreign based players are expected to join the camp by Tuesday, although Mahdavikia is expected to join the others at a later date as his club side Hamburg are refusing to release him for the training camp.

Iran will play its 4^th World Cup qualifying game at home against North Korea on June 3^rd. Five days later Iran will meet Bahrain in the Azadi stadium. Two wins will guarantee Iran a place in next year’s World Cup in Germany.

Iran squad for North Korea and Bahrain games:

Goalkeepers: Ebrahim Mirzapour (Foulad) Seyed Mehdi Rahmati (Sepahan) Mohammad Mohammadi (Persepolis)

Defenders: Hossein Ka'bi (al Sadd, Qatar) Sattar Zare' (Barq) Ali Badavi (Foulad) Mohammad Nosrati (Pas) Rahman Rezaei (Messina, Italy) Yahya Golmohammadi (Persepolis) Jalal Kameli-Mofrad (Foulad)

Midfielders: Javad Nekounam (Pas) Seyed Mohammad Alavi (Foulad) Mojtaba Jabbari (Abu Moslem) Fereydoun Zandi (Kaiserslautern, Germany) Moharram Navidkia (Bochum, Germany) Iman Mob'ali (Foulad), Javad Kazemian (Persepolis), Mehdi Mahdavikia (Hamburg, Germany), Alireza Vahedi-Nikbakht (Al-Wasl, UAE)

Strikers: Ali Karimi (Bayern Munich, Germany), Ali Daei (Saba Battery), Vahid Hashemian (Hannover, Germany), Arash Borhani (Pas), Gholam-Reza Enayati (Esteqlal of Tehran), Rassoul Khatibi (Sepahan).