| Germany 2006: |
| IRAN |
 |
|
| KEY FACTS |
| World Ranking |
| 18th |
| IRAN NEWS |
| Iran enjoyed a fairly settled run to the world cup finals with a minor hiccup against Jordan in stage two. They did win the return leg but came out on top of their group without to much trouble. The third stage was similar with only a final round loss to japan relegating them to second. They did still finish 9 points clear of third placed Bahrain however indicating the division of class within the group. There was no doubt Iran deserved to qualify as they scored 29 times in 12 matches, the legendary Ali Daei, who's international goal tally hit triple figures during the campaign, scored nine times. |
| Qualifying Group Position |
| 1st |
| Round 2 |
| 2nd |
| Round 3 |
| Top Scorers |
| 9 Goals |
| QUALIFYING |
| 3-1 |
| Qatar |
| Dft |
| 18-Feb-04 |
| 7-0 |
| Laos |
| Dft |
| 31-Mar-04 |
| 0-1 |
| Jordan |
| Lost To |
| 09-Jun-04 |
| 2-0 |
| Jordan |
| Dft |
| 08-Sep-04 |
| 3-2 |
| Qatar |
| Dft |
| 13-Oct-04 |
| 7-0 |
| Laos |
| Dft |
| 17-Nov-04 |
| 0-0 |
| Bahrain |
| Drew |
| 09-Feb-05 |
| 2-1 |
| Dft |
| 25-Mar-05 |
| 2-0 |
| Korea DPR |
| Dft |
| 30-Mar-05 |
| 1-0 |
| Korea DPR |
| Dft |
| 03-Jun-05 |
| 1-0 |
| Bahrain |
| Dft |
| 08-Jun-05 |
| 1-2 |
| Lost To |
| 17-Aug-05 |
| Ali Daei |
 |
 |
| IRAN'S WORLD CUP HISTORY |
| Appearances (Champions in bold) |
| 1978, 1998, 2006 |
| SQUAD (club in brackets) |
| Goalkeepers |
| Ebrahim Mirzapour (Foolad Khuzestan, Iran) |
| Hassan Roudbarian (Pas Tehran, Iran) |
| Defenders |
| Sohrab Bakhtiarizadeh (Saba Battery, Iran) |
| Hossein Kaabi (Foolad Khuzestan, Iran) |
| Mohammed Nosrati (Pas Tehran, Iran) |
| Rahmann Rezaei (AC Messina, Italy) |
| Amir Hossein Sadeqi (Esteghlal FC, Iran) |
| Sattar Zare (Bargh Shiraz, Iran) |
| Midfielders |
| Ali Karimi (Bayern Munich, Germany) |
| Javad Kazemian (Persepolis FC, Iran) |
| Forwards |
| Arash Borhani (Pas Tehran, Iran) |
| Ali Daei (Saba Battery, Iran) |
| Reza Enayati (Esteghlal FC, Iran) |
| Vahid Hashemian (Hannover 96, Germany) |
| Vahid Taleboo (Esteghlal FC, Iran) |
| Mehrzad Madanchi (Persepolis FC, Iran) |
| Mehdi Mahdavika (Hamburg SV, Germany) |
| Javad Nekounam (Sharjah, UAE) |
| Anderanik Teymourian (Abu Muslim, Iran) |
| Yahya Golmohammadi (Saba Battery, Iran) |
| Fereydoon Zandi (Kaiserslautern, Germany) |
| Rasoul Khatibi (Sepahan, Iran) |
| Masoud Shojai (Saipa FC, Iran) |