| IRAN's National Team activities |
| ASIAN COMPETITIONS |
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| Status: Qualification stage. Objective: Qualifying for the Asian Youth Championship 2006. |
| INTERNATIONAL COMPETITIONS |
| Status: Iran has qualified for the 2006 world cup in Germany ,this is Iran's third participation in the world cup finals ,after earlier paticipations in 1978 and 1998. Objective: To get beynod the group stage. |
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| Copyright 1996-2005, Soccerestan All Rights Reserved. |
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| Status: Won bronze medal in 2004. Objective: Win the next Asian Cup in 2007. |
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| Status: Qualification stage. Objective: Qualifying for the Asian U-17 Championship 2006. |
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| Status: Pas & Sepahan are both in the quarter finals now. Objective: Winning the Champions League Cup. |
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| Follow Iran in the 2006 world cup finals at the official website of the FIFA WORLD CUP GERMANY 2006. |
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| Individually, Iran has always produced breath-taking footballers. Ali Daei holds the world record of having scored the most international goals for his home country ,breaking the records of football legends such as Pele and Puskas. As of 24 December 2004, the striker had scored 103 international goals. Players like Ali Karimi, Mehdi Mahdavikia ,Khodadad azizi and Ali Daei have all been named Asia's Best Players. |
| Iranian football started way back in 1914, when the game was played between the European embassies in the country. Iran played it's first national game against Afghanistan in 1941 in Kabul. Thereafter the sport has grown up immensely in the country and now Iranian football can boast of having one of the most passionate group of fans. |
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| In the comming years Iran failed to continue their Asian Cup success story, as they only managed to reach the semi-finals of the Asian Cup in 1980, 1984, 1988, 1996, 2004. At the last edition of the Asian Cup "China 2004" ,the Iranian national team progressed to the semi-finals, only to lose to host China. |
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| Iran proved their potentials being crowned Asian Champions three times (1968, 1972, 1976) and four times champion of the Asian Games (1974, 1990, 1998, 2002). In the '60s and '70s Iran were undoubtfully the dominant footballing force in Asia where in between 1968 and 1976 they lifted the Asian Cup on three occasions without losing a single game. |
| Iran first participated in the world cup qualifiers in 1974 and just four years later reached their first world cup as the sole representative from Asia at Argentina '78, when they drew Scotland 1-1, while losing to Holland and Peru. |
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| Twenty years later they reached their second world cup finals at France '98 and recorded their first victory in the finals with a 2-1 defeat of the United States. However, they failed to reach the last sixteen after losing their remaining group matches to both Yugoslavia and Germany. They were the only one of the four Asian sides at the tournament to win a match. |
| Iran had made it to France '98 the hard way. They finished second in their qualifynig group and then lost 3-2 to Japan in a play-off, which meant they had to beat Australia in a final Asian-Oceanian play-off. Two late goals in the second leg in Melbourne retrieved a 2-0 deficit and sent the Iranians through on away goals. |
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| After the disappointment of missing out on the world cup Japan/Korea 2002, and a 2-1 aggregate defeat by the republic of Ireland in the Asian-European play-off ,Iran once again underlined that they are one of Asia's top teams by bouncing back to qualify comfortably for Germany 2006.In their qualifynig campaign for Germany 2006, Iran's Croatian coach Branko Ivankovic relied on trusted players and methods. Key to their prospects were the Germany based quartet of Hashemian, Karimi, Mahdavikia and Zandi. |
| Further, the players have made an impact even when they are with their European-based clubs. Just to name a few, Mahdavikia was voted by Hamburg supporters as their best player in the 2004/2005 season, while others such as Rahman Rezaei (Messina) and Vahid Hashemian (Bochum) have been highly praised by their respective club fans. With the talents that they posses and the new ones emerging, it is only a matter of time before the Iranian national team repeats it's previous successes in Asia and establishes itself on the World footballing scene. |
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