Close call for Masoud and Javad

According to a report published in one of the Iranian sports papers, Iran international midfielders Javad Nekounam and Masoud Shojaei, both of whom play for Osasuna of La Liga in Spain, were almost left out of Team Melli’s squad for the qualifier versus UAE last week.

Apparently the two were supposed to report to the national team camp in Abu Dhabi as soon as they possibly could. But the pair arrived in Dubai on Monday, November 17 and checked into one of the luxury hotels and spent the night there before reporting to the camp on Tuesday.

A few in Team Melli camp who knew about Daei’s no tolerance policy for indiscipline tried to keep this information from him, but it eventually leaked through and decided to drop them from the squad immediately. However, a few hours later he was talked out of it and both ended up playing the full 90 minutes against UAE.

Although both midfielders had subpar performances, their absence would have surely hurt the team’s weak and vulnerable defense.

Daei has not yet commented on the report, but it would be interesting to see if Shojaei and Nekounam are eventually going to pay the price for their self indulgence.