Not a fan of the anti TM discourse
They play for the people-like any national team
These guys always will post and voice their support of current events, here’s examples from today but this support of our ppl is normal
The anti TM discourse seems only reserved to ⚽️ by 🤖&🤡
TM are due to play their first World Cup
game in 9 days time ⏳
Good news for the actual TM fans 😄
I LOVE TM AND I LOVE INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALL 🫡
All for Team Melli 💚❤️
برای وطنمان، مردممان و آیندهمان دعا میکنیم🤲🙏🏼
انشاالله موفق و پیروز خواهیم بود💚❤️
TM are due to play their first World Cup
game in 10 days time ⏳
Good news for the actual TM fans 😄
I LOVE TM AND I LOVE INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALL 🫡
All for Team Melli 💚❤️
برای وطنمان، مردممان و آیندهمان دعا میکنیم🤲🙏🏼
انشاالله موفق و پیروز خواهیم بود💚❤️
Amir Hossein Reyvandi seems to be alive again
22 apps and 1 assist this season in the Croatian 2nd division
Now he’s back at CSKA and his future is back up in the air as Russian media has said their will be discussions over his future with the club
Quite the journeyman🙃
Amir hossein Reyvandi is headed on loan to NK Jarun Zagreb, a second division Croatian side 🇭🇷
Previously he went to FC Buxoro in the Uzbek 🇺🇿 league on loan
Clearly talented player who is a graduate of the famous KIA academy ✅
Now given time to impress in Europe 👀
Seems like quite a few players have shared the same sentiment, a lot of hurdles and obstacles in the way but now in Mexico meaning the World Cup is a reality and an achievement in itself
The guys have put up with a lot so far so hopefully they continue to embrace adversity 💚❤️
Congrats to Arman Nahany for winning the Eredivisie u19 with Feyenoord🏆
Been enjoyable following and monitoring him for another season, here’s to hoping for a breakout season 🔜
Why couldn’t they have rigged the draw so we’d play all our games in Mexico? Would have been great going to a futbol mad nation who just judges u on the field 🙃
🟢⚪️🔴 ¡Bienvenido, Irán! 🇮🇷🇲🇽 México e Irán son países orgullosos de su historia, sus tradiciones y la grandeza cultural. Hoy nos da gusto recibir al Team Melli y compartir juntos esta gran fiesta del futbol.
#WelcomeIran#Mexico2026#FIFAWorldCup#FIFA@FIFAWorldCup@TeamMelliIran
@JuniorRodigan I get ur point but all of our pgpl players have to play in Khuzestan yearly and regardless are more assimilated to these climates than the majority of the squads so again I’d rather them face weather issues
Thoughts on Team Melli & the World Cup:
- Team Melli has always been one of the great loves of my life. I'm not particularly unique in this.
For so many Iranians, some of the greatest moments of their lives & biggest moments of disappointment have revolved around the team.
That having been said - that this year absolutely feels different. No I don't feel the anywhere near the same level of excitement.
This isn't for some dumb bad faith fake news reason which many of the usual clowns are going all out to try to promote (more on this below). Rather, it's due to a combination of a few different things:
1. (Above everything else) 2026 has been the darkest, most horrible year of my life. Whether the protests, the scenes of horror and violence, the deaths of thousands of my compatriots, & chilling, unforgettable images of families gathered in front of morgues wailing for their loved ones ... or the US-Israeli War of Aggression, the destruction of homes, the killing of innocent schoolchildren, and extreme damage to Iran's infrastructure and economy.
And no one has the slightest clue where this goes from here. The uncertainty and sorrow from what has happened overshadows everything & makes things like football seem trivial.
2. Ghalenoei is an extremely frustrating, stubborn coach. Since even before the Asian Cup he's been making promises of bringing a new generation to the team - something he's totally and utterly failed at.
His tactics and squad selection are perplexing. Defense has been atrocious under him. Yes, he got us the victory against Japan - one of my favorite games of all time (and a far greater challenge than New Zealand in the Group Stage of the WC) - but one game is not enough.
I want to like an underdog. But having a coach that has frustrated me to this level does make it more difficult.
3. Sardar being left out of the squad is a total joke. It's obviously for political, non football reasons. Having him be absent and then inviting a joke like Moghanlu is quite bitter.
But it goes beyond the one or two political cases.
Why would you not even invite Koushki? Are you actually insane? Or Hosseinzadeh?
How is a dinosaur like Shoja still invited? Like come on, are you intentionally trying to ruin our lives?
There's always been one or two controversial decisions in squad callups. I'm still upset at Queiroz for not taking Khalatbari. But here maybe half the squad is controversial. The team selections feels like he's just spitting in our faces.
- So yes, putting everything together, there's a lot of reasons to be annoyed.
But at the end of the day, this is still Team Melli. I still have pride for my team and country. And so I'll support them. I had similar feelings in the 2010 era. When you support your team you do so both in the good and bad times.
The way the World Cup is set up and our group is drawn, we can also say even despite all the political drama, utter lack of preparation, the league being shut down during the war, and all the issues I just mentioned ... we still have a decent chance of making it to the next round. 3 points against New Zealand could be enough. This is not the 2018 Group of Death.
- I've stated some very real reasons why one would get a little cold water poured on their excitement, even though you can still support the boys.
But unfortunately this terrible time has made two groups of Iranians even more insane and annoying than they normally are ... and they are infesting the football world like a horrible plague.
On the one side we have the bad faith assholes going around spreading fake news faster and more frequently than imaginable. And the usual group of javgirs that lack any critical thinking following them.
Extremist Shahollahi people (a group I would consider distinct than just standard casual monarchists) are turning more cult like by the day and seem to think it is their political obligation and foremost praxis to go around being as nasty as humanely possible towards the team, spreading bullshit news, planning to harass supporters, and viewing the football stadium as a place to hold a political rally.
They've also shut down their brains (not for the first time) and seem to have forgotten that when you live in Iran you have to follow a certain set of rules. And that every single one of them attended rallies at school, chanting slogans, and has been on a stage at certain days growing up. So to suddenly pretend that during wartime conditions when the political atmosphere is even more closed than normal, the players having to show up somewhere or say something means anything is a total joke.
And then on the other hand you have a group of emboldened extremist Hezbollahis that also seem to view the entirety the World Cup and Team Melli as a continuation of one of their nightly street rallies and just another forum to shove their dumb political views down everyone's throats (as if you aren't doing that in 18 million different ways already).
And on Twitter there's been a mob of - and I'm choosing my words very carefully here - either cowards or utter morons, who are going around and harassing any Team Melli person here they don't view as having sufficient loyalty to their cult with the worst insults and attacks possible.
It's funny because they had 0 hesitation screaming to the world when Shahollahis try to mob people online and cyberbully (which is dumb and annoying), but then are doing LITERALLY THE EXACT SAME THING to the point both cults are indistinguishable.
- All this having been said, despite my annoyance and issues I mentioned, I support the team and wish them success.
It's a very doable group to get past. And the best way to deal with haters and doubters is success (we saw that after the Iran-Japan game).
We want to go back to the passion we loved the team with. And I hope their performance in this cup makes many new memories, makes Iranians all over the world happy, and gets us to a point where we can finally get over this curse of not getting past the Group Stages and be able to dream bigger.
World Cup rival watch 🇪🇬
Mesr win 1-0, poor game as Salah less Egypt didn’t look extremely convincing against a very experimental Russia side.
Goal shown below
https://t.co/3Dd4zMxSQ6
TM are due to play their first World Cup
game in 10 days time ⏳
Good news for the actual TM fans 😄
I LOVE TM AND I LOVE INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALL 🫡
All for Team Melli 💚❤️
برای وطنمان، مردممان و آیندهمان دعا میکنیم🤲🙏🏼
انشاالله موفق و پیروز خواهیم بود💚❤️
TM are due to play their first World Cup
game in 11 days time ⏳
Good news for the actual TM fans 😄
I LOVE TM AND I LOVE INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALL 🫡
All for Team Melli 💚❤️
برای وطنمان، مردممان و آیندهمان دعا میکنیم🤲🙏🏼
انشاالله موفق و پیروز خواهیم بود💚❤️
World Cup rival watch 🇳🇿
NZ lose 1-0 to England
Both teams struggling in the Tampa humidity
NZ lost every metric of the game but will have more confidence coming into the TM game as a result
https://t.co/q0zFNeVMzi
World Cup rival watch 🇳🇿
Haiti beat NZ 4-0
NZ being absolutely torn apart from open play with 3 goals coming down the middle and 1 from a cross — I’ve told everyone they aren’t sound at defending
A lot for AG to analyse
https://t.co/6qTbe5nDKq
Call us a random mid-major #16 seed in March because we will be busting brackets, upsetting big names and proving haters wrong on this Cinderella run 🫡💚❤️
Man, it's hard not to root for this team at the World Cup. These guys are being put through the wringer. Though that's often how Cinderella runs begin.
World Cup rival watch 🇧🇪
5-0 win v Tunisia who went down to 10 at 2-0
All goals coming from crosses or cutback sequences of play
Interesting to see how Egypt deal with it before we play them
https://t.co/0IFEMpMnwp
World Cup rival watch 🇧🇪
Belgium win 2-0 v Croatia
Game felt like a friendly, Croatia dominating possession but Belgium creating more chances
First goal Croatia failed to clear their lines and 2nd was a through ball counter
https://t.co/Yr2jqka6Ca
@robert84915 Watch Belgium play and all their chances are through crosses/cutbacks. North Macedonia twice and Kazakhstan once in qualifiers drew and nullified them, why can’t any of the teams in the group do? Regardless Egypt will play their haramball and we can adjust on what works and not