{"id":13599,"date":"2025-03-26T09:49:42","date_gmt":"2025-03-26T09:49:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/?p=13599"},"modified":"2025-03-26T09:49:43","modified_gmt":"2025-03-26T09:49:43","slug":"irans-coach-amir-ghalenoei-is-singing-the-praises-of-mehdi-taremi-for-impact-on-world-cup-qualification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/?p=13599","title":{"rendered":"Iran’s coach, Amir Ghalenoei, is singing the praises of Mehdi Taremi for impact on world cup qualification"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Iran coach Amir Ghalenoei praised Mehdi Taremi’s impact after the Inter Milan striker scored twice in a 2-2 draw with Uzbekistan on Tuesday that secured qualification for the 2026 World Cup finals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taremi<\/a> has endured an inconsistent season due to injury since joining the Italian side from Porto<\/a> on a free transfer last summer but his two goals made all the difference for the national team in Tehran<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“A great player must help both technically and physically,”<\/strong> Ghalenoei said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Taremi is one of them, and even though he plays for a great team and is not in good condition and could have missed the season, he played and was with the team and played for the people.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“He became the best player on the field and I am happy that, in most games, he is the best player on the field from the Iranian national team.”<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taremi’s first goal at the Azadi Stadium came in the 52nd minute when he smashed home a volley to cancel out Hojimat Erkinov<\/a>‘s 16th minute opener for the visitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And while Abbosbek Fayzullaev<\/a> restored Uzbekistan<\/a>‘s lead a minute later, it was Taremi who struck from close range seven minutes from time to secure the point Iran<\/a> required to secure their place at the finals in North America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Taremi’s goal-scoring display, which took his tally to 54 in 92 internationals, came after the 32-year-old missed Iran’s 2-0 win<\/a> over the United Arab Emirates<\/a> on Thursday due to illness while groin issues have impacted his season in Milan<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He has started only 14 times since his switch to Italy after five seasons as a prolific scorer in Portugal for Rio Ave<\/a> and Porto but his exploits on Tuesday helped Iran seal a fourth consecutive trip to the World Cup.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With their place now assured, Ghalenoei has set his sights on taking the Iranians into the knockout rounds of the expanded World Cup for the first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iran have never advanced beyond the group phase in their previous six appearances, winning just three out their 18 matches at the finals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Qualification was not an easy task,”<\/strong> said Ghalenoei. “Look at the capabilities of other teams and you will see that the players were able to achieve this qualification through difficult circumstances.”<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Iran coach Amir Ghalenoei praised Mehdi Taremi’s impact after the Inter Milan striker scored twice in a 2-2 draw with Uzbekistan on Tuesday that secured […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13600,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13599"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13599\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13602,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13599\/revisions\/13602"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}