Goalkeeper of the national handball team: We will have a hard time in Asia

According to Mehr reporter, the first camp of Iran's men's national handball team has been held since last week in Tehran, with the presence of 17 players, including 5 legionnaires of our country, led by Spanish head coach Rafael Castillo. The national handball team of our country will hold two preparatory games with the Iraqi national team in addition to this training camp.

Mohammad Siavashi, the goalkeeper of the men's national handball team, said about the team's first friendly match against Iraq and winning with his teammates: “It was a good game.” Before the start of the game, we predicted that we will not have a very difficult game. Although Iraq has a good team, it is not our competitor in Asia. Our main competitors in Asia are Qatar, Bahrain, Korea, Japan and Kuwait.

He stated that the team's first preparatory game against the Iraqi team was a very good game and continued: Finally, all the teams joined hands to win this game. Now the result is not very important, whether it is one goal or 10 goals, it doesn't matter. Finally, we should have won this game because Rafael's presence should be shown, which is effective for the team. Young players really planted flowers in this game. I hope that this upward trend of the team will continue and in the next games we will be able to make a good progress in Asia and get closer to the main competitors.

Our country's legionary handball player also said about the rejuvenation of the Iranian national handball team: As you can see, the team is a combination of young players and players who play in Europe. We have five young players who play in Europe. We should use these young people and give them value and field and trust these young people. Thank God, Raphael has a good moral and gives young players a field in the game and gives them confidence. The player does not complain and we can definitely see the good results of these young players in this way.

Stating that our work in the Nagoya Games in Japan is very difficult, he clarified: The main goal of the team is to successfully participate in the Asian Games. We will not have an easy task at all. Now I feel like we're out of Tier 1 and into Tier 2 or 3. Now it doesn't make much difference to us, but we will definitely be in a difficult group in the competitions.

Siavashi continued: We should do all our efforts after Nowruz holidays and have better camps. We have to play with bigger teams, even bigger European teams, of course we have to have camps with good Asian teams like South Korea, Japan, Qatar or Bahrain. If we can play with these teams several times, we can certainly play a good game against them in the Asian Games and the Asian Nations Cup and even win.

He pointed out: Despite Raphael, it is possible to reach a conclusion. In general, the Spanish system is very close to our system and they are naturally kind people. They don't get nervous and they know that this is our handball capacity. He doesn't push himself too hard and doesn't expect too much. My feeling and that of all the players is that we can qualify for the World Cup and even be on the podium in the next round of the Asian Championship.