March 14, 2018 By Sahr Morris Jr
Sierra Leone midfielder, Nathaniel Tongovula in action during WAFU tournament in Ghana
Sierra Leone national team, Leone Stars, will today, Wednesday, March 14, depart the country’s shores for Tehran, Iran, ahead of their friendly international clash against Iran on March 17 at 3:30 p.m. local time (1200 GMT) at Azadi Stadium.
Saturday’s clash will be Team Melli first 2018 World Cup warm-up friendly encounter and the first time they would be facing the West Africa side in an international match.
Coach John Keister will be expecting to have the service of four professional players; Kwame Quee, Sorie Barrie, Thomas Sebora Koroma and Abdul Sesay plus 17 home-based.
Meanwhile, Keister’s counterpart, Carlos Queiroz, has already named his 22-man Iran squad for the friendly match against Sierra Leone.
The Iran squad includes; Goalkeepers: Alireza Beiranvand, Hamed Lak, Hossein Hosseini, Rashid Mazaheri
Defenders: Vouria Ghafouri, Ramin Rezaeian, Jalal Hosseini, Mohammad Ansari, Saeid Aghaei, Rouzbeh Cheshmi, Pejman Montazeri, Mohammad Reza Khanzadeh
Midfielders: Omid Nourafkan, Ali Karimi, Kamal Kamyabinia, Ahmad Abdollahzadeh, Omid Ebrahimi
Strikers: Vahid Amiri, Ali Gholizadeh, Kaveh Rezaei, Mehdi Torabi, Ali Alipour