6/10/2006
By SLOBODAN LEKIC, Associated Press

NUREMBERG, Germany – Iran will alter its lineup for Sunday's opening World Cup match against Mexico because of an injury to defender Sattar Zare and ill midfielder Ferydoon Zandi.

Zare hurt his knee in Friday's training and likely will be replaced on the roster by Pas Tehran left back Hadi Shakouri after FIFA approves the change, coach Branko Ivankovic said.

Kaiserslautern's Zandi still hasn't recovered from the flu, he said.

"We are going into this game with a big hope," Ivankovic said after the final training session Saturday evening at Nuremberg's Frankenstadion.

He announced Ebrahim Mirzapour as his goalkeeper and said the rest of the starting lineup will be chosen from Hossein Kaebi, Rahman Rezaei, Yahya GolMohammadi, Mohammad Nosrati, Amir Sadeghi, Andranik Taymoorian, Javad Nekonam, Mehdi Mahdavikia, Ali Karimi, Vahid Hashemian and Ali Daei.

Iran usually plays in a 4-4-2 formation, but Ivankovic said he might modify it.

"During the last two years we used 2-3 different systems which we can change very successfully during the match," he said.

During the media conference, Ivankovic brushed off any questions dealing with political issues.

"We are here because of the game … political questions are not for us or for the people here," he said, noting that FIFA's official motto for the World Cup was "A time to make friends."