With the sweet qualification campaign for the Olympics still fresh in everyone’s memory, internal problems started to brew. A trip to the Soviet Union for some friendlies had the IFF and club team Shahin clashing over coaching decisions and as a result six Shahin players were banned from playing for the national team (although some claim the exclusions were for political reasons). Already depleted by the absence of Barmaki, Behzadi, Shahrokhi, Shirzadegan, Jasemian and Vatankhah for its Olympic matches in Japan, Ranjbar also withdrew from the squad due to personal reasons. Fekri, the team coach at the time had no choice but to bring in younger players such as Mostafavi, Ghelichkhani and Esmaeili as replacements and while these seven new players had potential but they had yet to experience the high paced game of international soccer, specifically that of East Germany, Mexico and Romania.
The result was catastrophic. A German side who seemed superior in all aspects did as it pleased en route to a 4-0 victory.
Iran regained some pride in its 2nd game in a well fought 1-1 tie with Mexico with the equalizing goal coming from the penalty spot by Nayyerloo. One of the more talked about scenes from the game was the discovery of a hole on the field and the 10 minutes it took to fill it up.
A win against Romania in the final group match would have left a mathematical chance of advancing depending on the result of the East Germany-Mexico match, but in spite of a solid performance, it was the Romanians who prevailed by a score of 1-0. Thus Iran ended its games by finishing last in the group and was eliminated in the first stage of its 1st Olympic venture.
Iran roster: Asli, Bayati, Mirzaei, Arab, Habibi, Mostafavi, Latifi, Jamali, Talebi, Noorian, Nayyerloo, Fanaei, Esmaili, Ghelichkhani, Amirasefi, Saedi, Khodaparast. Coach: Fekri
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