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No, Iran didn’t make it all the way to the finals or semifinals, actually they didn’t even make it past the group stage, but they did beat the United States 2-1 in a group match for their first ever World Cup victory. For many Iranian fans that was sweeter than winning the whole thing.

This time around, Iran will be hoping to go a little further into the tournament but after getting placed in a group with Mexico, Portugal and Angola, the task of making into the second round will be very difficult for the Iranians.

"We've landed in a real 'group of death', but I'm not saying qualifying for the round of 16 will be easy. There's no such thing as easy opponents in football today. Any team good enough to qualify for the World Cup has a point to prove to the watching world. Our group is just as difficult as many other groups, so we'll have to work very hard if we want to make the next round," explained the Iranian Coach Branko Ivankovic in an interview with FIFAworldcup.com.

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Currently ranked 23rd in the FIFA World Rankings, many are calling this Iranian squad their best ever. With four of their top players playing in the German Bundesliga (Ali Karimi - Bayern Munchen, Mehdi Mahdavikia -Hamburg, Vahid Hashemian - Hannover 96 and Ferydoon Zandi – Kaiserslautern), the Iranians add a lot of international experience to go along with their young talent.

With their quartet of Bundesliga players, Ivankovic is hoping that playing the World Cup in Germany will form into some sort of home advantage and benefit his team. “Obviously it has to be a point in our favour. All our overseas players operate in Germany. We have enormous experience of German football, and we know what to expect in terms of the atmosphere and the stadiums," Mahdavikia went onto say in the interview.  

Iran opens their tournament on June 11th against Mexico with their next match coming on June 17th against Portugal. Iran will probably need a historic victory in one of those two matches to set up a very meaningful final match with Angola on June 21st and have a shot at advancing to the second round for first time ever.

The Iranians currently sit at 7/2 odds to advance to the second round, while Portugal is the most favored to advance at 1/7 odds , followed by Mexico at 1/4 odds and Angola the least unlikely to advance at 4/1 odds .

Iran drew 2-2 with Croatia in recent friendly match in Zagreb – an encouraging result for the squad.