Iran defender Rahman Rezaei has questioned the professionalism of his team's preparations for the World Cup after the Asian nation exited the finals with a 1-1 draw with Angola.

Rezaei, who plays his club football for Italian outfit Messina, and his team-mates arrived in Germany with many in Iran believing they could challenge Mexico and Portugal for a place in the second round of the finals but ended up finishing bottom of Group D with just one point from three games.

"We had some physical problems," said the 31-year-old former Perugia defender. "We couldn't run enough and we were not able to understand how we were progressing day by day and week by week.

"It's normal at club level to have proper testing and treatment so you can see how you are improving but we don't have that with Iran. We did a lot of training but it wasn't so professional."

Speculation was rife throughout the tournament that the Iran team was divided, primarily due to the inclusion of veteran striker Ali Daei in the starting line-up.

And there was further strife within the camp when Bayern Munich star Ali Karimi refused to play in the Angola game following a bust-up with coach Branko Ivankovic when he decided to replace the former Pirouzi man during the 2-0 loss to Portugal.

Rezaei, however, downplayed the talk of a divided team and blamed the lack of proper preparation for his team's failure.

"As a team we don't have any problems," he said. "We may have some different ideas but as a team we don't have any problems.

"I think we didn't prepare ourselves well enough and we didn't take coming to the World Cup seriously enough. On paper we were very strong, we were winners, but on the pitch we were nothing."

However, the Iranians are already feeling the fall-out of a disappointing performance.

Head coach Ivankovic has said he will not renew his contract while Mohammad Dadgan, the Iranian football federation's president, was fired by the country's physical education committee immediately after the draw with Angola.

Ivankovic in particular has come in for criticism, but SV Hamburg midfielder Mehdi Mahdavikia felt the entire team should be held accountable.

"It's not only Branko who is to blame," said the former Asian player of the year. "It's not fair to focus on him. When a team loses a game everyone focuses on the coach.

"We did not show the real image of our football at the World Cup. In the first game, against Mexico, we were a little unlucky, we should have won that game but in the second game against Portugal we did our best and we have to accept that Portugal were better than us. Against Angola we deserved to win but we couldn't."