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We are out!

June 17th, 2006 | By: Afshin Afshar | 55 Comments »

Oh well! At least the boys played a lot better than the second half against Mexico. The effort was there, but I question Ivankovic’s arrangement.

Hashemian as a lone striker was out numbered and neutralized. He had no help up front. Zandi should have replace Nekounam who seemed too tired in the second half, and Borhani should have replaced the injured Karimi.

Anyway, it was good while it lasted guys. One more game and then we can focus on the Asian Cup!

Tags: Group D

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Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 55 comments.

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By kia | June 18th, 2006 at 3:57 am

Our defense was good today! However like always, just defending will not get you anywhere at the end of the day. We should have attacked more. Same story over and over…. Let’s see what happens against Angola. I bet if we try to only defend, we’ll lose again. No matter how good Rezai, Kaebi, and Nosrati paly!

Posted from United States

By Cyrus | June 18th, 2006 at 4:21 am

If you notice when Iran plays defensive if they get the ball they just kick it forward. This means that the opposing team gets the ball back very quickly and they can start attacking again. Kicking the ball away results in a larger number of attacks on Iran’s goal compared to a team that controls the ball and doesn’t just kick it away. It also means that we won’t be able to feed our forwards and provide them with any chances to attack and score. It also kills less time, which works against the entire defensive plan.

If you look at how other more effective teams defend (or even teams like Ghana and Angola) when their defense gets the ball they don’t just kick it away. They control the ball, pass it to their midfield, which in turn tries to get it to the forwards. Even if you don’t succeed at getting the ball to the forwards and create an attacking opportunity, at least you make the other team work harder to get the ball back. You also kill more time this way than just kicking the ball back to the midfield.

This problem is not just limited to our current team. Iran’s teams have always played this way. Same thing goes for our club teams as well. In fact that’s the root of the problem because we don’t train our players properly at the club level.

Posted from Canada

By Shahed | June 18th, 2006 at 4:41 am

Im just hoping we can play full throttle offence (i mean attack :)) against angola. That way we can exert all our anger out on them by thrashing them
6-0 (Like argentina did to SCG).

We should play 4-3-3, with Borhani and Enayati getting a start.

Also Ivankovic needs to be able adapt to changes in the game. Why didnt he put two defenders on the left wing to cover Ronaldo. Instead, he just played the flat four!

Posted from Australia

By sandy | June 18th, 2006 at 4:55 am

persian

I am not complaining……what i ahve said is the truth! The refing sucked in the begining for both teams and as 12 of us sad there we all seen that your palyer was not touched in the face as he played it out. Now what can you say about Figo getting kicked in the face??? No call??
You guys played better then i ever though you would and you should be proud!!
However…..as i have read….complaining within the group and with the couch will only hurt you. We now..look at what happened to us in 2002.

Good try

Posted from Canada

By Rob | June 18th, 2006 at 4:55 am

I’m actually surprised nobody has mentioned the play of Ebrahim Mirzapour as a positive point. I thought he was probably the best player on the pitch for Iran and kept them in it most of the game.

Posted from United Kingdom

By Rob | June 18th, 2006 at 4:57 am

edit: I see Cyrus has mentioned it already, sorry I missed that before.

Posted from United Kingdom

By sandy | June 18th, 2006 at 4:59 am

persian

PS….to Persian…if i am complainig…and tanting you guys what do you call what you wrote on our blog??

We beat you far and square

Posted from Canada

By atefe | June 18th, 2006 at 6:27 am

last night was terribel…all poor people were in streets they were making theirselves to make a big ceremony in the streets….they all had irans flag …and color their faces with irans flag colors…but after mach all eyes were crying…damn branko…u made 70 million eyes to cry,,,,

Posted from Islamic Republic Of Iran

By 1 | June 18th, 2006 at 6:52 am

THATS TRUE THAT PORTUGAL WAS SO BETTER THAN US…but we loos this game to our coach!

Posted from Islamic Republic Of Iran

By Kia | June 18th, 2006 at 6:59 am

This is sad but the problems with our team are WAY deeper than this! It seems like Karimi has formed his little group agaist Daei’s crowd and they have been fighting with each other during the whole camp.. Also, Karimi kicked the medical bag towards branko after going off the pitch. I guess he sat on the ground for 20 min even after the game until has was asked to join the team in the bus! Read, the newspapers in Iran and footballmedia.net and all the other Iranian football sites! Ali (Karimi) has said that he might not even play the next game. This is just very sad. This is why we are never good in team sports. We need to learn from our mistakes and change this culture!

Posted from United States

By Rassi | June 18th, 2006 at 7:47 am

Cyrus is correct. Very correct.
If Iran played portual 10 times we would only win 1 time. Regarless of coach.
Most of our players back home do not have the reaction time, speed and decision making as a team to compete with the likes of Portugal for now. You wounder how much better Iran would play in South Africa 2010 if we played the likes of Portugal regularly but no, we get Macedonia, Slovakia and Azerbijan? Or if more of our local based players go out to European power houses? Brazil has 400 player playing in Europe, o.k there on top but having 5 out of country of 80 million is only a start we should double that number in the future. We should not have our heads down-however we need to realize our weakness is not the coach, or Daei or an indiviual its the team.

Posted from Switzerland

By kia | June 18th, 2006 at 8:49 am

Shahed,

we will never trash Angola 6-0. Angola is a good team. Their defence is more solid that ours. If we play an attacking game we might be able to beat them.

Posted from United States

By kia | June 18th, 2006 at 9:01 am

Kia, where do you have this information from?! Who is in each group? And if this is ture, is that the reason that Karimi has not been performing recently or is that really due to his injury? That’s sad. I thought, with this team, this sort of thing was history.

Posted from United States

By kia | June 18th, 2006 at 9:08 am

Rassi,

There probably is no question we are not in the same level of Portugal. However, with good coaching decisions and direction we could have had a much better showing than what we saw. We all know we have serious shortcomings in defence, we could have made up for some that by playing an attacking game! We might have lost anyway but also score a goal or two! We could have probaly defeat Mexico or at least tie with them. We are not really worse than Angola. Our strengths lays else where (in offense) but we are not any worse than them.

Posted from United States

By Navid | June 18th, 2006 at 9:29 am

Kia jan i think that change of culture starts with us,first.I think WE should not allow any part of the TEAM to function outside of it’s assigned tasks…remember Azizi? and his attitude?What a terrible loss was it to himself and the team and the whole nation..yet we allowed his popularity to go that far…
I also beleive the ever growing “worthless” sports media we have,would do anything they can to pop up their circulation and simply make some news..and have a lot to do with this.

Posted from United States

By Kia | June 18th, 2006 at 11:20 am

kia: just read the newspapers in Iran!
http://www.iran-varzeshi.com/1385/850328/html/footbal1.htm#s198753
http://www.khabars.net/default.aspx?iid=2067
http://www.khabars.net/Detail.aspx?cid=72948&catid=454&iid=2067
http://www.khabars.net/Detail.aspx?cid=72890&catid=454&iid=2067
http://www.alborzsport.net/tommorow/P03_w850328.PDF
http://www.kayhanvarzeshi.com/850328/index.htm
threre are a lot more!
Also, this artile is a must read story from one of the admins in persianfootball.com This really talks about the problems..
http://persianfootball.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30037
I agree with Navid! We have to change this culture. I see Asians, Africans, Europeans, South Americans.. EVERYONE have each other’s backs except us! this is messed up. We all Iranians should learn this lesson and support each other, otherwise, we’ll still be dealing with the same crap in 2010 and beyond!

Posted from United States

By Rassi | June 18th, 2006 at 2:18 pm

Dear Kia,

Absolutely, I hope we can see it come together. In the year 2009 we will face not only Korea and Japan but also Australia for qualification to WC. So definitely Asia will continue to progress and toughen up for South Africa. We should NEVER tie Syria, Baharain,Jordan etc. 0-0 but trash them by four goals in Asian Competitions in the coming years. Lastly, I wounder what the effect of a friendly against Spain would have been on the outcome. Hopefully, the system around Team Melli will also mature and progress. Always, an Iranian Fan. Rassi

Posted from Switzerland

By Shahed | June 18th, 2006 at 2:20 pm

Kia,

We can smach Angola 6-0 (ok so maybe not 6-0). The mexican defense is at least twice that of the angolan defence (with marquez and co.) But think about the first 20 mins of the mexico game, we were dominating. If we can play like that then we can leave the world cup on a positive note :).

Posted from Australia

By bobak | June 18th, 2006 at 2:32 pm

Mahdavikia was a star player - really held up the team. Defensively we were a great team, especially against one of the world’s best - Portugal. Was just a shame that we couldnt defend and score and in the end we left gaps which were exploited.
Very sad to see us out of another world cup. Was just a shame to see the protests which should not have been linked with Iran’s football!!

By Stranger | June 18th, 2006 at 4:50 pm

Interesting news about Team Melli is getting published here and there confirming previously heard rumors about internal issues of the team. Gooya News have some of them which have been published in Iranian newspapers (all in Persian)!

Posted from United States

By Shahed | June 18th, 2006 at 5:14 pm

Damn it. I knew I should’ve read those Ma’nawy Mathnawy books my aunt gave me….maybe my persian would’ve been better.

Posted from Australia

By Stranger | June 18th, 2006 at 5:45 pm

Shahed,
It is not too late, you can start now!
Off the record advice: any body starts reading Mathnawy(?), should first reads “Khatoon & Khar” story! “Beshno az ney” is so depressing to start with, I think!

Posted from United States

By Navid | June 18th, 2006 at 7:11 pm

NO on the contrary:
“Beshno az ney chon hekayat mikonad
Az jodaiiha shekayat mikonad” And “JODAIHA”is EXACTLY what all we Iranians are suffering from.from the team melli level,to the NATION level..
As to the other story,…LOl lets not talk about it now..
WHERE..ARE..YOU..PAYAM!!
bi hamegan besar shavad
bito besar nemishavad
we miss you!

Posted from United States

By persian | June 18th, 2006 at 9:59 pm

sandy i kne they were gonna lose to you and mexico. dont blame the call on me tell that to fifa.

Posted from United States

By Etelaat | June 20th, 2006 at 8:06 am

I look at many little teams that were able to pull it off so good.It represent that it is not only the coach or players. It’s also the culture,country,feelings,expectation(tavaghoate beekhode).
When you see teams like Purtogal,Brazil,Ecuador,Germany….play so well it’s not only the futbal it’s also into their culture,food,political atomosphere,respect of team mate,coach,women,wife husband audience,expectation of people and so fort. So why not we can’t start changing ourself for better and have capacity to change within ourself.If we do that then it’s time for real futbal.
I’m looking at the dayss of Ali Parvin,Ghlichkhanee,Roshan,Kalani,Bagheri,Hejazee and so fort.

Posted from United States

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