Quieroz falters in our first game, but the referee and FIFA's insane insistence on having no technology tarnishing the beautiful game saves his & our hide.
With the start of the Asian World Cup qualifiers’ final
round, Iran had to travel to Uzbekistan to face one of their main rivals in
qualification to Brazil. But Iran was fortunate to face a depleted Uzbek side
that saw as many as 5 to 6 players, including stars like Maxim Shatskikh, Tursenov and Djebarov,
suspended by AFC for the game. This is the kind of opportunity that knocks one’s
door only once in a life-time and we all expected Quieroz to exploit this
opportunity to the hilt. Well weren’t we in for a gut-kicking surprise!
The first punch to the gut was when we saw the players walk
out onto the pitch and saw quite a new set of arrangement and roster set to
start the game. Traktorsazi’s Ebrahimi was the biggest surprise of the day as
his debut against Albania hardly encouraged anyone to think of him as a
contender for the coveted starting line up. The next and an even bigger
surprise was to see no recognized striker among the 11 man squad. What was
Quieroz thinking? And while we were raking our heads to find the answer to the
above, Pouladi’s absence just put the icing on the cake.
The 11 man team was Rahmati taking on the keeping spot with
Montazeri replacing Aghili as Hosseini’s partner in front with Mahini on the
right and Pejman Nouri on the left. Nekounam and Teymourian were the expected
defensive midfield duo. But then came the strange and I must confess, quite
irrational set of 4 players in front of this duo; Jabbari, Karimi, Hajsafi and
Ebrahimi. To say this was unexpected is a major understatement. Imagine having
your main qualifying opponents on the ropes due to major suspensions. One would think this is one
of those times you must grasp lady luck and squeeze the most out of it by dealing
a death blow to a direct qualifying rival, and that too away from home.
Apparently Mr. Carlos Quieroz didn’t think so! It seemed he is content with a nil-nil drab draw!!
The first 10-15 minutes of the game also went as expected
with the depleted Uzbek team coming in very cautiously and wary of getting hit
early on. But once they saw how toothless and impotent our team was, they got
more bold and adventurous and started to come out and attack us in droves. Not having a
forward in our team also helped them as
their defenders freely stepped up and joined with their midfielders to wrestle the
center of the pitch away. It took them no time to actually overwhelm our team
and dominate the middle of the park.
Well, it wasn’t only the lack of a forward in our team that
facilitated that, as we had quite a few players severely under-performing.
Karimi, perhaps had his age to use as excuse for coming in second best in
majority of the clashes. But Ebrahimi and definitely Jabbari had no such
excuses as these two faltered and bungled passes, runs and any direct clashes
with their opponents. It was almost physically painful to watch such a talented
line up (on paper) get owned and overwhelmed so easily and quickly by literally
Uzebkistan’s reserves.
On the left flank, having two lefties, Hajsafi and Nouri,
sort of made this side less vulnerable to the Uzbek attacks. But with Jabbari
and Ebrahimi strolling around the park aimlessly and quite uselessly, I must
add, the amount of pressure exerted on our right flank became too much to bear on the right fullback, Mahini. The
lad almost always faced at least two attacking opponents which almost always
got the better of him. So when Quieroz, late in the first half, subbed Ebrahimi
out for Heidari, there was relief that help and corrections will be on the way.
And Heidari did help slightly bolster the right flank as he relieved some of
the pressure off Mahini. But with Jabbari still aimlessly wandering around the
pitch, hardly connecting with any ball, each passing second became an agonizing
one for all of us as we wondered what Quieroz was doing or thinking by keeping
him on the pitch. Frankly nobody would have been surprised had he taken Jabbari
out at minute 20 of the first half itself. But he remained on the pitch for a scandalous
amount of time; about 72 minutes … resulting in pretty much zilch!
Nekounam’s biggest contribution in the game was his long
distant shot that proved too much for the Uzbek keeper, Nesterov, to handle and he spilled
it in a very dangerous fashion with the ball dropping feet away from him. But since we did not have
any forwards in the line up, ready to pounce on such balls, the keeper took a
few steps and calmly collected the ball with Karimi and Hajsafi as mere
onlookers from distance!
Jabbari’s first and only contribution to the match was when
he walked out of the pitch to make way for Khalatbari. Now, with at least one
recognized forward, our team took a semblance of shape and with him busying a
couple of Uzbek defenders, the amount of pressure on our midfield was reduced.
However, we must not forget to credit the ever hard-running Teymourian for his
relentless and tireless running to compensate for the lack of input from almost
everyone in the midfield, including the captain Nekounam.
But there was much drama awaiting us as the Uzbeks attacked
in waves with great pressing tactics, they finally found their way into the
goal off a set piece from Geynrikh, as first their shot was mishandled by Rahmati with the ball dropping mere feet
away, in front of their forward, Akhmedov, who in his haste hit the post. But the rebound
ball was finely met by another attacker and the ball seemed to have crossed the
line while Hosseini standing more or less inside our goal-line trying to kick
it away. The ball was kicked away and eventually it was kicked farther by the garbled
defense with many Uzbek players raising their arms, claiming the goal. But Nishimura, The
Japanese referee, didn’t think so as his linesman did not raise his flag. Perhaps
his view was obstructed by an Uzbek player blocking the view of the ball on
that side. But the TV replays showed the ball indeed had crossed the line and
this was a major tragedy for the deserving Uzbek team that gallantly took the
match by its scruff and despite their suspensions, applied massive pressure on
us.
After that extra lucky break, Quieroz finally brought in
another striker, Ansarifard, for Hajsafi and finally made the team look like a
real team with two strikers. And that was when for one last time lady luck
smiled upon our team. During a final push by the hosts, the never-tiring
Teymourian got into the thick of things with two Uzbek midfielders and came up
trumps. His pass to the runner, Ansarifard was well timed and placed. But with
a glance at the other flank, the most exquisite of passes from the young Ansarifard
saw the ball passed to the on-rushing Khalatbari who slotted the ball first
time (quite a departure from traditional Iranian strikers’ habit of over-handling
the balls) into goal with mere seconds to spare.
One can only feel sad for the unlucky Uzbek team that truly deserved at least a draw. But they will come back stronger and should not be underestimated in their return tie in Tehran.
This win was unbelievable and a tremendous stroke of luck.
It also spared Quieroz and Team Melli much blushes as they severely
under-performed against an almost reserves side. I’m afraid we used up our entire depository of luck for the duration of
the campaign, all in one game. Quieroz may “announce” to the press he was
satisfied with the team and it was all “planned”. But we know better. He has no
more room nor excuse to turn up for Team Melli’s following games. Yes, he has a
great resume’ filled with great teams and names. But that hardly matters when
he gets the starting line up wrong and takes scandalously large amount of time
to remedy his wrong picks. We face Qatar in our next game at home and that
should be his best chance to put all the doubts to rest and calm all the
nerves.
Highlights of the game, courtesy of PFDC-TV :
click here
