Player ratings

RAHMATI – 7.5
He did have a couple of fantastic saves. But he also conceded a goal (that should have been given) and he showed he hasn’t remedied his weakness on crosses. Are his faltering days behind him?

MAHINI – 5.5
He was left stranded on the right side, no thanks to our prima-donna Jabbari refusing to do ANY DAMN THING. But he also did have a horrible back pass that almost led to a goal. and a few other mistakes that reduce his score. I expected more from him.

MONTAZERI - 6
He proved trusting him to pair up with Hosseini may not be a bad idea. I’d say lets maintain this duo in the central defense. A few mistakes here and there. But nothing out of ordinary given Iranian football and its low productivity in defense

HOSSEINI – 6.5
Same as Montazeri. I like this duo. Seems more intelligent than the Aghili-Hosseini one. He also had a direct influence on the Uzbek goal not being counted.

NOURI – 5.5
Seemed to be everywhere. A total work horse. But with Quieroz putting 2 lefties on the left side, they all covered each other well (unlike the right side where only Mahini was to handle all the attacks!) had a few hic-ups though

NEKOUNAM – 5
Almost all his score is for his shot (which if we had a forward in the line up, he’d have pounced on the spilled rebound ball and scored. But it seems Quieroz didn’t like teams with forwards until minute 75!!!). had a few good passes and acts. But was very invisible for long periods too

TEYMOURIAN – 7.5
He basically made up our midfield belt and compensated for Jabbari’s non-presence and Nekounam’s low visibility. His few bad passes, therefor, can be forgiven.

HAJSAFI – 6
He ran a lot and helped cement our left side. Not much in going forward though. I wonder why Pouladi didn’t play.

KARIMI – 5
Again, like Nekounam had a few instances of productivity, but was marked out of the game by tough marksmen. I'm afraid his age is slowly catching up to the maestro.

JABBARI – 1
This score of 1 is for the ONLY thing he did the entire game that proved useful for the team: walk out of the pitch to make way for Khalatbari. What a waste of spot!

EBRAHIMI – 3.5
Was totally out of place and was invisible. His exit was totally justified. He isn’t a natural striker and obviously didn’t have any impact on the team’s scant few attacks. I wasn’t impressed with him. But it doesn’t mean he should be dropped from the overall Team Melli roster.

HEIDARI – 6
His entry did bring a bit of stability to the right side as he, unlike prima-donna Jabbari, did help with the defense and ran more to cover more areas. That’s why we saw less mistakes by Mahini too. But nothing really special in the day almost the entire team played badly

KHALATBARI – 7.5
For his short stint he certainly did have a major impact on the team and the result. I really wonder why Quieroz didn’t bring him in the first half for Ebrahimi or Jabbari

ANSARIFARD – 7.5
Mainly for his fantastic and precise pass to Khalatbari. A short stint, but he took full advantage of it.


THE TEAM – 6
Mostly because we won and got the 3 points. But the quality of their performance was very very low.

Carlos Quieroz – 6
Until minute 75, and seeing his starting line up (without a single forward) and persistence with Jabbari and even Karimi, I’d have given him a score of ‘3’. The other 3 is for his last two subs who took care of the job. Our first game wasn’t very convincing and left a LOT to be desired. Be it with line up, strategy, team-work, … etc. I expect (and we ALL should expect) more from a coach with his resume.

Quieroz begins our World Cup campaign

Carlos Quieroz began his and our Team Melli’s World Cup campaign with a sound victory over the minnows of the group, Indonesia. The scoreline of 3-0 was attractive enough for the general fan, as it was also important to start the games with a confidence boosting victory. However, the way the team played left much to be desired. Despite the overall team performance showed signs of improvement in some periods of the game, but the overall quality of the team was nothing to write home about.

Next was the away game to Qatar. Had anyone proposed an away scoreline of 1-1 prior to the game, I’m sure many fans would have taken it. However the sheer number of chances created up front for our strikers and especially the three golden chances for Karim Ansarifard, all of which he scoffed with rather meek and lackluster shots that resembled mere passes to the opposition keeper, left me wondering what if we had a more competent selection and staring line up. We could have easily taken the game and perhaps finished handsomely by 2-3 goals margin. But Qatar got away with a draw and we hopefully will not reach a position to rue all those wasted opportunities. The hosts’ goal was a very soft one where they exploited the confusion created in the middle of our defense and slotted a goal to salvage a point for them. One cant and shouldn’t blame the loss of two points on the young Ansarifard and despite the knee jerk reactions of some fans, I still believe he has enough talent to remain in our overall squad. However, he can certainly work on his final shots and not try to insist too much on a silky touch or tap-in. Sometimes a little power is what the doctor prescribes.

Speaking of player selection and starting line up, I have a bone to pick with our new coach. Either it is is untimely vacation at the beginning of the league season that deprived him of keeping an eye on the in-form players or perhaps his reliance on his Iranian assistants to pick the right players that ended up with a roster that included a few our of form players, one or two of whom actually found their way into the starting line up as well!! Gholamreza Rezaei is a talented player with good amount of pace to create trouble for almost any Asian team’s defense. But in recent months he hasn’t been in form and that productive. Yes he still makes fast runs up and down and zig-zags to the middle with the same pace. But all these moves show no real purpose or design and at times they  even hinder the team’s attack. And yet, we see him not only picked for these games, he was also put in the starting line up. I can strongly say he was one of the weakest players in the first match with long periods of absence in the game until he was subbed (too late in my opinion) near the end of the game. And despite this weak performance, he was yet again in the next game’s starting line up and stayed on while more productive players like Khalatbari and Karimi were subbed out!

At the same time, the absence or neglect of the league’s top goal scorer, Reza Nowroozi of Foulad in any of Quieroz’s rosters (no matter how many he calls up) is something of an enigma. Surely in a 30+ man squad with  a handful of out of form players there is room for the league’s top scorer. That’s what any sensible, logical person would think. And yet … .

With the Bahrain game looming one can only hope with more serious outlook towards the league players and hopefully with more coordination among the players with some sound strategies, we should be able to get the 3 points and put some distance between ourselves and the rest of the group.

Quieroz starts with a stutter in his first showing

There's nothing much to write about, except that this wasnt exactly the kind of start a new coach would wish for. Facing a team ranked at 138th place in Fifa ranking, with many of its main players missing (mostly in the French leagues), at home with all your players available to you and still winning on a throw-in and a defender's header doesnt exactly inspire confidence in the football fans.

It is no wonder despite the game being announced as free, a mere 8 thousand fans gathered to witness Quieroz's debut. Having said all that, I have to add this game should not be the basis for any theories or judgments. As Iranian players have been notorious in taking some games far too lightly when facing a smaller team. I shall keep my assessment of Quieroz's ability to cope with Iranian football for a later date when we actually meet with a decent opponent.

A new day

With a new day and a new chapter for Iranian national team, known as "Team Melli" all Iranian fans' eyes will be glued to the new roster and how Iran's new coach, one Carlos Queiroz starts his campaign in Iran. Queiroz, who has had stints in Manchester United, Real Madrid and Portugal's youth and seniors' national team, is reputed to have a keen eye in spotting and scouting young talent, introducing now-established stars like a certain Cristiano Ronaldo, Ruis Costa and Luis Figo.



At the outset the Portuguese coach has called up a larger pool of players out of which he will be selecting his final 23 man squad for the upcoming official games. He has decided to reveal his picks of Persepolis, Sepahan and Zob-Ahan, due to participating in Asian Champions League and Iran’s Hazfi cup, at a later date.

Esteghlal Tehran - Sadeghi, Montazeri, Jabbari, Borhani, Mobali
Traktor Sazi Tabriz - Teymourian, Ebrahimi, Nosrati, Mohammadi
Mes Kerman - Dehnavi, Seifi, Pouladi
Steel Azin - Gholami, Zeneiedpour
Shahrdari Tabriz - Daghighi, Baou
Rahahan - Roudbarian, Abdi
Foolad Khuzestan - R. Noroozi, Hamoudi
Malavan Anzali - Noori, Oladi
Saipa Karaj - Abbas Rezaei
Sanat Naft Abadan - Arab
Shahin Bushehr - Karami
Peykan Ghazvin - Mirzapour
And we see the return of one of the most popular players in recent history; Ali Karimi.

With the expected call ups from the 3 aforementioned teams, we can consider CQ has a very hard task of choosing his final roster from this pool of players.