Iran's schedule for the final round of Brazil Qualifiers

Iran's schedule and sequence of games for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers in 2012 and 2013:

WCQ 4.1: (June 03 2012): Uzbekistan/Iraq - Iran

 
WCQ 4.2: (June 08 2012): (Bye)
 

WCQ 4.3: (June 12 2012): Iran - Jordan/Qatar
 

WCQ 4.4: (Sep. 11 2013): Oman/Lebanon - Iran
 

WCQ 4.5: (Oct. 16 2013): Iran - Australia/Korea Rep.
 

WCQ 4.6: (Nov. 14 2013): Iran - Uzbekistan/Iraq

------------------------------------2O13----------------------------------
 

WCQ 4.7: (Mar. 26 2013): (Bye)
 

WCQ 4.8: (June 04 2013): Jordan/Qatar - Iran
 

WCQ 4.9: (June 11 2013): Iran - Oman/Lebanon
 

WCQ 4.10:(June 18 2013): Australia/Korea Rep. - Iran
 

And if we have wasted precious opportunity in clinching a direct qualification and come third in our group, we have to observe the following schedule for the rest of the qualifiers:

WCQ 5.1: (Sep. 06 2013): Playoff - Relegation Game 1 between 3rd. Group A vs. 3rd Group B
 

WCQ 5.2: (Sep. 10 2013): Playoff - Relegation Game 2 between 3rd. Group B vs. 3rd Group A
 

WCQ 6.1: (Oct. 15 2013): Playoff - Relegation Game 1 between Asia vs. South America
 

WCQ 6.2: (Nov. 19 2013): Playoff - Relegation Game 2 between South America vs. Asia
 

WC DRAW (December 2013): WC Groups Draw

What interests me is the last patch of games that are played between June 4th to June 18th in 2013, where we have to play two away games sandwiching a home game. But what's more worrying is the amount of travel involved in these three games, especially the last one which is either to the far east (if South Korea is in our group) or even farther, to down under (if Australia is in our group). I sincerely hope we have sown up the qualification by this time that leaves no if's and but's ... as is, unfortunately, the tradition with Iran's campaigns.

Iran through to the final WC Qualifiers round

Iran finally books its ticket to the final round of World Cup Qualifiers with their historic win over Bahrain by a whopping scoreline of 6-0. That put a massive wrench in the business of Bahrain in their quest to qualify for the final round. And Team Melli cemented their qualification with a 4-1 away win in Indonesia.

But we still one game against the Qatari team that got away from us and escaped with a draw, no thanks to numerous misses by our forwards, especially the young Ansarifard.

Below are my observations from our last group game in Tehran facing a desperate Qatar.

FIRST HALF -

Good pace from the team and I liked how they pressed high and hard in the beginning of the game and they were awarded for their press with the great goal from Dejagah. Some really nice and slick passing that was sorely missing against Jordan.

I liked how Dejagah settled in so quickly and so well to combine with Heidari and Karimi on the right side. Shows his high intelligence. For someone who hasn’t really watched his games until today I must admit he used his physicality pretty well and controlled the ball very well. I think he is a very good addition to our TM, his debut goal notwithstanding.

Speaking of intelligence let me make a note on its shortage in our goal keeper, Rahmati. Once again his exit that led to the penalty showed he doesn’t really use all his faculties up there, while the Qatari player was going AWAY from the goal and had no place to go to! He could have merely formed a block to the player while the ball was speeding out. Somebody ought to work with him and somehow teach him to play a more intelligent football.

So far, in the first half, Karimi except a few nice tricks and dribbles has unfortunately been one of our weakest players …. surprisingly since he had a great game against Jordan. I hope he gets it together as he plays in a very important spot, right behind the center forward and in charge of playmaking. So this amount of turnover is alarming.

I expect the team to step it up and finish the job as we get close to minutes 75 or so.


SECOND HALF –

Wow. Pouladi’s crosses have been magnificent throughout.

I don’t care what you read on the score board. I’m going to call it 3-2 just because of Nekounam’s  cruise missile that hit the bar. Somebody check the goal post. There must be a massive dent on it now.

Absolutely delicious freekick by Dejagah who hasn’t wasted time to endear himself to the Iranian fans.

Khalatbari’s subbing was a bit of question mark for me. He was a live wire and doing great putting pressure on the Qatari right back, keeping him at bay. I thought a more straight forward exchange would have been Nouri for Karimi who wasn’t doing much and had a weak first half. I really want to know why Khalatbari and not Karimi. Does it have anything to do with seniority? Should that be a factor?

And because Karimi was weak, poor Ghazi was not fed properly and was reduced to merely running after loose balls, trying to make something out of them! So I really doubt our softie, Ansarifard’s soft, gentle touches are going to make much of a difference. I’d say Ghazi is far more useful for the team than Ansarifard who hardly participates in defense like ghazi, and has a very weak physical game (which fits his soft, gentle touches of the ball).

Qatar’s second goal.  Once again we revisit Nekounam’s old weakness which is not marking/tailing his man. He takes a couple of steps in and surprisingly STOPS … allowing the Qatari attacker to head in with absolutely no hinderance! Well, what the hell? How many times are we going to see this from one of the most experienced players in the team?

I really hope our laxity in dealing with Qatar and putting them away doesn’t come around and bite our arses in the next round. Given their hosting of the WC and AFC/FIFA needing them to at least qualify on their own merit at least once, which means AFC will do everything possible to see them through. Which means a mountain of trouble for whoever that’s in their group!

Iran - Bahrain | Full Highlights [ WCQ 2014 ] - خلاصه بازی ایران و بحرین

Highlights of the Iran-Bahrain game (courtesy of PFDC-TV , www.persianfootball.com )

Battering Bahrain, Iran finally exorcises a ghost

If the ghosts of the 2001 match in Manama were not exorcised by  the  4-2 win in the Asian Cup 2004 or the 1-0 win that sealed Iran’s qualification for the 2006 world cup, then today’s 6-0 route certainly put it to a final rest.

In 2001 Iran lost to Bahrain under extremely suspicious and strange circumstances and ended up watching Bahrain players wave not their flag since they  were already eliminated, but the flag of Saudi Arabia over their heads and rejoice as if it was them who had qualified with this win.  That memory had remained with most Iranian fans and ever since this tie had carried a certain grudge match baggage that have seen plenty of rough and rash plays, scuffles and fights and generally bad blood between the two teams.

But today, Bahrain had nobody else to blame but their usual rough (and often unsportsmanlike) tactics for the disparity the faced for nearly the entire game. A rash two-footed lunge on the feet of Teymoorian saw the Bahraini defender see the (brave) Australian referee whip out the red card. From then on, it was smooth sailing for Iran and an up-hill battle for the Bahrainis.

An early goal within the first 20 minutes also made sure the Bahrain players would not resort to their usual time wasting tactics and they were forced to open up and come forward to get the equalizer. This played right into Iran’s hands as now they were allowed to play football in a more relaxed and open atmosphere.  With some great performances from the likes of Jabbari, Teymoorian and Ghazi we exerted tremendous amount of pressure and eventually scored 3 goals and missed a few more by the halftime.

This was pretty much the same plot for the second half as Teymoorian scored the fourth goal soon. The goal that dropped the heads of the opponents and after this the Red team were only desperately waiting for the referee to blow the final whistle. But Iran was not done yet. With goals from substitutes Ansarifard and Rezaei they finished the match with half a dozen goals that made the 83,000-plus fans  in the stadium jubilant and in festive mood.

Players that impressed were Mahini, who’s been blazing a trail in recent months in both club and national team. Teymoorian, who looked tireless and full of drive and energy. Jabbari, who made Karimi’s absence not felt and Ghazi, whose role as the big, strong center forward  paid off very well. Ghazi’s duties resembled the old Daei who used his body strength and height to gain the upper hand in aerial balls, shield the ball well and feed the surging players from sides. This was a welcome addition to the usual Team Melli strategies as it brought in a British direct style of play into the team.  Flanks and the wide players ruled the day as we had cross after cross raining in on the opponent box which caused much trouble for them.

Another positive was seeing the team attempt long rangers, most of which were either on target or whizzed by very close to the posts. Not to mention the best goal of the game, a thunderous 30+ yarder from Teymoorian.

But it is the final point that brings me joy. And that is to see Team Melli not retreat and retract as soon as it scores a goal or two. Until the dying seconds of the game our lads showed hungry and went looking for more and more goals. This is what has been missing in quite a few years in Team Melli as coach after coach, in continental and international games adopt an overly cautious side that often caused the team to suffer loss of  precious points as they either exchanged wins with draws or in some cases, a defeat. But today I saw the hunger not only in the faces and movement of the players, but also in the face of the coach. And this gives me hope.

Scorers: jalal Hosseini, Mojtaba Jabbari, Hadi Aghili, Andranik Teymoorian, Karim Ansarifard and Gholamreza Rezaei.

Highlights of the game (Courtesy of PFDC-TV, www.persianfootball.com ):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BP6RpQoOmtg&feature=player_embedded

Miserable day at ACL for Iranian clubs

Only in Iran do we see a team win both home and away games and still get eliminated. 

Yes, it is true. Sepahan, despite winning the return leg 2-1 has been eliminated. It was just in form with the rest of the day (unless one is a Volleyball fan who would have been delighted with the semifinal victory over South Korea) as we saw Zob-Ahan throw away an excellent chance of advancing from the tie with some lackluster and overly cautious performance in the second half and the extra time.

 

Zob-Ahan’s coach, Mr. Ebrahimzadeh failed to heed all the danger signs of the away leg as the Korean club Samsung Bluewings continued to use the flanks and create chance after chance until they scored their equalizing goal (after Ghazi had put Zob ahead, earlier) which seemed to pump most of Zob’s fight out of them. 

But the biggest blow came not from the opponent’s team, but from the referee who, during a Korean set piece, in the melee in our box somehow saw something that even the TV replays from various angles failed to show. Zob’s Ahmadi was red carded and the team left with 10 men. The resultant penalty was slotted and it was literally mission for the 10-man Zob-Ahan who now had to score 2 goals in the remaining 18 or so minutes!

 

I believe Hadadifar’s absence in the middle of the park, controlling and directing the play for Zob Ahan was really a big blow for them and they looked weak in creating opportunities for their forwards.

 

Sepahan was not to be left behind, although they did make a great match out of it. They started very brightly as they scored a goal within the first minute of the game through Emad Reza’s well placed shot from range and doubled their tally by 12^th minute by Ashjari’s long ranger from the middle leaving the Qatari team and their fans jittery and busy biting their nail for most of the match. Halfway through the game, Talebi scored a goal which was correctly called offside, Seyed_Salehi had a great header cleared on the line by the acrobatic Al-Sadd keeper,  and Emad Reza was fouled just outside the box which was wrongfully ignored by the Japanese referee.  

Thus was the story until that infernal and eternal law of football came to play; "if you dont score and make use of your opportunities, be sure that you will concede". Despite dominating the game and possession, creating several dangerous chances, Sepahan conceded a goal near the end of the game which deflated their players and much like their compatriots, Zob-Ahan, stared down the line with little hope of scoring 2 goals in a very short period. But Al-Sadd's coach, the Argentine Fossati's reaction after scoring their only goal of the two leg tie was quite pitiable. Pumping his hands in the air and running around pointing to their club supporters, one would have thought they have beaten Barcelona by 4 goals in the World Club tournament ... and not merely for the single goal in the game that they still lost and made the totaly tally of "scored goals" 3-1 ... had it not been for the foolish mismanagement of Sepahan's officials. It was quite the peculiar reaction of a losing coach indeed.

Thus was the miserable day of Sepahan and Zob-Ahan in their bid to make an all-Iranian semifinal ... which turned out to be a non-Iranian one eventually.

Sepahan in dire straits in Asian Champions League

When will our football officials, be they in the IFF or the clubs realize the desperate need for keeping up with the times and especially the need for a capable set of individuals who are competent in a foreign language and know their way around the internet and official sites like AFC or FIFA. I’m referring to the shameful and tragic elimination of our Omid team qualifiers where they simply forgot or didn’t bother to check the suspension/eligibility list of players prior to their game and foolishly turned a precious away 1-0 win in Iraq to a disgraceful 3-0 loss which resulted in the disheartened and defeated display in Tehran in the return game. We thought with that disgrace our officials would have woken up and made sure such nonsense would never happen again. Enter Sepahan’s quarterfinal game in the Asian Champions League against Qatar’s Al-Sadd and they include Rahman Ahmadi as their keeper (transferred in from Persepolis at the end of last season). They notch up a satisfactory 1-0 home win that gives them a slight upper hand in the tie. But as soon as the game was over, the Qatari officials lodge a complaint to the AFC regarding Ahmadi’s ineligibility due to the two yellow cards he received while he was playing for Persepolis, last season in the very same competition!


Sepahan may yet get away with it as the AFC officials in their list of suspended and ineligible players of the game did not include Ahmadi’s name (Not the first time we see AFC drops the ball and prove to us it is a far cry away from its European and American counterparts). But it still doesn’t take away from the fact that despite the Omid team fiasco, we have not learned our lessons and we continue to swim in the sea of ignorance and unprofessionalism. No matter how high the salaries and contracts are in our football! We only “pretend” to have a professional set up and league with such absurd amounts of money changing hands. Underneath that fast-fading superficial luster, we are as amateurish as they come!

Ps. – Speaking of ACL, we cant not make a note of Zob-Ahan’s precious away point from South Korea. With Zob-Ahan keeping a toehold on the tie with a precious away goal, and if Sepahan gets lucky and puts the blame on the AFC for its negligence in the matter of suspension list, our chances of having an all Iranian semifinal, and thereby, a Finalist (second time for both Esfahani clubs) is still very much alive.

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.

Guardiola surpasses Cruyff

Barcelona reign supreme in Europe's Super Cup by defeating gutsy Porto 2-0

A whopping 13 titles in only 3 seasons screams of Guardiola's mastery and Barca's undisputed reign of world football. And with the upcoming World Club Championships besides the rest of the yearly/seasonal tournaments and championships (domestic and international), you can bet your house that Barcelona and Guardiola are going to need a much bigger trophy cabinet.

(Barcelona joins forces with Bill Gates to fight and eradicate polio)

Barcelona f.c. defeats Madrid Zoo f.c.

Spanish Super-copa, 2011. Football, the beautiful game, triumphs over ugly animalistic circus called Real Madrid. That game was more like a match between 11 skillful football players committed to the beautiful game versus 11 ugly, rabid dogs, led by one of the most disgraceful coaches in the world, hell bent on reminding the world why they dont have the respect of the true football aficionados.

If there was any doubt remaining in the mind of some people who were either in denial or suffering from extreme bias, Mourinho’s disgraceful behavior, twisting the ears of Barca’s assistant coach, Vilanova, in hope of provoking even more reaction and controversy should have been proof enough as to who the instigator behind Real Madrid’s shameful displays ever since this pitiful man took over as coach. It is no wonder his team continues to fail in terms of sportsmanship and discipline, if their coach is anything to go by. The Spanish F.A. ought to consider if such things go unchecked, there could come a time when Pepe or Marcelo or a host of other Madrid players may take things too far with a rash tackle and end up depriving the world of football of the likes of Messi or Xavi or Iniesta.

He single-handedly gives a whole new meaning to the phrase ‘sore loser’. And if the Spanish League authorities have an inkling of fondness for the game of football, they ought to take a very serious look at Mourinho’s antics and especially violent players with track record like Marcello, Pepe and a few others in the Madrid side. Otherwise, Mourinho and his Madrid team will cause untold damage to the game of football as well as the Spanish football as a whole.

It is a shame to see this happen since the Madrid side, jam-packed with highly skillful players IS capable of playing attractive football without such horrible antics.

However let us not get distracted by the ugly display and miss the positive side of the game too. Real Madrid came into the match full of energy and hope that their strategy of high pressing and full intensity frontal attack on Barca’s back-line would bear fruit as it did in the first leg. This is testament to the ability of its players who can put the best club in the world under such intense pressure (which begs the question why should they resort to unsportsmanship and violent behavior). But Barcelona once again proved why they are hailed as arguably the best football side in the history of football, by shrugging off the initial pressure and settling into their game and scoring some magnificent goals that will be etched in the memory of all those who watched the game. From Messi's exquisite through pass to Iniesta that carved the Madrid backline with a hot knife through butter for the first goal, to the central defender, Pique’s cheeky backheel to Messi who scored the team’s second, to the marvelous combination play involving the new signing Fabregas, for the match winner. Barcelona lived up to its reputation as the most fantastic footballing side with pomp and heralding the shape of things to come in the upcoming season.

By the by, did I mention this win marks Guardiola’s amazing 11th title (equaling Johan Cruyff's) out of the possible 14 since he took over as the coach of Barcelona and Xavi's record breaking 16th title at the club?

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