First blood to Chelsea

Chelsea  defeated Barcelona in a match that left a lot to be said. And boy do we have a lot to talk about.

First of all Chelsea rode their luck and really capitalized on the one or two serious chances they got through their ever-green star, Drogba, who incidentally spent a LOT of the game rolling on the floor! Barca was unlucky to have hit the bar twice, get a shot cleared on the goal line and a few other shots that were saved by great acrobatics from Cech. I also assume things cannot stay the same in Nou Camp. But at the same time I think there are things that need to be addressed or at least considered as note-worthy.

Attack routes:  Barcelona’s  pointless crosses and corners into the opponents’ box and how they proved impotent only reinforces the fact that they DO need a tall, physical forward like Van Persie  to give them  some sort of an option in such situations. Yes, they experimented with the vindictive and egotistic Ibrahimovic. But that doesn’t mean every other striker will be the same.  But it was painful to see they try crosses and corners into the box for short forwards like Alexis, Messi and Cesc  who were always crowded by the tall, physical defenders.

Barca  has to think about adding other dimensions to their game and attack. Merely satisfied with “walking the ball into the goal” is going to get the team through each and every game and situation is just futile.This becomes more apparent when Barca faces teams that park the bus in front of their goal and fill their 18 yard box with 9 or even 10 players for long periods of the game.

Shooting: The shooting by almost everyone was atrocious. Most of the time the players don’t even look for a shot. But the scant few instances they did attempt, they rushed it or were amateurishly off target.

Overpassing and lack of urgency:  While the passing and tiki-taka is very pleasing and all, when the team falls behind and needs to show urgency, there is no change of pace or tactics. It still stays the same patient tiki-taka which allows the opponent to regroup and gather in their box and block our through passes from the middle. Don’t get me started on the wasted crosses from flanks.

And I’m afraid by now the whole world knows how Barca plays and what could impede their game. From leaving the grass uncut (in some pitches you could even see flowers at the tip of the grass!!) to parking the bus in the box to getting violently physical and rash style. Therefore mixing it up with a few new tricks and routes to attack will prove extremely successful for the club and will make defending against them that much more difficult and unpredictable.

Bottomline: No need to fret yet, though. We have the return game in Spain and with the crowd behind the team, given Barca’s great form at home leaves a lot to look forward to.

Queiroz selects the roster for the Maldives game

The new Team Melli coach, Carlos Queiroz has announced his latest roster of players for an Austrian camp in Loipersdorf, prior to the Maldives game and I must say the list has a lot of talking points.Lets have a look;

GOALKEEPERS –
Rahmati, Gordan, Haghighi, Memarzadeh
I believe these are among the best we have to offer in Iran, with inclusion of Esteghlal’s Mohamadi of course. So, no arguments here.

DEFENDERS –
Mahini, Aghili, Nosrati, J. Hosseini, Heidari, Montazeri, Hajsafi and Pouladi(?)

First off, I am very disappointed to see one of Iran’s best defenders, Farshid Talebi’s name missing. Given his recent performances, I thought his name would have been the first on anyone’s list. The next point is Pouladi's name listed under defenders. He has hardly been used as a defender in our youth national teams or his clubs. At the same time I must say this list is missing the league’s top scoring defender M. Hosseini of Zob Ahan who scored 12 goals in the league itself. But I am happy to see H. Mahini get his well-deserved shot.

Another point of interest is the drop of Hamoudi, Foolad’s energetic right back’s name from the list which may be related to his silly actions in Hazfi semifinals where he committed two fouls within the first 20 minutes, thus handicapping his team for the remaining 70 minutes. At this level of football, having experienced international competition, you just don’t do such silly things.

MIDFIELDERS –
P. Noori, Hadadifar, Mobaali, Teymourian, Seifi, Karimi, Zareh, Zeniedpour, Baou, Ghazi, Aliasgar, Afshin

Here’s where I’m sure a lot of people will be focusing on. No doubt most of these names are worthy of playing in Team Melli. Among those missing in the list are players just about any team would love to have in their starting line up. To name a few; Jabbari, Md. Nouri, Jamshidian, Mosalman even Foolad’s Bakhtiar Rahmani. But with the abundance of capable midfielders in Iran, I understand it is a rather hard task to choose a limited number of them at any given time.

I assume Nekounam’s name is not included due to scheduling matters and frankly I agree it is not necessary to drag him for a game against Maldives.

STRIKERS –
H. Nowroozi, R. Nowroozi, Khalatbari, Ansarifard, Oladi and Daghighi
Pretty good line up of strikers, methinks. And with the return of injured Gh. Rezaei and Meydavoudi I think we’ll have a very enviable line up of forwards.

It must be mentioned that I believe the actual roster of selected players by Quieroz is larger than this which most probably includes many of the names not included at this point of time and perhaps fatigue and minor injuries of some players, especially those in teams that represented Iran in Asia may be a factor. So there's hope to see those left out given a fair trial and test at a later date.


The roster represents all the aspects of our football. It has physical players, highly technical players with great ball skills, creative ones, speed & pace as well as wide players to provide the width. This leaves Queiroz’s hands open in employing different formations and tactics. Now, all that’s left is to actually see his end product.