Shaky but fortuitous first step for Team Melli

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

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

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.

Iran's group in 2nd stage World Cup qualifiers

Iran has been grouped with the following teams in its campaign to reach Brazil's 2014 World Cup, where the top 2 teams advance directly for the final stage:
- Qatar
- Bahrain
- Indonesia

Given the rules of advancement from this group the final stage of the Asian qualifiers, I dont see it a very difficult task. However, we must be aware of a couple of issues.

1- The away games to both Persian Gulf nations would not be without its usual characteristics and antics, even if we put aside the weather factors such as humidity and heat.

And even the away game to Indonesia is nothing to ignore as the Indonesians have proven to be quite formidable at home. Case in point their 4-3 qualification victory against Turkmenistan where more than 80,000 of its fans packed their stadium.

2- The second issue is the scheduling of the games, particularly the two games scheduled for November 2011, where we have to travel to Bahrain and play our away game on 11th of November an then traverse the whole continent to Indonesia to play them on 15th of November. Meaning 2 away games in a span of 4 days with a cross-continental journey involved.

Going by the IFF's dismal record in travel arrangements, I'd venture even if they prepare a chartered plane for the team to travel, the team would still be under tremendous strain and tough conditions for the 15th game. Factors such as humidity and travel fatigue will be compounded by shortage of recovery period between the two games.

So I would caution any fan over thinking this as an easy group where we walk over the opponents.

The complete schedule of our group games is as follows:
2 September 2011
Iran v Indonesia
Bahrain v Qatar

6 September 2011
Qatar v Iran
Indonesia v Bahrain

11 October 2011
Iran v Bahrain
Indonesia v Qatar

11 November 2011
Qatar v Indonesia
Bahrain v Iran

15 November 2011
Qatar v Bahrain
Indonesia v Iran

29 February 2012
Iran v Qatar
Bahrain v Indonesia


The overall Asian groupings:

(click to see larger view)

A wake up call for Quieroz or a warning sign for Iran?

Iran got through the preliminary round of World Cup qualifiers for Brazil 2014 by brushing Maldives aside with a home 4-0 and an 1-0 away win. I would have been a fool to expect a repeat of 17-0 or even the 9-0 games of a decade ago as Maldives has shown great improvement from those days. Testament to this is their 2008 championship trophy of South Asian region and the runner-up prize in 2010 in the same tournament.

(Khalatbari scores the only goal of the game)

But the source of my disappointment was the quality shown by Team Melli. Quieroz came to Iran on the strength and promise of rejuvenating and bringing a new age for our football. So far, after the Austria camp, a friendly against Madagascar and two games against the Asian minnows, Maldives, I am yet to see any rejuvenation or even rise in quality of the team's performance.

In my opinion, he needs more time to implement his ideas and theories. But that does not distract me from noticing how he picked the roster for these games and more importantly, how forgiving he was towards some very doubtful and weak performances by some of the players. The only ray of light on this issue is perhaps with the start of the league and passage of a couple of months he will have a better idea which players are useful and what they would be capable of, therefore paving the way for more sensible rosters and line ups. That's why I will not go over each and every pick when by jove, there are some rather amusing and questionable picks in the line up. However, I will attend to one particular player in a very key position.

Ali Karimi -
Are we going to see an aging Ali Karimi in the World Cup squad in 2013? He would be 34-35 by then. Given Persepolis' league games, Asian Champions league, Hazfi games and the occasional Team Melli games, I fear this schedule would take its toll on far younger players, let alone on the aging Karimi.

Wouldnt it have been a better idea to start grooming other youngsters for this position from early on and initiating them against weaker opponents so by 2013 and the final stage of World Cup qualifiers against Asia's top teams, we would have a young, energetic and in form playmaker who fits well into the squad?

Thankfully, we do have quite a handful or promising players who can slip into this position very comfortably and deliver the goods in aplomb. Players such as Ghasem Hadadifar, the Zob Ahan maestro, who, at the moment stands out from the rest in his amazing work rate, vision, passing ability and leadership. Iman Mobali is another candidate for the post. And there are others such as Ahmad Jamshidian (Sepahan), Mojtaba Jabbari (Esteghlal) - if he stays healthy and injury free, Mohamad Nouri (Persepolis), even the young Bakhtiar Rahmani (Foolad).

I hope Quieroz will have a second look at his squad picks and line ups and does the much needed fine tuning as soon as possible.

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.

The real story behind our Omid elimination

After the miserable showing by the whole Iranian team and staff, I was ready to rant about how pathetic our “stars” like Ansarifard, Afshin, Hajsafi, … performed and how they displayed a (lack of) quality seen only in back allies of provinces in Iran rather than a national team. I was down and wrote on and on about how Mansourian’s inexperience got exposed when none of his substitutions made any impact on the last 30 minutes of the game. I screamed about the lack of playmaker and any sort of creativity in the middle. I wrote and wrote about how idiotic and immature our players were with their insistence on back heels and unorthodox passing when the more straight forward passes would have sufficed. I remarked on the easy chances and goals we conceded.

And I wrote in anger and dismay … until I came across this little gem of a news:
Omid’s midfielder Jalal Kamyabinia, was ineligible and barred from play in our away game in Iraq by AFC.
But here’s the twist: Due to IFF’s incompetence and their failure in conveying this news to the staff, Kamyabynia did play in that game and AFC announced they ruled that game in favor of Iraq by a scoreline of 3-0.

This catastrophic news was brought to the staff and later on, to the team’s attention who understandably lost all their hopes and drive and apparently some of the lads actually wept in the dressing room. Nobody can bear such a twist of fate, from a 1-0 ahead in an away game to a 3-0 loss in a matter of seconds.

Click here for Mansourian's press conference and remarks

This put everything in context and made sense of all the poor passing, rushed, emotional hurried game, and generally the whole miserable performance. Now I am left with my anger, but directed at the ever incompetent and frankly, brainless federation of ours rather than the poor lads whose legs must have felt like lead, trying to claw their way back from a 3-0 deficit.

And this completes the infamy of Kafashian’s federation who has failed in each and every major tournament Iran participated in. Incompetence bordering on criminal! Enough is enough, Mr. Kafashian. High time you took away your misery-ridden shadow of incompetence away from our football, once and for all.

You know what is the worst part of it all? It's that the IFF had the AFC notice of Kamyabikia's suspension FOUR MONTHS in advance of the Iraq game!!! Such is the extent of IFF's pathetic incompetence.

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.

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.