A tale of two penalties

Two penalties that defined the European season and threw out all bets and calculations by pundits. While Messi’s dent on the cross-bar spelled doom and gloom for the Nou Camp crowd, hardly believing their beloved team too tired and incapable in breaking down the double layered 8 man defensive wall of Chelsea, Sergio Ramos’ shot made even more headlines and was the source of much amusement and jolly among football fans.

Honorable mention: Ronaldo’s miss that got the ball rolling (pun not intended) to keep Mourinho on his knees even after the referee blew his whistle for the winner of the tie. Ronaldo, who proved quite adept in taking penalties this season, accumulating double digit number of goals scored off penalties, shot an easy one that Neuer had little trouble deflecting.

A few ribs and jokes circulating the internet about Ramos' penalty:

- Apparently the Airforce and the commercial air control have landed all planes in South Africa as they have spotted Ramos’ penalty ball on radar and it will be passing in South African air space within the next 20 minutes....destination Antarctica

- It is on a world tour..

- A granny and a S.Ramos came to heaven's door and God asked them why are they here?
Granny: I am a good person and I did a lot of praying.
God: Ok, come in.
S. Ramos: I just came for a ball!!!!

- North Korea has contacted Sergio Ramos seeking information on how to get projectiles to leave earth's atmosphere.

- There will be a happy kid in Africa with a souvenir CL ball.

***********

Yes these penalties denied us, the fans, of yet another El Clasico in the final of the Champions league. But haven’t we had enough El Clasicos in the past to satisfy our hunger? Having said that I think we should not take anything away from Bayern who totally deserved to be in the final. They showed great composure and that renowned German resoluteness to reach the final. I only wonder would Chelsea decide to park the bus in the final too? Afterall it is only played in one leg and there’s no away goal rule.

Neither Bayern is like Barca. While barca’s philosophy and esthetic style has its own merits, given the type of players and usual strategies they follow, it draws a clear contrast to Bayern’s capabilities. Chelsea could afford to park the bus and huddle in the middle of their box, never worrying about shots from range or even those crosses coming from flanks as Barca’s players were far shorter and less physical than the English team’s defenders. But Bayern is an entirely different matter. Not only they will shoot from range and they have great shooters to force the defenders to come out to close on them, they also have tall physical attacking players who can and will have a real say in crosses and corners peppered in from flanks through the likes of Lahm. So if you are a Chelsea fan, I suggest you start praying.

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.

A date with History

4/18/2012 Will bring in a flood of memories for Barcelona fans when once again they travel to London's Stamford Bridge to take on one of their toughest rivals, Chelsea in yet another European champions league do-or-die match up. The prize? A place in the final against either the free-flowing German attacking machine of Bayern or the ...well, a Madrid team that frankly has lost all its glorious tradition and respect of the yore mostly because of the methods and attitude of their coach, one sad little man called Jose Mourinho.

Any football fan, even the neutrals would wish for a Bayern-Barcelona final. If for nothing else, just to watch two contrasting attacking styles go head to head to see whose knife is sharper and whose cut  runs deeper. But first, Barca have to deal with a rejuvenated Chelsea, fresh off a thumping 5-0 win over no less than Tottenham this week-end. One wouldnt bet against many eyes in the Bridge to focus on a diminutive, balding figure of Iniesta who dealt the death blow with his last minute shot three years ago that eliminated Chelsea and helped Barca go all the way to win the trophy.

Who will steal the spotlight this time 'round? Don Andres? or the greatest football player the world has ever witnessed, Leo Messi? Perhaps the most overlooked but greatest midfield masterminds of our time, Xavi? Or maybe it will be a new name and someone most people would have overlooked whose flash of brilliance will see Barca through? Yes, as is evident, I am betting on Barca stealing the three points necessary. Come on. Should we discount the magnificent form Barca is at the moment? Then it is on to the mother of all battles, this year's final (looks like it, if Bayern has a say in it) Clasico in Nou Camp where Barca will make life a living hell for the dirty, unsporting and pampered lot from Madrid.

Speaking of Madrid's diving team, did it come as a surprise that as soon as they faced a decent team they crumbled and looked so vulnerable and weak in both defense as well as midfield, while their so called star players mis-firing against decent defenders and opposition? The way bayern approached their first leg, I wouldnt be surprised if we see another flowing attacking display in the return leg with Madrid  still smarting after yet another defeat at the hands of Barcelona.

Iran's group finally out

The World Cup 2014 final qualification draw was done and some may like the grouping, some may have slight apprehensions with regard to a team or two. But I still maintain with a good start (as the schedule provides us) we should be able to qualify directly from this group.

The group is comprised of:

South Korea

Iran

Uzbekistan

Qatar

Lebanon

And the time table of our games is:

WCQ 4.1: (June 03 2012): Uzbekistan - Iran
WCQ 4.2: (June 08 2012): (Bye)
WCQ 4.3: (June 12 2012): Iran – Qatar

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

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

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

WCQ 4.7: (Mar. 26 2013): (Bye)

WCQ 4.8: (June 04 2013): Qatar - Iran
WCQ 4.9: (June 11 2013): Iran - Lebanon
WCQ 4.10:(June 18 2013): Korea Rep. – Iran

Having Uzbekistan, Qatar and Lebanon in the group means short distances for our away journeys which sets us apart from our direct competition in the group, South Korea.

Given Uzbekistan’s predicament in their first game with suspension of 5 of their players who deliberately tried to get yellow cards in their group games, in one of our most crucial group games we may yet be provided a great chance to get an away win from one of the stronger teams in the group. And given our following home game and then the third game against Lebanon, it wouldn’t be too much of a wishful thinking to think we stand a very good chance to get 9  points from our first 3 games. Should this happen, this would mean 50% of the job already done. Will Quieroz exploit  the Uzbek situation and go for the kill in our first game? Or will he keep it sedate and stick to the conventional rule of “aim for winning home games and draw the away ones”? I am not sure what will be his strategy. But all I hope is that he doesn’t leave things for too late in the campaign, given our last rapid-fire 3 match-days and the ultimate game away to South Korea. Our memory is still fresh from the last World Cup 2010 qualifiers, leaving things too late,  with our last game away to the very same South Korea. 

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.