Iran vs Mexico [Post Game Discussion]

[KasraKhan]

The game just ended and emotions are running high, but here are a few things I noticed about the match worth mentioning.

1) Zandi was our best player, he was head and shoulders above every other TM player on the pitch. (Including Nekounam)

2) Hosseini was the only defender that was trying and he played quite well. He got his head on a lot of aerial balls and he was hard to pass on the ground as well.

3) Sadeghi was horrible, and he can't control his temper. The 3rd goal was due to his poor man marking

4) Kameli was also bad. I dont care if he was MVP of the IPL with his play for Esteghlal-Ahvaz, when it comes to TM, he under performs constantly. Everybody criticized Branko for using him, now GN does the same. The first 2 goals were directly his fault. The 2nd one, he even tapped in himself, could have been an own goal.

5) Javad Kazemian.....hmmm, what to say about Javad.....he plays 2 games horribly, and one game incredibly. He is very in-consistent, and he has always been plaugued by inconsistency his entire career. This game, was one of his worst. Not to mention the red card, but he ruined many balls and kept diving to get foul calls.

6) I thought Nekounam wasnt really doing well. He is not the same yet since his injury.

7) Rajabzadeh was invisible. I was looking forward to seeing Mehdi playing the full match and starting, since he is ALWAYS one of the best IPL players. This year he was leading scorer and leading in assists, which is quite an accomplishment. But this game, he was useless. He didnt even touch the ball that much, and when he did, he gave it away easily.

8) Enayati...........its really sad when our starting striker cant even get the shot on goal after a 1v1 breakaway. At least get the shot on goal, is that too much to ask?

[Paradigm]

1) I am glad we finally played versus a worthy opponent.

2) I admire GN for showing he is not afraid of playing a football power-house on their own turf with his B team, no matter what the result.

3) Rahmati should not be Iran's keeper, specially when Talebloo is at hand. I am impatiently waiting for Mirza's return.

4) Mobali is better used as a sub. His corners and shots were not the same since he's been playing at UAE. I'd like to see him come back to IPL.

5) Shojaie and Zandi were Iran's best players today. Shojaie should have started the game.

6) Sadeghi (defender) and Kazemian showed they have temper problems which needs to be controlled, if they are to be invited again.

7) We badly need a striker to fill in Daie's shoes. In particular, Rajabzadeh is not TM material and should not be invited again.

8) Today's game demonstrated why we need Kaabi on the team so much.

[yashar_fasihnia]

very poor performance..the only glimpse of hope i have is that ghalenoi has shown that he is a coach who accepts mistakes and makes changes. not directly, but indirectly.

his invitation of zandi and kaabi are just 2 examples.

i hope he can make some necessary changes after todays game.

[The-Red]

The game just ended and emotions are running high,

tell me about it.

[leviathan]

1) I am glad we finally played versus a worthy opponent.
agreed
2) I admire GN for showing he is not afraid of playing a football power-house on their own turf with his B team, no matter what the result.
agreed
3) Rahmati should not be Iran's keeper, specially when Talebloo is at hand. I am impatiently waiting for Mirza's return.
i disagree (ba ejazeh)he did better than Mirzapour.
4) Mobali is better used as a sub. His corners and shots were not the same since he's been playing at UAE. I'd like to see him come back to IPL.
he did not play well today.(i was surprised)
5) Shojaie and Zandi were Iran's best players today. Shojaie should have started the game.
agreed
6) Sadeghi (defender) and Kazemian showed they have temper problems which needs to be controlled, if they are to be invited again.
agreed
7) We badly need a striker to fill in Daie's shoes. In particular, Rajabzadeh is not TM material and should not be invited again.
how about hashemian?
8) Today's game demonstrated why we need Kaabi on the team so much.agreed

---

[Nokhodi]

Negatives
1) We always say TM had no plan, but tonight it really had no plan. Defenders and midfielders had forgotten how to build up the game, while forwards did not remember what attacking was
2) The team is very weak physically despite their physical superiority in terms of height and weight compared to the Mexicans. They players are not fit, are constantly outrun and move around like 500 pounders.
Games like this are where we see Kaabi and Kia are extremely dangerous and how annoying they can be for opponents because of their speed.
3) We are really screwed in the forward department. Enayati, Borhani, Kazemian, Rajabzadeh, Khatibi, all these players have been tested and honestly none of them have answered. We need to bring in some of the younger IPL forwards and see what they can do.
4) Kazemian was very disheartening and I think he is finished. He looks much more speedy than he really is, he can't dribble and run at the same time. He can't get past opponents and he has very low football intelligence. He has been living off of his Asian Games 2002 gold medal goal and has not done enough to constantly get called up in my opinion.
5) UAE has absolutely destroyed the players. Sleeping till 2 in the afternoon, barely practicing and hanging around Dubai discos with Russian prostitutes is not the right method of training for these guys. I understand they need to be financially secure, but in order to play for TM I believe you have to play somewhere where you can practice and constantly be challenged.

Positives
1) Zandi was very good considering the circumstances. He has good fitness despite not playing alot at his clubs this season and showed to me to worthy of playing for TM.
2) Nekounam is a good captain (speaking up, commanding players...), was ok offensively and weak defensively. I believe he has gotten to used to Teymourian doing all the dirty work on defense.
3) Shojaei showed some good glimpses of talent and I think he needs to be given alot more playing time in Karimi's spot. He needs to be trained now and I really think he has talent. I don't say this because he dribbled past a couple of players, but because he was one of the few who was running into the right spaces, putting his head up, and moving his body effectively to get in the right positions.

Overall a poor game by TM. I actually think this shattering of confidence will do them some good and encourage them to go and practice a bit. We are going to be hearing tons of excuses but I hope the players realize they cannot hurt the fans feelings and emotions like this.

Also, all the little 15 year olds who haven't played nor watched a minute of football until today on the football forum need to be smacked by their parents. They are very reactionary and unfortunately at times very stupid.

[The-Red]

we can use this defeat as an advantage and use the rest of the time building a TEAM, not 11 individuals running around like they lost something, but again I doubt GN and his staff have the ability to do that!

[Doctor DOOM]

before reading ANY of the posts :
I hope the words are not just "knee jerk" reactions that we see immediately after a game and such a score-line.
& the kind we see in the regular football forum!

[Nokhodi]

before reading ANY of the posts :
I hope the words are not just "knee jerk" reactions that we see immediately after a game and such a score-line.
& the kind we see in the regular football forum!

Nope, not at all. I rarely make long posts about TM's matches, but today's game was just shocking in how awful it was.

[Doctor DOOM]

AFTER reading the posts;

good.
I'm glad you guys can keep ur heads.

just a reminder, tho. ;
I doubt this team even had 4 proper practice sessions together.
so, if or when i watch it ( any help here, plz ? ) i wont expect to see a team, rather watch individual player's performance.

also bear in mind IPL just finished & players havent been rested yet!
uae? as nokhodi jan said; there aint any pressure there, so those guys are rested throughout the bloody year anyway.

[kaz]

Well I didn't watch the game but I read comments everywhere. It sounds like the usual problems.

Some say the forwards were not good, and there was mention of the midfield being poor. If the midfield cannot contain possession and cannot press forward then most forwards in football are useless. Especially the Enayati type who are true target men. I don't concur with others that we don't have good forwards, we do, but you can't expect our forwards to score every game. Since Enayati's return he has had a decent strike rate with assists here and there, as well as running around tirelessly to put pressure on the opponents defense. You can't compare our new forward's strike rate with that of Daei's old one which is something like 100 goals in 120 games. That is never going to happen anymore with our neighbours becoming more familiar with football and us.

The fitness of team! Well, I was going to say that the coach needed to put emphasis on the fitness of the team but he can't when he sees them once every 6 months - if that. This is where our league has been letting us down and we need our clubs to start stepping up and hiring some REAL coaches. Coaches that will make sure their team can run 90 minutes before it can pass the ball. After they have the breath to run 90 to learn how to HOLD the ball, play it first time, open spaces for other players...and so on.

I think we have to stick with one keeper now, and IMO that has to be Talebloo. Saved Esteghlal's ass so many times this season that it isn't funny. He's got it all to be a good keeper but just needs the confidence of his coach and international experience.

STOP inviting Branko's crap. Kameli-Mofrad, although doing well in the IPL, is just not fast enough for the international level. Sattar Zare is NOT the answer to our left-back problems. A player like Zandi might prove our success. He is comfortable on the ball and his good sight for open players always seems to show up our other midfielders. He just has to add more to his game for the coach to be convinced of his presence.

Mentally, our team has been in the crap-pot for a long time and this match, I hope wakes them up of any delusions the team may have been having. We aren't the best in Asia, but we can be.

That's all for now.

[gol_kuchik]

This was just embarassing. What was the purpose of this game?
Who was a new player? (Did we test a new face? No.)
Did we try new formations/rotation in offence or middle? Nope.
Did we even get enough players so that we can sub in when they were
pathetically out of air and could not run? Nope.
Did we try new goal keepr or make a sub? Nope, but Mexico did.


So what did we learn?

If we send a bunch of players that have not trained together nor have a plan
nor physical readiness to play we can lose badly !)

Very valuable indeed.


If I have one advice for QN it is this: Forget about game plan, just get
freaking players who can run for 90 minutes.

[Martin-Reza]

1) Zandi was our best player, he was head and shoulders above every other TM player on the pitch. (Including Nekounam)

Zandi indeed was impressive, it was easy to see that he is a player who knows what to do under pressure and has the technique to exectute it, mashallah.

3) Sadeghi was horrible, and he can't control his temper. The 3rd goal was due to his poor man marking

I agree he was partially on fault on the third goal, but I don't think he was that horrible. You are 100% right about his temper though, sth that could be observed repeatedly in the past. He again should have been redcarded in my opionon and that makes him too much of a risk to invite him.

6) I thought Nekounam wasnt really doing well. He is not the same yet since his injury.

He was ok. He made more mistakes than usual, but alone his presence on the field was very positive. He behaved like a real leader and skipper, stepping in for his teammates against opponents and the referee. Mashallah. Also he had some good scenes as well, a very nice shot and a good serving for Kazemian. For me still one of the better Iranian players.

7) Rajabzadeh was invisible. I was looking forward to seeing Mehdi playing the full match and starting, since he is ALWAYS one of the best IPL players. This year he was leading scorer and leading in assists, which is quite an accomplishment. But this game, he was useless. He didnt even touch the ball that much, and when he did, he gave it away easily.

He was involved in some quick combinations early in the game, but I agree he was not present enough later. I am a bit disappointed by him.

More things I wanna add: I'm afraid beside Kameli, also Zare played himself out of Team Melli.

Now the controversial things Dr Doom will love me for :

I believe it once more was shown that apart from setpieces, Mobali has nothing decisive to add to a physical game against a better opponent.

Also the match showed the difference between Branko and GN. Branko's almost full-force team with, however, four out-of-shape keyplayers, held Mexico's best 11 to a draw in a stadium packed with a majority of Mexico fans and even after running out of stamina was organized well enough in order not to allow them a real scoring chance - until a concentration slip by the best defender was punished. Ghalenoei's backline looked like Chickens running around, no tactical discipline at all.

In GN's defense, it's sad our starplayers from Europe, apart from Nekounam and Zandi, let him and us down against a strong opponent. Just like Nekounam, they could have come to Mexico.

[Doctor DOOM]

If I have one advice for QN it is this: Forget about game plan, just get
freaking players who can run for 90 minutes.

this is as perfect an advise as anyone can give to GN.
very true

=================

lol. kazem jan, for someone who hasnt even watched the game, u certainly have written quite a lot, matey.
'course, I'm just joking.

but very true on the supply to strikers & enayati issue.
totally agreed.


=========================

anyway, I just watched the first couple of minutes of the game in IFO:
I got this to say:

1- AAARRGGHHHH! God how I suffer with "streaming videos" with all the buffering and starts & stops !
cant I dwnload it from somewhere?

2- on the first goal ( the only one I watched ):
thanks ( or no thanks ) to the stops & suffering ( some call this "buffering" ! ) , I saw an incident after the corner was sent.

here, the ball is headed away by the defense.
but look.

there are 3-4 defenders along with 2-3 mexicans exactly on our 6 yard line.

then the next line of Iranian players is .... OUT OF THE F**KING 18 YARD BOX !!!
and there are 3 mexican honchos in between OUR ( not theirs. OURS !!!!! ) 6 yard line and 18 yard box !!
FREE !

where the hell are the mids to cover these guys?
playing with their freaking nuts?
AAaarrgghhh!

true to form the ball comes back and .... the rest is history.

now, either the players havent been briefed how to defend and when to transition to offense on corners. or it's lack of focus early into the game.
but a mistake is a mistake and can happen at any time of the game; case in point , this one !
coaches better work on this.

==============
MR jan,

1- dont worry. Shojaei took Mobaali's place in my books many months ago.
so he's my new #1 .
until jabbari proves me wrong.

2- Iman can be used against certain teams like most asian teams.
NOT against tough physical sides.
I still say he has class to deliver in asia at least.


3- right now, to me both GN & branko are the same; IDIOTS !
you gotta admit, though, that a first minute goal does a lot of damage in so many ways, than conceding after 15th minute.
ANY decent team will be in trouble. let alone a bunch of reserves from iran!

[BehzadB]

Worst players:

Rahmati (with his non-sense goal kicks ,, oh my god I was so pissed eveytime this guy had a gaol kick) Also, two goals were directly on his shoulders

Zareh: what a wasteful player.. every time he touched the ball he just kicked it away with nothing on his mind except giving it back to the Mexican defenders.. the first goal (the first corner) was the result of such poor play by Zareh.. I have no idea what QN was thinking when he took him

Enayatee: don't even need to talk about him.. Bench him and tell him to shut up.

Sadeghi: will get red carded in every game.. he has no skill in tackling.

Mobali: he just doesn't cut it when it comes to strong opponents. He is a weak killer not a fighter..

Best:

sorry we had none (but honorable mention goes to Jalali)


Average:

Zandi: he was OK, although he is just too slow himself, but at least he knows what to do with the ball.

Kazemian:: he needs a hair cut in the worst way.. if a coach or a peer of his, can help him adjust his attitude a little bit, he has the potential to play right midfield in a 4 back formation or as a complement to Hashemian.. However, Kazemian is not a good option as a winger (in a 3 back system). But I like his speed, strenght and skills. in the right system, he can be useful.


Shojaie: at times he showed promise. He still needs to get better in his decision making process.

Kameli: He played OK, but he is not a TM starter caliber.

-----------------------

QN should have sent in more players. IT was a friendly after all. I think , at least the keeper could have been subbed after the first half.