F+ Post Match Discussion [Iran vs Uzbekistan]

[Hadi]

Let's have it then!

[Haj Mahmoud]

I'll get more into detail about the performance of our team later, but it's important to note right now how worthy and respectable an opponent Uzbekistan was. When they were ahead they didn't for a second grass roll and waste time. These Arab teams we so often play have truly brought down our game along with them. But teams like Uzbekistan play high intensity 90 minutes, very javanmadardane, no time wasting, and you have to respect them for it.

[faraz]

lol, you beat me to it hadi jan

-the right side was clearly rejuvenated with a true out n out winger

-the left side was non-existant

-rahman rezaei's performance was the worst i've ever seen from him, 1 or 2 more games like this and it is clear rahman is on a downhill slope and we should perhaps bring in a new, young and motivated defender to take the reigns in the defence line. at times, i was extremely scared to even have him on the field, he looked completely disoriented and out of place

-hosseini's performance was heroic, i can't remember one missed header and his goal was world class, he is clearly the future of our defence line

We also learned that not panicking (like many in the forum did) as soon as we conceded a goal obviously works in your favour. They scored early, and in the first half, were not giving an inch of space. There was no way Uzbekistan was going to keep up the constant blistering pressurizing of our midfield/defence as it was doing in the first half. They ran out of steam, and our 2nd half was completely solid.

There are many other things one can say, but in the end, i'm just pleased with the result. This was not an easy game, pressure filled with high expectations, and we got out of it with a win - something Japan and Australia couldn't do with lesser opponents.

Well done to a successful first game.

[Hadi]

I personally predicted a 2-2 draw with a mediocre performance by Iran. Realistically it was our first match in the tournament and as we have seen with other contenders in the past week, they too have struggled against underdogs in their first match. Plus, Uzbekistan in my books was a very good team and I always thought they were underrated in Asia. But what I saw was a 2-1 win, a very weak performance by TM, and a very mediocre game by Uzbekistan.

The first worrying sign came when I heard that GN is going to play with a 4-3-3 formation. The analysts, newspapers and fans insisted GN to play with 1 striker and 5 of our star midfielders and wingers. Iran needed to play a calm football, get to know the stadium the weather and the atmosphere, try to keep possession as much as possible and win the match with a smart, careful and planned match, without revealing too much our strengths and weaknesses. But surprise surprise, GN decided to play attacking football. But as we all saw, having the name of 3 strikers in our starting lineup doesn't translate into quick attacking football. GN thought using 2 attacking midfielders (Mahdavikia and Zandi) as full backs will add to his offensive game plan. Guess what? he totally killed the value of Mahdavikia to our team, and we were lucky that Uzbekistan's right wingers were weak, because Zandi is not even close to being a reliable defender. all these mistakes are signs of GN's lack of iternational experience.

The result of this radical tactic and strategy for our first match was 45 minutes of dreadful and pathetic football. It was as if this was the first time our players were playing an international match. The stress of the first match in the Asian cup plus the confusion of the players with the tactic as well as using 4 players in wrong positions (khatibi, Enayati, Zandi, Mahdavikia). I could see in the eyes of GN that he knew he had a narrow escape at the end of the match. Things could (and honestly should) have been much worse.

Adding to the huge miscalculations and inexperienced decisions of our coaching staff, our players also didn't help.
The passing, ball control, speed, jumping everything had gone below zero.
If Nekonam and Teymorian (who thank got made that superb assist) are going to walk on the pitch and lose every freaking ball they get and play as if they don't care, then let them not play at all! I say let's use players who actually care for TM and are motivated and know that 60 million eyes have put their hopes in their legs. That way even if they screw up, we know that they did their best. Ali Karimi was his usual "world cup" self. walking on pitch, some dribbles here and there, and some balls lost. The defense (did we even have one?) got the best grade out of our 3 lines (and this is not saying much) thanks to Jalal Hosseini (man of the match) who did his best and seemed to actually care about the ball and the match. Rahman is a man who makes mistakes but usually his physical shape and his good defending makes us forget his couple of mistakes in every game but this time, we will surely remember his two mistakes.

Lets not fool ourselves. The second half wasn't much better. The only thing was that GN corrected just one of his mistakes and subbed a winger for one of his strikers: khatibi (who in my opinion should not play another international match for TM) and the result of this small correction was 2 goals and a slightly better composed Team Melli (of course part of the stress was gone too in the second half).

Player ratings 5=best

Roudbarian - 1.5 - If it wasn't for his save in the second half, he would have gotten a 0. Because Uzbekistan didn't have much shots on goal and he made 2 bad mistakes. One of them went in and the other one should have gone in too. so 1 good save, 2 very bad mistakes. Still, I somehow feel he is the best we have in our camp at the moment!

Mahdavikia - 2 - As I said, GN destroyed his value for our team by using him as a full-back.If he played as a full-back in in Hamburg,That was because : 1-Hamburg had good enough players to replace him upfront 2-Hamburg actually needs a quick player in defense. Uzbekistan was too weak to sacrifice him for defensive duties 3-Mahdavikia makes forward runs often in Hamburg and other players do support him at time of attack and cover his back. I certainly hope Mahdavikia play as our right midfielder for the rest of the tournament. Also I hope there are good dentists around the hotel area.

Rezaie - 1.5 - Not solid as usual. He was way too slow and made 2 big mistakes. Maybe partly because he had little help in defense (he is used to playing alongside Zare or Nosrati)

Hosseini - 3.5 - Man of the match. good physical shape, lots of brave challenges, won many headers and scored a vital goal.

Zandi - 2 - This match proved that he isn't a defender. He isn't strong enough for defensive challenges, he cant clear the ball. Still, his midfield performance was superior to Nekonam and Teymorian.

Nekonam - 1.5 - I honestly didn't know what was wrong. I saw no positive in his presence in TM (I will watch the taped match again too conform this) He lost many balls, seemed unmotivated, was slow in decision making and was way off with his interceptions.

Teymorian - 2 - Read Nekonam (He got 0.5 more for his assist and his slightly better performance compared to Nekonam) This is not the Teymorian we know. We want the old Teymorian, energetic and jumping like a lion to the feet of the opponent.

Karimi - 2 - He should have been subbed out at min 60. Even though he wasn't back to his old self, he is still capable of miracles in TM. His couple of moves and passes were the only chance Iran had in the first half.

Khatibi - 0 - Lost every single ball. His positioning was a big part of our teams confusion in the first half. Get out of TM pls!

Hahsemian - 2 - Tried hard, ran a lot. but with this dreadful midfield, don't expect anything from him.

Enayati - 2 - He wasn't as bad as Khatibi even though he was also used in an unfamiliar and wrong position. But still, it seems he is not the man to trust as our goal getter and may miss lots of chances.

Kazemian - 3 - Finally we used a quick winger at our right flank! He was brilliant, fast and motivated. Imagine if we had Mahdavikia and Kabi at our right and Kazemian as the super sub! Iran's right wingers have been our strength for the past decade and somehow GN decided not to use a right winger at all in the first half.

Madanchi - N/A - he wasn't on the pitch long enough to rate him but he also seemed a bit slow and very stressed in those short minutes. But even an out of shape winger like Madanchi is better than using Enayati on the left side.

Aghili - N/A -

Conclusion: There are lots to think about on the part of GN and some of our "star" players. Iran will not be winning the tourney like this. In fact such performances seriously raises questions about Iran being "overrated". I am also eagerly waiting for the arrival of the excuses from GN and co.

[The-Red]

in short, we won a game that could have easily gone the other way and we did not necessarily deserved it based on the performance;
the good thing besides the 3 points is that opponents did not see anything from us, so the spot light will still be on Australia, Japan and ther rest for the most part...
However, if communication and overall oganization in the bank doesn't improve, we will easily go out in the quarters, no doubt about it.

if history is any indication, we will only get better as the tournament goes on, so I guess we should be more than happy with what took place today, over all.

[Doctor DOOM]

Stories of the day:

1- you just can not and SHOULD NOT over-rely on the legioners, merely based on the fact that they may be playing outside Iran.
Big, BIG lesson here.
Nekunam was nothing.
Rezaei was a walking disaster.
Karimi wasn’t what we expected him to be.
Teymoorian was nowhere near his usual.
VH did next to nothing or very little.

Now, I understand it is the first game and with its corresponding stress and pressures.
But we can safely say our more famous players didn’t live up to their reputation.

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2- The most important factor and reason for our win: WIDTH.
Khatibi was fast , granted. But he did NOT provide any width to the team, as he leaned more towards the center.
Neither is Enayati who was forced to the left, which reduced him to irrelevant.
And the reason is they are both STRIKERS and not wingers.
Simple.
It never worked under branko. why shd it work now?

But when Kazemian came in, he spread the team to the right and stretched the uzbeks’s defense, and only then, he used his pace.
This simple substitution was what clinched it for us. Madanchi’s entry was long overdue, on the left. And I think had he come in around minutes 60-65, we’d have done far more damage than our 2 goals.


Note: yesterday, the line-up announced was the same 4-3-3, but with Kaabi instead of Khatibi. Now, that one would have provided good width for our right side, and I did agree that was a good line-up. I don’t know what has happened in the past 24 hours for GN to opt for Khatibi, who is a striker, rather than Kaabi who would have given width to the team.
Lets hope he has learnt his lesson today.

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3- Spot kicks.
Zandi had 3-4 corner kicks.
2-3 of them were met by Uzbeks defenders coz they were so bloody low and weak. And the other one came to nothing !!
what the hell?
Couldn’t we have someone else take corners. Or at least someone shd tell him “ye zareh noon bokhor bacheh” so you can kick properly !!
Wasted 4 precious spot kicks !!!!

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4- Without ANY doubt, Hosseini is my MAN OF THE MATCH.
They guy was fantastic in covering for others, covering his own mark, clearing loose balls, high balls, low balls, …. .
Absolutely wonderful performance.
Such levels of accuracy in all defense tasks is seen only in absolute best international defenders.

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5- I must be fair and give credit to GN for making 3 very wise substitutions. 2 gave width to the team, although Madanchi could have come in earlier … and the third, provided a tall defender who can parry all the lobs and over-head desperate balls into our defense.

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6- I was rather pleasantly surprised to see the team had enough in the tank to exert themselves even at dying moments of the game. Which is a great thing, considering our past.
Although we saw the conceded goal did have its effect on the performance of the team as they played an emotional first half and many passes went astray.
But with the inclusion of width to the team and then the goal, the team became more composed and played better.
Another great and valuable plus to see them pull together and come back from behind.

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7- Zandi is definitely NOT a defender and GN better think about this post.
or else .... !!

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8- “Go home uzbekistaan”
nothing more to say.

that certain Uzbek player with the banner at yesterday’s press conference, knows what I’m talking about.

[Mr.Good]

What made our midfield trio to show week performance is the terrible work by our two forward wingers. Every time Khatibi and enayati got the ball, they lost it. Their positioning was not anywhere near good. they did not give our midfield passing options. Khatibi in particular looked like an amateur. I can not remember a single good touch from him, he even got in the way of some passes not intended for him.

Hashemian could not do much because he was tightly marked and seemed out of steam towards the end (props to GN for subbing him out).

Every time Rahman was near the ball, I was expecting a mistake. He seemed very nervous. Lets hope it is just because of the own goal he scored and he mentally bounces back for the next games.

Zandi was not as bad in defense as some people make of him. its true he is not a defender by nature, but we really need his playmaking abilities. lets not forget that he was playing behind Enayati, many time Zandi passed the ball to Enayati for him to lose it. Anyways Zandi should do OK, specially against Asian competition.

[faraz]

What made our midfield trio to show week performance is the terrible work by our two forward wingers. Every time Khatibi and enayati got the ball, they lost it. Their positioning was not anywhere near good.

Mr Good Jan,

In all fairness, they are played extremely out of position. You can't take TWO out and out strikers and expect them to run the wings like kia, kaebi, kazemian, shojaei and other decent wingers. Strikers are trained to keep their touches to a minimum in closed spaces, shoot and score. Wingers have a lot more time to take control of the ball, beat their man, and put a cross in. Enayati crossed the ball maybe once, and the ball went way out. I don't expect them to have proper positioning/wing skills, as they are simply NOT that type of players.

they did not give our midfield passing options. Khatibi in particular looked like an amateur. I can not remember a single good touch from him, he even got in the way of some passes not intended for him.

Hashemian could not do much because he was tightly marked and seemed out of steam towards the end (props to GN for subbing him out).

I agree - this definitely made our team better once he was substituted, especially b/c enayati was moved in the sole striker position with a speedy winger on his left

Every time Rahman was near the ball, I was expecting a mistake. He seemed very nervous. Lets hope it is just because of the own goal he scored and he mentally bounces back for the next games.

so true - the good thing is, he got his one tournament mistake out of the way, now he can ease his nerves a little bit. thank god it didn't cost us anything more than just a goal in the group stages against a tier-B soccer team

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and peyman jan,

i have no doubt that without our legioners, we would have easily lost to this uzbekistan side. the way they were pressuring us (sometimes, committing 2, or 3 players) on ONE guy meant that we needed the experience on the field. sure, they didn't perform GREAT, but ultimately, we won the match, completely controlled the 2nd half, and saw some glimpses of good things to come. i was utterly impressed by ando's through ball - he definitely did not have that capability before hand, it needed a nice, soft touch, perfect timing, and kazemian had a great finish.

in terms of giving credit to GN, sure he made the right subs - but how many of US would have picked enayati and khatibi to play on the WING before the match? surely he has more resources at his disposal to not need ONE whole HALF in an important asian cup match to figure that out??

Zandi as a defender, he wasn't so bad. I can't remember specific circumstances where he screwed up at all to be honest. He's not ideal, i'll give ya that much

[Doctor DOOM]

Mr Good Jan,

In all fairness, they are played extremely out of position. You can't take TWO out and out strikers and expect them to run the wings like kia, kaebi, kazemian, shojaei and other decent wingers. Strikers are trained to keep their touches to a minimum in closed spaces, shoot and score. Wingers have a lot more time to take control of the ball, beat their man, and put a cross in. Enayati crossed the ball maybe once, and the ball went way out. I don't expect them to have proper positioning/wing skills, as they are simply NOT that type of players.

very good description of the issue.


and btw, faraz jan, I'm hoping he will learn from this game and apply a decent 4-4-2 , with proper players for positions next time.

zandi shd be moved up or on the bench.

Rajabzadeh, kahtibi or kazemian can play next to VH ( or even enayati ) as our 2 forwards.

on the right, any of kia, kaabi or kazemian can take care of the side. Even Shojaei would be pretty good there.

I think today's formation has more to do with GN's in-experinece and overzealous attitude, to opt for 3 regular strikers , sacrificing the width.


if it were up to me, I'd put something like this against china.

--------VH ---------- Kazemian (karimi ) ---------

Zandi -----------Karimi ( Shojaei)------- Kia (Shojaei )

------------- Neku ( teymoorian ) -----------


Aghili -------- Reazei --------- Hosseini -------- Kaabi (Kia )




but that's me !

[Kavian]

Today's match proved a few points;

a) No matter how many of our players play in Europe, we never seem to be able to bring that experience home properly. The Iranian style of "Zir e Toup Zani" prevails on its own!

b) We need tactic first then player selection. Not player selection then tactic, which seems to be Mr. Ghalenoie's style. All previous successful coaches in Iran have selected the first.

c) Our old stars are no longer what they used to be and we should not create another Daie situation where putting a player on the bench can consider to be a crime. Kia, Hashemian, Rezaie and others should be replaced with young and energetic players without fear when necessary.

d) Our players are not professional enough to be played out of position. Only a professional and experienced player can follow instructions and perform well anywhere on the field. We do not have such players, sadly!

e) Some players makes us all wonder why they are included in the team. Is it something the coaches see that we cannot see? Or is it some under the table deal is going on. Khatibi is not a TM material. He has shown that over and over and over again .... totalling something like 20 misses! Hello?????

f) In the last Asian Cup we had a style. What is our style now?

And the last but not least ... I have been following our football for over 3 dacades ... same story repeats ... tu football hitch chi nemisheem!

Our biggest claim to fame is a victory over USA! big deal!!

[kaz]

Well, to sum the game up: you can argue the formation, but you can't argue the players.

This was a performance where our best were crap. I mean, they were making amatuer mistakes. When Ando Teymourian, Bolton Midfielder, cannot STOP the ball or play it to an open man, pas vay behale kasi ke enghadr chapoole mesle Khatibi.

I had said before the game that I can see the reasoning behind Khatibi starting, but he just cannot play that right-wing role to save his life. Kazemian showed what can actually happen when it is played properly. By then, Enayati and Hashemian had worked their damn socks off and they got into the box much slower.

Rahman Rezaei? What to say about this fellow? I prayed he'd prove me wrong, but as I said before, the more caps this guy accumulates the lower his IQ falls. Hosseini, Aghili or Nosrati; any of the listed two will do MUCH better.

The team played poorly in the first half and changed a lot in the second half dramatically. We were much better, but still we can get better. I don't know what is in the water there, but seeing guys like Mahdavikia have a ball roll under their feet, Nekounam pass the ball - so many times to the opponents - and Enayati losing the ball under his own feet is just not explainable.

That formation only works when the team can pass the ball on the ground and use the width. Something we did well in our previous games, something that we did awfully wrong in this game.

GN getting sent off is very disappointing. He gave his detractors more fuel to burn him.

The Uzbecks played a very physical game, as Mahdavikia's tooth can attest to, but they were never in this game to win it. They couldn't. But with that defense, giving so many chances, we will pay for it.

Enayati, played one ball bad when he passed the goalie, little else did he do wrong. He worked tirelessly and won many headers and had many 1-2s. But the midfield was absolutely crap today and created nothing, let alone pass 3 balls in succession. The 'chance' that Enayati missed wasn't one was missed. Kazemian passed the ball late and Enayati couldn't even get his shot away, the defender got it.

The penalty argument...how in the hell was that a penalty? All he did was get the ball. End of story.

I think what the game did show was the spirit to come back. The win will worry many, rightly, and it will give a little sigh of relief for the players. They had a bad game and ended up winning, they can now seriously look at themselves. They aren't against U-23 side of Ghana anymore playing a friendly. This is a tourney where even Indonesia will play their guts out to beat you.

Also, I liked that we didn't look so tired. I've watched pretty much every match and I can tell you that out of the visiting teams we were very fit.

I must say Zandi is looking good as LB. Of course, there was a lapse here and there but not anything more than any other LB would be guilty of.

Some things I think need to change is that I don't think Rahman can lead this defense. It's not something I've come up with overnight. He is not technically adept enough to start play at the back. All he does is kick the ball up and take our midfield out of the game. He can't pass the ball and get it back to open space or relieve pressure either. A Nosrati is much better at this.

The Ando/Javad duo has never worked in my eyes. You might as well call them Gerrard and Lampard. They don't suit. I said months ago, a Maziar Zare would suit this team much better than an Ando would. The duo doesn't cover the defense well, they don't pass the ball well and they don't relieve the pressure for Karimi to do his stuff - which I was happy to see, he still has.

If we play a 4-3-3, we MUST use Kazemian or Kia up-field. You need pacey players who will consistently delilver dangerous balls. If we don't do that, we're weaker in defense and attack. A 3-5-2 is even better than this, when we want to play offensively, and if we want a more balanced side a 4-4-2. But a 4-3-3 shouldn't be our stock formation.

We can just wait and see how we line-up in the next game. I just hope Kia's okay and the same with Hashemian as he was limping in the latter part of the game.

[Mr.Good]

Mr Good Jan,

In all fairness, they are played extremely out of position. You can't take TWO out and out strikers and expect them to run the wings like kia, kaebi, kazemian, shojaei and other decent wingers. Strikers are trained to keep their touches to a minimum in closed spaces, shoot and score. Wingers have a lot more time to take control of the ball, beat their man, and put a cross in. Enayati crossed the ball maybe once, and the ball went way out. I don't expect them to have proper positioning/wing skills, as they are simply NOT that type of players.

I agree that they are not wingers, but at least they should be able to control the ball and pass it right, these are basics of the game. I don't expect Enayati or Khatibi to be able to cross, but I expect them to have a good first touch on the ball and put themselves in a position for their other teammates to pass them the ball. all I can remember of Khatibi is one header to a cross from Hashemian which was wide. The problem with Khatibi is that he needs space, under pressure he does nothing, he is good for counter attacks and thats all.

Enayati on the Other hand tried to pass and play combinations with Zandi, Karimi, and Hashemian. As usual his success rate was bad. Many times Zandi Passed the ball to Enayati for him to lose it. Put yourself in Zandi's position which has tremendous defensive duties now, After few time of Enayati causing a turnover with his miss control or bad passes do you think Zandi will be comfortable playing behind him or passing him the ball? Who do you think will be blamed for attacks from our left side, Zandi or Enayati?

[Dubxl152]

We did not enter this game with any technical plan whatsoever and we should feel very very lucky that we won this game & their star striker wasnt available.

Roudi - Speak up, talk to your defender and tell them where you are! except for his one nice save he laid an EGG... btw can someone explain to me WHY our keepers insist on dribbling the ball. KICK THE DAMN BALL. and on goal kicks dont over kick your whole team, no one cares how far you can kick the ball it does no good when every goal kick ends up in the opposing goalies hands.

Hosseini - I love this guy, 25 years old, minimal international exp and he manages to score one and be our defensive rock.

Rezai - its what he had and its what i felt everytime he neared the ball. He is a defender who likes to take risks.. which makes him very dangerous. He scored an own goal, and put us in dangerous positions constantly. Dont kid yourselves gentelmen & ladies a better team would have made us pay for the crap we were pullin in our own box

Zandi - no suprise there, he is a natural AM playing LB. He is offensive minded and he will become a better defender. terrible corner taking which is shocking because he is traditionally good @ set peices. Worked very hard, and had enyati mess up his best attacking possesion by kickin the 1-2 pass out of bounds.

Kia - ...... our best player, who controls the pace of the game and sets up irans attacks was played as a RB...... i want to know what GN is smoking. Kia shut up alot of the people who calim he doesnt work hard for TM. one of the hardest working players on the pitch.

Nekounam - ...... total crap. got the ball taken from him constantly, slooooooow decision making and terrible passing. a very very poor game from him, bo much to say. just dissapointing.

Ando - not too good either, but 2 beautiful passes took him from zero to hero. Where is the young man that touched our hearts with his attitude, play & tears at the WC.

Karimi - ...... lazy first half, walked alot yet still managed to create more opportunities than the rest of our midfeild. seemed to help alot more with the defense than usual. 2nd half much better preformance created numerous opportunities and showed a little flair.

Kahtibi - a counter attacking striker playing as a RM/ RW ...... who ever came up with that brilliant idea / tactic. Khatibi is a counter attack striker, nothing more.

Enyati - as much as i think madanchi stinks who in their right mind puts a slow marksman striker at LM/LW and thinks hes going to do a good job

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Madanchi - didnt see much
Aghili - ok not bad, didnt see much

Kazemian - fantastic job, worked very hard and created mass opportunities, can he maintain that level of work rate for 90 mins in humid S.E.Asia reamins to be seen.
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a couple of notes:
We entered this game with no tactical plan at all, except for long balls oput midfeild was pretty much out of the game during the first half. Our players hold onto the ball way too long, forget about one touch football lets see if we can play 3 touch first. Reality is that if Uzbek were any good we would have lost this game 4-2 based on the numbers of crazy, :bs: things we did in our own box. Any other world class team would have capitalized and destroyed us.... The old guy on Tapesh TV knows hat hes talking about i think his name is bahrmipour and he used to be a great commentator in iran back in the day. thats all i can think of right now, im trying to criticsize but not too much, we won which is awsome, but i didnt wake up at 3am to watch a bunch of grown proffesionals kick the ball in the air looking like a AYSO match.... btw kick the ball in the air like we did most of the game, took our midfeild out of the first half.

[Martin-Reza]

The system is good but too many players play in wrong positions. Zandi, Enayati, Khatibi, even Mahdavikia. With a slightly different arrangement we can do much better.

[Hajagha]

I can see why Kazemian and Madanchi are added into the second half. If you have ever played in a humid weather, you know what I am talking about. Kazemian destroyed Uzbak's defence bcz he was fresh in the second half.

Over all, as Martin said, the system is good. We have all the instruments to work. Today, with our best midfielders being completely off, we still could perform. This is a good sign. Rahman had his worst game ever, but I give him another chance.

I would start with the same formation against China. Maybe Shojaei or Rajab-zadeh instead of Khatibi, however Khatibi didn't do much worse than Nekonam/Ando/Karimi combo.