Iran-S.Korea:The game analysis

[Doctor DOOM]

- I didn’t watch the first half ( coz I was told it was pure garbage ), but from what I saw in the second, I noticed TM was missing what karimi was doing for PP; constantly feeding through balls to players in front of him and properly distributing balls to either side. This is what we hardly see at TM, which is one of the main reasons our team looks ill-planned and ali asghari. Also may be the reason our forwards have hardly scored any goals in recent times.

- Another thing that’s missing at TM is central mids shooting. Jabbari scored off a first time ball , from long range ( khallaagh & shoot-zan). That makes us miss him at TM even more. Especially when we’re supposed to tolerate a 37 yr old who hardly performs well at TM !


- For those who watched the whole game, how was Montazeri in markings, coverings & speed in defending?


- Alireza Mohamad and Heidari showed they ought to be contenders for the RB post at TM. At least neither kaabi nor G-nejad shd feel safe and secure ( hah! In my dreams only ) and guaranteed about their TM positions. ….. if this was an ideal world with no personal agendas and bias/favoritism in TM selection.


- and finally, I must express my utter revulsion and disgust for the amount of crap and bullsh*t this ferdosipoor spews in football games! Immature, foolish comments with half of them following directions that try to influence the viewer’s opinion!
Why cant he learn to merely REPORT the game and avoid “commenting” on all & sundry ? The numbskull !

[Doctor DOOM]

What can we learn from S Korea game?

I think the very first thing for us is to learn from our opponents.

Daei bunching almost 7-8 players close to each other and crowding our half made penetration for koreans from the middle difficult. So they did what comes as second nature to them: use the flanks well ( lesson 1 ) and kept on stretching ashjari and kaabi to the sides creating holes between our side defenders and our CB's.

They also used their crossing very well and created quite a few dangerous moments wherein some of them were defelcted by rahmati and some others were missed by their own strikers ( lesson 2 ).


Having seen penetration difficult in that crowd, they did the natural thing: started taking shots from all angles and long rangers ( lesson 3 ). the above 3 factors resulted in the GUEST team creating far more dangerous moments in azadi than the HOSTS, who barely had a couple !!


Korea scored their goal on ANTICIPATING a rebound. and their strikers surged forward after the shot, while aside 1, no other Iranian defender retreated and even expected a rebound! ( Lesson 4 )
On OUR set peices also our strikers hardly surge this way and we rarely make use of rebounds quickly and on time.


SKorea simply paced themselves and it was obvious they have plans for every quarter of the game(Lesson 5). they didnt rush into anything rash or emotional. even when they conceded, they didnt resort to emotional play and stuck to their tactics, and much like those seen in saudi, they kicked it up a notch in the last quarter and were repaid for their efforts and organization.


We also saw how our captain, who shd be there at each & every incident and talk to the ref ( and perhaps try to influence him ... or at least defend our rights ), was basically inconsequential. whether it is his shyness or lack of language, I'm not bothered. we NEED a VOCAL captain who speaks and engages the ref and doesnt shy away from it ( Lesson 6 ). Kia and Nekounam are perfect for the role. But since daei has his rafigh-baazi with bagheri and karim starts games, HE gets the armband and we lose in this dept. !!!



Now, are these lessons impossible to emulate?
heck, no.
It's very easy to follow them and learn from them. not only to prepare ourselves for the return leg, but also for us to implement them at TM as well.