Iran - KSA postmatch

[Martin-Reza]

Fact is we have absolutely no scoring striker.

Fact is we have this shit attitude to think we need to pull back after leading 1-0.

Fact is our defense is bad, slow and especially Aghili is a weakpoint.

Fact is Ashjari is nothing but a leftfooted Zare and the weakest link in the team.

Fact is when we lead, we are grassrolling like Arabs.

Apart from that we are still in the run for qualification and only need 2 wins in the 2 next games.

So yippie.

[police in helicopter]

I have to cool down before I comment the match, but something I kept asking myself during the game.: When your strikers don't give you goals, the only option left is to score with set pieces...now why not include your best set piece taker (Zandi) in your squad? Specially with a player like Shojaei that gets fouled a lot around the box...

[faraz]

yep, those are all facts.

i still rate ashjari higher than zareh personally, but not a great performance from him.

i said it before and i'll say it again:

we ARE NOT FIT TO defend 1-0 leads. we can't do it at the club level and we can't do it internationally, so i do not understand why, after time and time again it bites us in the ass, that we do not switch things around, just FOR ONCE.

also, let's face it - once we are ahead, psychologically, we are deficient. we ease up, we allow players to get into good areas, and we treat the game as if it is being played in ali daei's backyard. we start hoofing the ball up and think 'great, it's out of our zone' instead of holding possession, getting players close to each other, and making short passes. oh sir alex ferguson, please come and show our team how to hold possession when ahead. no one does it better than man u and barca this year too.

Gholamreza Rezaei today was PISS poor. I can gaurantee you that I would have controlled that ball with ease, and slotted past the keeper if I was given that opportunity. you might not believe me, but just trust me - i have decent control on the ball lool the way he chested it, and how far the ball landed from his body, it makes me want to vomit just thinking about it.

Kia was TREMENDOUS down the right I thought, neko and masoud were decent, khalatbari was becoming dangerous as the game wore on.

there's really two things (unrelated) that I don't understand, and I'd appreciate it if someone could explain it to me.

a) why was there no one covering the post on the 2nd saudi goal?

b) why did Daei choose to take out an obviously tiring Kia, who lost possession a couple of times in dangerous areas as the game wore on, for an energetic Khalatbari who had JUST imposed himself in the game?

.........

and as for mr Daei's post match comments (see football forum), i am shocked at the ego, and really cannot believe he made the loss about him rather than accepting it like a man.

this is absolutely shameful and cannot be justified in any way. horrific really.

.........

finally, i thought, on paper, that our original line-up was fantastic and was the best one i've seen since Daei was in charge. i'm shellshocked that with all of these names in our team, we were not able to muster a tie at least. absolutely the worst loss for Iran in the past 3-4 years.

[mehdy]

I should say that


Nekounam isn't DMF and our weakpoint.

[Martin-Reza]

I really miss consistency. Kia was really good today (offensively, defensively he often failed to mark his man), last time he played against UAE he was crap. Before that good.

Rezaei had been good often before, not useless.

Kazemi great against Korea, lower average today.

Any many others as well.

As soon as I make up my mind about a player, he plays a completely different game next time.

[yashar_fasihnia]

i agree with all of martin's facts, specially lack of a decent striker.

but also,

fact is our team lacks fitness & stamina

fact is our team isnt as aggressive and quick as the other top teams of asia

fact is daei like branko/ciro tries to avoid susbstitutions as if its a sin!

fact is, TM has never been so weak since its reemergence in 1996!

[faraz]

fact is, TM has never been so weak since its reemergence in 1996!

this is really the saddest fact of them all...surely this is the weakest time i've personally seen in my 13 years of religiously following Iranian football.

[The-Red]

can someone tell me if we ever made that 3rd sub???I think I missed since how can we not when we are down a goal at home and 7 min to go?

overall after the goal we scored we were a no team just bunch of individuals kicking the ball out...no plan, no possession, and why did Daie wait to make his second sub? if Madanchi was the 2nd sub indeed, it was so obvious the game is changing and Saudis dominating the middle and we have pulled back....yet, Daie and the other coaches sat on the bench as if they are watching a movie!!!!

as far as our players, once again we are not professional...we rarely have any real professional players on our team and that has really always been the case, and by professional I mean professional mentality and not playing ability....no doubt we are a country with talented players, but don't know how to utilize that talent, neither as player, nor as coaches.

[Martin-Reza]

No we didn't make a third sub.

And, I have to add another fact. We can't shoot.

I am watching Germany vs Liechtenstein right now and the shots are all crackers. I doubt we would even score on Liechtenstein.

[The-Red]

^wow I love to know why we didn't make that 3rd sub!!!!!oh well, problems are deeper than just making a sub or inviting a player over another...much deeper.

[Doctor DOOM]

martin jan,
1- you are correct about the low quality of our strikers ... but that's NOT ALL the story.
the WAY we used the very same low quality strikers ( from selection to the number of them, to the starter choice, to the sub choice, to the time of the subbing, ... ) was also extremely faulty.


2- spot on on this one. you'd think they'd have learned their lesson after the SKorea game !!!


3- correct

4- absolutely wrong. he may not be the BEST LB in the world, but he's FAR LESS error prone than zareh.

5- true. sad !

6- very tough situation though.
mathematically, we are not out yet.
but REALISTICALLY our work is now EXTREMELY DIFFICULT!

Now we HAVE TO WIN NKorea in their home.
this is nothing easy given their form and OUR form!!

then, even beating uae ( after the travels and .... ) is turning out to be more difficult than on paper !!

especially given the HUMONGOUS about of stress the team is under now!!

aahhhh ! missed opportunities !!


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

other points:

plz, lets be more observant here:
rezaei has NOT been "good" ... if you consider the opposition he's done well against, which has been the low quality teams.
against good quality & decent teams he's been very weak.

and lately, he hasnt been even as good as his earlier TM games. in saba as well as TM games.

I said it earlier and still say it, borhani would have been a better choice.

[Martin-Reza]

^ I mostly agree. On the subs, if Nekounam scores one of his headers and Al Harbi doesn't, we all celebrate. Not everything can be explained by coaching decisions.

I didn't like how we played after taking the lead, but that is a tradition already.

We still can qualify by ourselves and I hope something is learned from this defeat.

If Daei is the right man to continue is hard to judge. The IFF bosses must calmly asess the situation and see how the mood in the team is, if the coach still is the authority and if he has realistic plans to get things on tracks. Then of course also looking which alternatives are available.

But unless we don't find a good defender to replace Aghili and a young Ali Daei like striker, we will continue to have problems and probably miss out on WC.

[yashar_fasihnia]

kia was exhausted after the 70th minute but daei still didnt sub him out for a fresh pair of legs. instead, he pulled out khalatbari who was more fit and more dangerous and skilled for madanchi.
he could have subbed in heydari atleast for the last 15 minutes, or move khalatbari to the right and play madanchi on the left!


why kazemi played for 90 minutes i dont know?? he was just average today or maybe even less than that, but when in the dying minutes when we need a goal, we should have added a striker (if we had any left of the bench? akbarpour im guessing?)

[Martin-Reza]

^ Yes, Akbarpour was on the bench as well. I also expected a striker would come on for Kazemi immediately after the 1-2. But it didn't happen.

[The-Red]

I seriously thought a sub was made and I missed it and I kept looking for a new player on the field and when I didn't find it, the game was almost over and I started wondering why in hell you wouldn't bring in a player when you are down and losing the game!