Following our historical and tragic defeat to Saudi, I am going to touch on something which I feel is being neglected by most of us, followed by a couple of points I had to get off my chest.
Work Ethics:
(for the sake of this specific argument, suppose Ali Daie, is a world class head coach with ample experience and tactical knowledge)
In today's Iran, there are hundreds of intellectuals, able managers, university professors, engineers and politicians, who refuse to work with/in the current system, simply because they know that doing so will be very difficult. It will be very difficult to work and take up responsibility, and perform well, while deep down, you know there is corruption and mismanagement plaguing the system.
A perfect example of this is Ahmadinjead and his ministers. There are tens of experienced executives in Iran, suitable to spearhead many of our ministries, but most of them have not and will not accept to work under Ahmadinejad, no matter what. They would rather sit on the sidelines than work in a corrupt and broken system, where people around you and above you (are in their opinion) are 'BI KEFAYAT'.
Sitting on a throne is easy, but it comes with a heavy burden of responsibility.
The moment Ali Daie accepted to become headcoach of TM, he accepted all consequences.
He knew the shortcomings, He knew who was in charge of the federation. He knew Ali Abadi's status and the influence of the government on our football, He knew about the probable lack of friendlies. He knew the pool of players he had to work with. He knew our schedule, He knew the budget he was working with and the facilities he had, He knew the people's expectations, He knew his task is to qualify for the WC and nothing less, He knew the brutal criticism of Iranian newspapers, and above all he knew WHO he was working with (Kafashian, Taj, AliAbadi, etc etc) Basically he knew all the shortcomings, all the good and bad, and what he was in for.
But he accepted it.
He wasn't like a foreign coach who didn't know what was going on in Iran. (which to be honest, many top foreign coaches like Clemente and Denizli, refused to work in Iran, not because they were not going to be paid enough, but because they could not see themselves succeeding in Iran's system. They at least had the ethics to say no, than to put their necks on the promise something that they can't deliver)
So in short, those who say that:
Its not Daie's fault, our players are weak
Its not Daie's fault, our players are out of shape
Its not Daie's fault, our federation couldn't get friendlies
Its not Daie's fault, our football is run by a mafia
Its not Daie's fault, its Ahmadinejad and Ali Abadi's fault
etc
etc
Well, all of you might have valid points, but those excuses don't mean Daie is cleared. Maybe if we had Mr. X, or Mr. Y instead of Daie, the end result would have been the same. but again, this doesn't mean Daie is not to blame.
Ali Daie, knew all the facts, and he accepted responsibility and made his decision, DESPITE those facts.
So in the end, he is the one responsible and must be answerable to the people, regardless of any other factors.
This becomes more tragic, when you realize that Daie accepted this huge responsibility by putting his whole reputation on the line. The reputation which he worked more than a decade to achieve.
One has to wonder, what was in this for Mr. Daie? My personal guess is fame and fortune (more importantly the former) Daie has both fame and fortune, but he is the type of person who the more he has, the hungrier he gets.
Ali Daie who came in power with the help of his connections, and accepted a responsibility without pondering over its consequences , will now be a victim of his own decision. He will be removed by IFF, and IFF will basically wash away their own sins and save face by sacking him.
Stadium Atmosphere
I kinda feel if we had played in an empty stadium, we would have won, or at least tied the match. Ali Daie had not prepared the team psychologically for this match. The buildup for this match was absolutely huge. Adding to this, Ali Daie had created a negative and hostile shell around TM due to his own stubborn and irrational attitude. He had created lots of critics (both fans and players), and with his own hands, turned this game into a do or die game.
The presence of our monkey president in the crowd, the new method of crowd support (using stadium speakers, for the first time ever), and the impatient crowd of Azadi (who in my books, were the biggest reason why we messed up the last 15 minutes of the game) put huge pressure on our players and made our players very nervy and emotional. We played bad football in the last 3-4 games, but we played ATROCIOUS on Saturday, even in the first 70 minutes. Had we played our usual 'bad' football, we would have taken something out of that game.
Saudi was playing with one of its weakest teams in recent years, and indeed, they were.
But Ali Daie's 'chicken' tactics, had given the players the wrong impression that they need to play a conservative match, score one goal (if possible) and sit on it till the end of 90 minutes.
The extent of Daie's tactics in this game, was to put two defensive midfielders, (Kazemi, Nekonam) and play with a deep 4 man defense, and pray to god that Saudi defense makes a mistake or one our players does something miraculous to score (same tactic he used against S.Korea, only this time for some reason, our players didn't close down the opponent as much) Forward runs were totally banned and we always had 5-6 players staying back, even when we attacked. Saudi Arabia on the other hand, was also there to defend, expecting Iran to storm their goal relentlessly. But after a few minutes, they realized this Iran, is not the old Iran.
Cheers
Work Ethics:
(for the sake of this specific argument, suppose Ali Daie, is a world class head coach with ample experience and tactical knowledge)
In today's Iran, there are hundreds of intellectuals, able managers, university professors, engineers and politicians, who refuse to work with/in the current system, simply because they know that doing so will be very difficult. It will be very difficult to work and take up responsibility, and perform well, while deep down, you know there is corruption and mismanagement plaguing the system.
A perfect example of this is Ahmadinjead and his ministers. There are tens of experienced executives in Iran, suitable to spearhead many of our ministries, but most of them have not and will not accept to work under Ahmadinejad, no matter what. They would rather sit on the sidelines than work in a corrupt and broken system, where people around you and above you (are in their opinion) are 'BI KEFAYAT'.
Sitting on a throne is easy, but it comes with a heavy burden of responsibility.
The moment Ali Daie accepted to become headcoach of TM, he accepted all consequences.
He knew the shortcomings, He knew who was in charge of the federation. He knew Ali Abadi's status and the influence of the government on our football, He knew about the probable lack of friendlies. He knew the pool of players he had to work with. He knew our schedule, He knew the budget he was working with and the facilities he had, He knew the people's expectations, He knew his task is to qualify for the WC and nothing less, He knew the brutal criticism of Iranian newspapers, and above all he knew WHO he was working with (Kafashian, Taj, AliAbadi, etc etc) Basically he knew all the shortcomings, all the good and bad, and what he was in for.
But he accepted it.
He wasn't like a foreign coach who didn't know what was going on in Iran. (which to be honest, many top foreign coaches like Clemente and Denizli, refused to work in Iran, not because they were not going to be paid enough, but because they could not see themselves succeeding in Iran's system. They at least had the ethics to say no, than to put their necks on the promise something that they can't deliver)
So in short, those who say that:
Its not Daie's fault, our players are weak
Its not Daie's fault, our players are out of shape
Its not Daie's fault, our federation couldn't get friendlies
Its not Daie's fault, our football is run by a mafia
Its not Daie's fault, its Ahmadinejad and Ali Abadi's fault
etc
etc
Well, all of you might have valid points, but those excuses don't mean Daie is cleared. Maybe if we had Mr. X, or Mr. Y instead of Daie, the end result would have been the same. but again, this doesn't mean Daie is not to blame.
Ali Daie, knew all the facts, and he accepted responsibility and made his decision, DESPITE those facts.
So in the end, he is the one responsible and must be answerable to the people, regardless of any other factors.
This becomes more tragic, when you realize that Daie accepted this huge responsibility by putting his whole reputation on the line. The reputation which he worked more than a decade to achieve.
One has to wonder, what was in this for Mr. Daie? My personal guess is fame and fortune (more importantly the former) Daie has both fame and fortune, but he is the type of person who the more he has, the hungrier he gets.
Ali Daie who came in power with the help of his connections, and accepted a responsibility without pondering over its consequences , will now be a victim of his own decision. He will be removed by IFF, and IFF will basically wash away their own sins and save face by sacking him.
Stadium Atmosphere
I kinda feel if we had played in an empty stadium, we would have won, or at least tied the match. Ali Daie had not prepared the team psychologically for this match. The buildup for this match was absolutely huge. Adding to this, Ali Daie had created a negative and hostile shell around TM due to his own stubborn and irrational attitude. He had created lots of critics (both fans and players), and with his own hands, turned this game into a do or die game.
The presence of our monkey president in the crowd, the new method of crowd support (using stadium speakers, for the first time ever), and the impatient crowd of Azadi (who in my books, were the biggest reason why we messed up the last 15 minutes of the game) put huge pressure on our players and made our players very nervy and emotional. We played bad football in the last 3-4 games, but we played ATROCIOUS on Saturday, even in the first 70 minutes. Had we played our usual 'bad' football, we would have taken something out of that game.
Saudi was playing with one of its weakest teams in recent years, and indeed, they were.
But Ali Daie's 'chicken' tactics, had given the players the wrong impression that they need to play a conservative match, score one goal (if possible) and sit on it till the end of 90 minutes.
The extent of Daie's tactics in this game, was to put two defensive midfielders, (Kazemi, Nekonam) and play with a deep 4 man defense, and pray to god that Saudi defense makes a mistake or one our players does something miraculous to score (same tactic he used against S.Korea, only this time for some reason, our players didn't close down the opponent as much) Forward runs were totally banned and we always had 5-6 players staying back, even when we attacked. Saudi Arabia on the other hand, was also there to defend, expecting Iran to storm their goal relentlessly. But after a few minutes, they realized this Iran, is not the old Iran.
Cheers
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