IRAN - LEBANON - Asia Cup Qualifiers (Feb 2013)

[Paradigm]

Which players in the current squad are proven long-distance shot takers? How about PK takers? I hope Nekounam is not the only one.

[persian-eagle-13]

Sorry mates, I havent watched the game (I do have a life outside pfdc). so once PK or anyone else puts up the game I will put it up here.

but seeing the score line it seems iran handed a proper arse whooping to the lebanese fools (who foolishly thought they can repeat their lucky win). I'm guessing an early goal got things rolling. which is great.

good for the morale of the team and fans and I hope a big lesson for us to get a high scoring game in the more important WCQ's

stay tuned

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FIRST HALF:

Well I cant say I was surprised to see CQ start with the same old formation and line up. I mean I never thought he would make any changes after he showed he is far too stubborn to allow a whole bunch of bad performances to force him to change somethings around (even if he promises them after each bad result. Allow enough time and many people forget!!!).

The best thing is we scored early into the half, which against arab teams IS vital and crucial. This sets the tone of the rest of the game when we play arabs. And puts US in charge rather than them and their habitual grass rolling, time wasting tactics. Loved how Jabbari fed RGN andNEEDS someone with creativity a dozen other midfielders in IPL can do the same and morethe only DMNekounam. I know he scored a penalty in 1^st and another in 2^nd plus a goal. But his performance in the first half has not been impressive one bit. Maybe he will take it up in 2^ndDejagah was the star of the team. No doubt. I really liked how he so quickly fit into the team and linked up with heidari, Ando, even RGN in so few games. Shows his intelligence and professionalism.


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SECOND HALF:^st half was average, his 2^ndthndBottomline:But the absolute most important issue is that we scored early. That wrests the initiative and control of the game away and puts it right where we want it against arab teams: in OUR hands.
scoring early is the most crucial point we could take away from this game. And we saw how it relaxed our lads, while putting the arab team under increasing pressure.

i would add something else to this is CONSISTENCY, lets see how we react in Kuwait and if we have the same energy level, pace, pressing, etc..... that seems to me the most important thing, we play so well in once game and the next game we are a totally a different team and look flat in all fronts!!!

[Keano]

Sorry mates, I havent watched the game (I do have a life outside pfdc)

So you suggest the rest of us who watched the match, have no life?

lol there is no team in the world who doesnt want to score early.

there are those who CAN and there are those who CANT.

But there are those who push to score early into the game, and there are those who take their time before relentlessly breaking into the opponent's penalty box trying to score.

Scoring early goals has traditionally not worked to our teams benefit as a huge majority of our teams in international stages fail to hang on to their early goal need, need I count all TM games from the past where we scored first however towards the end of the match conceded? Sure here are a few off the top of my head:
2010 WCQ road:

Scoring first against S. Korea and conceding a goal by Kim Park Sun towards the end of the game
Scoring first against KSA in Tehran and conceding late 2 goals, thus losing the super crucial match
Scoring first against S. Korea and conceding a late goal by Kim Park Sun yet again
The list goes on and on, specially with our club teams as well

This indicates the mentality of our coaches and footballers in general: score a goal, then quickly retreat and start a defensive football, that may have paid off with some other teams, but never in favor of our teams!

[Doctor DOOM]

^ but those are good teams (even saudi who dont exactly use the typical arabic tactics of grassrolling and time wasting). the issue is what to do to counter the ARAB teams' habitual time wasting tactics that seem to get under our skin. not ALL our opponents


and to answer paradigm's query:
I think aside from nekounam, dejagah, RGN, ando (if he could keep it in the frame), ghazi, hajsafi, jabbari, ... have been known to take long shots at goal. although not many of them do it frequently and perhaps that's why not many are on target. but if they actually practice this specifically, I am sure they would do better

[Paradigm]

I think aside from nekounam, dejagah, RGN, ando (if he could keep it in the frame), ghazi, hajsafi, jabbari, ... have been known to take long shots at goal. although not many of them do it frequently and perhaps that's why not many are on target. but if they actually practice this specifically, I am sure they would do better

Here is some motivation for them: