KUWAIT - IRAN (ACQ March 2013)

[Doctor DOOM]

FIRST HALF:

Whats the use of having TWO DM’s and still allowing the opponent take shots at our goal right outside our box? Having this many DM’s shd secure this area and form a block in front of shots from the middle. Another reason why having 2 DM’s not only doesn’t help us, but actually takes away chance to have a more creative player in the line up. Thanks to Ahmadi’s awareness, we’re still 0-0 by minute 10.
Compare the above with jabbari’s effort at min 20. Their DM pressurized him and all jabbari could do was kick under the ball far away from their goal.

Lol. What a miss by Kuwait. Loved it. When you plan your pitch on making it difficult to run the ball on the ground, you end up paying for it dearly. Hahahaha. Sweet justice

Decent shot from shojaie who seems to be playing well and better than our previous games. Hopefully he can keep this up for 90 min’s.

Some magnificent centers from pouladi, who keeps the balls crisp and sharp and low. Not the usual lobs that take half the afternoon to come down.

So far (min 34 or so) all our attacks have been through lobs from defense to forwards! As usual these lobs take out all the midfielders from the equation! Ok. You’ve had this many tries and so far nothing. Why not try something different ? why not build up from lines?

Seems like I spoke too soon about shojaei. He shows after this many years in europe’s best league he has been incapable of learning how to challenge or tackle for the ball!!!! Yellow for him! hmmpph
Almost all his challenges end up as fouls!!!
Luckily his shooting is not as flawed and he hits a lovely volley into the goal, making it impossible for the keeper to parry it. Lovely volley, I must admit.
Kudos to Dejagah for his dogged work to cut in the ball and Ando for keeping his shot on target (against the cross bar).


I didnt see anything wrong with the second goal. and what a beauty it was. I really am dumbfounded how the refs screwed that call up! oh well .... asian refs . cant really depend on them. lol


****************

SECOND HALF:

A bit of a boring, scrappy game so far (min 63). Given the state of the pitch, we shdnt expect much from it anyway.
But Jabbari seems to be out of the game. Perhaps this may be a great chance to try out Hadadifar or even Ebrahimi.

Yes, speaking of that, Jabbari and Shojaei are replaced by Hajsafi and Oladi (#10???? Lol. Really??)
Hajsafi brings more activity and energy where shojaei seems to have run out of steam. Good call. But cant say the same about Oladi for Jabbari. Looks weird.

Great coordination between Heidari and Dejagah. They seem to make a pretty skillful pair who know each other’s moves ahead of time. With this pair getting to know each other better, we shd have a fantastic and pretty much unbeatable right flank in asia.

Penalty: I doubt nekounam even touched the bugger. That was a dive that was decided even before he reached nekounam. Silly call. Asian refs. Lol

Dangerous header off hajsafi corner, passing inches from the goal post. This is the third header that had a great chance of getting in. only slight inaccuracy by RGN (1^st half) , Nekunam (2^nd haf, twice). We shd get these headers more correctly. One can wonder what if Aghili was still a part of the team. What if …
Or more importantly, what if we had someone like SEYED SALEHI who is far more capable in aerial battles than the likes of Oladi (who almost didnt do anything). This is why I was saying having a tall physical player is far more important and needed than someone like Oladi



I am not at all worried about this draw. I’m pretty sure we can beat this Kuwait in Iran. But it would have been nice to go to the Qatar game with an away win as a morale booster. Oh well … .

[Doctor DOOM]

a bit on a couple of Ahmadi's exits. actually there were only two of them in second half.
I think he is over-doing this and trying to be different from rahmati who was usually nailed to the line no matter how close the flight of the ball! Ahmadi tried too hard to pucnh or deflect balls that were outside his 6 yard box and twice he just flapped and failed to make an impact.

more like what we say in farsi; na be oon shori-ye shoor ... na be in bi namaki.

there ought to be some balance. I am not saying we remove him as I still think he is more reliable than haghighi. But instead of haghighi, bringing Gordan (who has bounced back from his PP days and is in good form at sepahan. thank god for this life-saving transfer) would raise the technical level of our GK's.

I also hope CQ understands the need for more height in our forward line. ghazi, if in form or seyed salehi would be sorely missed. especially since today we watched someone like oladi just turn and go around in circles without any purpose!!

[Paradigm]

I am seriously starting to think that Mansoorian >> CQ
He managed to get three back to back wins with U-23

[Martin-Reza]

AW: KUWAIT - IRAN (ACQ March 2013)

Ahmadi showed today what weakness on crosses really means. Two horrible misjudgements in second half, minute 58 and 77. This is unacceptable, I hope he will be benched in June. He's just too small for a keeper as well. In absence of good alternatives he should be on the bench though.

Montazeri looked like a schoolboy ahead of the penalty, I really don't know what to think of him, he us not a bad defender, but he has his blackouts.

The experiment with Dejagah as central offensive man failed in my opinion, no blame on CQ for giving it a try though.

Overall this still was one of our better performances away from home, but I just can't see this team beating Qatar in Doha in June.

[zzgloo]

So Far,in WCO games ..... the offensive power of Asian teams in our group have been :
.

South Korea, 11 goals .
Uzbakistan, 6 goals.
Qatar, 4 goals.
Lebanon & Iran , 2 goals each !!!!
.............................................
IMHO ,the above statistic, is the single most important indication of CQ coaching failier so far .
TM just can n't score enough goals....even with likes of Dejagah .

[St_Mark]

......
but I just can't see this team beating Qatar in Doha in June.

Dear:
U don't see winning a "must" win in Qatar yet strongly backing up continuation with CQ and his plan!.

It is not about the man but what is best chance for Iran. It is too late now and we all know IFF has no plan or courage to replace him now.
Alas... We pay for our bad choices, unwise decisions and unable to do something about it when it's possible.
Iran will not win in Qatar.

[Doctor DOOM]

btw, wasnt this the same korean ref who screwed sepahan a couple of weeks back in qatar?
I think it was the same idiot, with his idiotic calls.

AFC! sigh!

[Doctor DOOM]

Overall this still was one of our better performances away from home, but I just can't see this team beating Qatar in Doha in June.

I am so amused how you ignore the massive, pink elephant in the room and just talk around it. lol

and the huge elephant is that 3 million dollars (or whatever it is worth now. must be more) we have forked out to bring in a SUPPOSEDLY better coach to get BETTER results than what we got from our own home grown vatani coaches.
if in the end, according to your estimation, we are not even capable of beating qatar, then that was possible with our own firooz karimis or ahmadzadehs and gholoom-alis of Iran.


let me make it simple. lets say you live in a simple 2 bedroom apt. I say give me 3 million dollars because I am well known, famous, and I usually get mansions for my client. you give me 3 million dollars and the next day I give the keys to YOUR OWN APT.
what would you say? how wld you react?




YOUR CQ made a simple and quite easy campaign that we could have run through with comparative ease, into yet another "if and but" one we're used to. against some pretty poor opposition too. and I'm talking about PRESENT QUALITY. not what "numbers" you read on some scoreboard. QUALITY which is seen by everyone.... and hopefully can be judged by everyone.

so here we are, sitting in a little room, trying to pretend the gigantic pink elephant sitting in the middle of the small room, farting away, is not here!!
lol
once in a while a bit of admission and acknowledgment of f**k ups goes a long way.

but we've been here before. havent we? in so many tournaments, pre and during and even post. the same argument of "coaching license/degree", "famous & well known name", blind trust, even worse; blind obedience without question or doubt, ... !!!
we just pretend and hope people forget.
sadly the walls & curtains of the room reek of all the farts that we act as if we dont know from where/whom they have been emitted.

lol

[maij]

Depressing performance....seriously depressing.

Nothing worked well in this team, even Dejagah who has performed marvelously in all his matches with team Melli was a shadow of himself. He dribbled so much as if his life depended on it !! and failed many time on doing any good with these dribbles . I bet you that he will never dare do that at Fulham.

Mehrdad Ouladi !!!!! What on earth does CQ see in this guy? Anyway , he is the coach and it is his choice not ours , but the results and the performance speaks for themselves, don't they ?.

I am still not sure about Masoud Shojaei. I can't put my fingers on it , but he is not firing on all cylinders. Why can't he play the full 90 minutes ( assuming he is not sent off , of course ). I definitely agree with the Doc on his tackles and fouls. How long does a professional player needs to learn about proper tackling without being cautioned or sent off ?

Ando is either brilliant or awful; there is no sweet medium with this guy. Neither Jabbari nor Nekounam did what they do best, could it be the playing surface, or am I try to justify their poor performances?

Although Rahmati was very week and hesitant on his timing for crosses and general positioning on dead ball situations, frankly speaking, I don't think Ahmadi was much of an improvement either. He completely missed a ball, and comically so, but was lucky that a defender was behind him to clear. He was not seriously tested and managed a save or two but .........

If only Mansourian had a bit more experience, if only.

I hate to think about it...but this team is just not good enough for the World Cup, but then again we shall live in hope.

[Martin-Reza]

The pink elephant in the room is that no matter who the coach is Dr. Doom says with a different coach it will all be better. I wonder how many more coaches we need to experience before nobody takes this seriously any more.

We have a team of players who look paralysed when they have to play outside Iran. If all those so called talents keep being afraid moving too far away from Mum we can hire Mourinho and won't go to World Cup.

Queiroz at least is increasing the number of players playing abroad who have learned not to have 1 turnover in 2 ball contacts and one can see the effect.

That everyone speaks of the performance of the century when an Iranian team wins but it has been all bad if the result is satisfying simply shows that too many here are victims of their emotions when trying to analyze. This combined with a generalizing overestimation of the outstanding talent our players possess due to their genetic superiority, underestimation of every team we play and the utterly naive belief any player not tried in TM will most likely be an improvement compared to his predecessor helps to permanent nagging, complaining and populistic demands.

[Paradigm]

Ahmadi showed today what weakness on crosses really means. Two horrible misjudgements in second half, minute 58 and 77. This is unacceptable, I hope he will be benched in June. He's just too small for a keeper as well. In absence of good alternatives he should be on the bench though.

Montazeri looked like a schoolboy ahead of the penalty, I really don't know what to think of him, he us not a bad defender, but he has his blackouts.

The experiment with Dejagah as central offensive man failed in my opinion, no blame on CQ for giving it a try though.

Overall this still was one of our better performances away from home, but I just can't see this team beating Qatar in Doha in June.

Thanks Martin jaan. The trajectory of the national team under CQ has not been one to write home about. Again the question comes to mind whether he is the right coach for Iran, or is he simply the Mayeli-Kohan of Portugal whom we have been stuck with. Is he even being asked how come Iran never plays a decent friendly?? What is the story with blacklisting our #1 goalkeeper Rahmati while inviting Owladi, and does CQ even properly study/analyze the opponents before the games? I hope we come to our senses before it is too late. If I were the IFF, I would immediately, without any hesitation have CQ removed and place Mansoorian in charge of the national team.

[Keano]

I am seriously starting to think that Mansoorian >> CQ
He managed to get three back to back wins with U-23

It could also translate into U-21 >>> TM

Our U-21 team played with so much conviction and determination, an extremely high-spirited and offensive minded team with great passing ability and fantastic teamwork all together, it was purely breath of fresh air watching them play with those beautiful tiki-taka style and long steered passes, so gratifying to watch for sure. Kudos to them and Mansourian.

On the other hand an unmotivated and sloppy TM along with its unenthusiastic players bearing too much inconsistency in their performances, all of which is excruciating to watch at times.

Today's performance against a mediocre Asian counterpart was just a few letters short of the word "Disaster" unable to link a few clean passes throughout the match was indicative of the result and overall TM performance!

Dejagah indeed displayed his worst TM performance so far, he became a ball hugger, wouldn't let go of it, he insisted on dribbling passed several players in several scenes, for he failed in pretty much all attempts, yet never gave up the new habit.

Rahman Ahmadi was sort of shaky and looked unreliable, I wonder what made him start over Davari. Ahmadi's biggest enemy IMHO is his size and height which is below average for a GK. His faulty exits in some aerial challenges was a glimpse of the old Rahmati drama. I truly don't wanna see him as our number 1 goalie!

I am still baffled by how and why a player of Oladi's caliber is invited, and gets playing time in an official game, I seriously don't get it. Currently one of IPL's top goal scorers is Farzad Hatami followed by Seyed Salehi, yet we pick Oladi, how bizarre is that? Even Ghazi or Ansarifard are both better than Oladi.

We certainly got robed of a 100% clean and legit goal, shiiiiiit happens in football, therefore I am not gonna resort to the typical accusations and conspiracy theories, but still overruling such clean and beautiful goal hurts!

A creative midfielder's spot like Khalatbari was surely felt today, today our midfielders lacked sufficient creativity, Ghoochannejad was barely fed and provided by his teammates, he got a great assist I believe from Dejagah which he beautifully converted, however unfairly disallowed by the ref.

Our biggest shortcoming and enemy is lack of a great goal scorer with fantastic vision, precision, high IQ, good physics so that he can bully all aerial and ground balls, even Mila agrees with me on this!

[Paradigm]

^ It is the coach who selects the right players and the system that will work. As I recall Mansoorian was in charge when we beat Russia in 2011. Watch these clips once more, I love the dynamic game which U-22 plays!! You can see the guys are genuinely happy, fast, and light; that is the sort of change we will need in the senior team.

[maij]

Thanks Martin jaan. The trajectory of the national team under CQ has not been one to write home about. Again the question comes to mind whether he is the right coach for Iran, or is he simply the Mayeli-Kohan of Portugal whom we have been stuck with. Is he even being asked how come Iran never plays a decent friendly?? What is the story with blacklisting our #1 goalkeeper Rahmati while inviting Owladi, and does CQ even properly study/analyze the opponents before the games? I hope we come to our senses before it is too late. If I were the IFF, I would immediately, without any hesitation have CQ removed and place Mansoorian in charge of the national team.

Well said.
Very observant of you to mention the analysis of opponents by Queiroz. I am not sure if this has been done properly, because there were one or two instances that made me question if Team Melli technical cadre has actually analyzed the opponents and what is the source of threat from Kuwait.

Although I am not too keen on sacking coaches in the midst of a competition , I think if Iran has to do it , then this is the right time. It gives the new coach enough time to do something and perhaps save this campaign. I honestly do not believe that our famous world renowned coach Carlos Queiroz has ANYTHING and I mean anything , to offer or to improve in the next 3 matches on the World Cup campaign. Getting rid of him is not going to be a disaster apart from paying him the remainder of the contract period and that is the damn hurdle that the stingy IFF does not want to do. Not that I blame them because the IFF is stripped out of cash like Cyprus.

On the subject of Mansourian , I must say admit that a week of seeing his work, suddenly changed my mind about this man. It is quite clear that Mansourian understands and values quality in football. He also has a good vision for the game, however , his biggest problem remains experience. He has very little experience compared to Queiroz , but then again we have to ask ourselves this question. What did the valuable experience of Queroz achieved for Team Melli ?


Instead of bragging and acting arrogant about our knowledge and history in football , we should start learning from other successful experiences. The minnows of yesteryear such as UAE and Qatar are giving very good examples of themselves. These two countries , and Saudi Arabia employed the most expensive coaches their money can buy. Their list of coaches is full of world class coaches some of whom are still coaching first class national teams like England's Roy Hodgson. Although there was some improvement in the results here and there and some of these coaches influences are undeniable , lately they reverted to using their own vatani coaches because money cannot guarantee success.

Mehdi Ali who did a brilliant job with UAE youth team was appointed as head coach of the UAE national team. His achievement is remarkable so far and includes winning the Gulf Cup this year and leading the AFC Asian Cup qualifying group. They just beat Uzbekistan a week ago. Qatar also sacked Attouri after a disappointing Gulf cup and appointed a local coach Fahad Thani. The improvement was immediate as Qatar beat Egypt 3-1 in a friendly , which is no mean feat in itself and yesterday the gave the Koreans all sort of problems and lost the match in Seoul 2-1 in the last kick of the games! Very unlucky. You might note that the same Korean team beat Qatar 4-1 in Doha under Attouri!

So , changing the coach can have a drastic result both technically and psychologically and I really believe that Iran has reached a crossroad and some wise men in IFF , probably with high IQ, need to be brave enough and act. There is nothing to lose as we have already reached a critical scenario. Unless there is something that CQ has like a secret weapon , I don't see Team Melli beating Qatar in Doha.

[Martin-Reza]

Mansourian has never won a competitive match as headcoach. He is not an option for TM. He might be on the very beginning of a good way with the Omid team after all, but that's it. Stop dreaming. He's no Guardiola.

And we changed a big authority at helm of TM almost exactly four years ago. Looking back we might have had better chances winning in Pyongyang had we kept Daei.

In comparison, Mehdi Ali brought UAE to the Olympics and helped the team shine there. Not really compareable to Mansourian's situation.

And Qatar's new coach lost both if his competitive matches after beating Egypt B in a friendly. I have my doubts he will last until June.