WCQ ; Qatar - Iran (June, 4,2013)

[Doctor DOOM]

"Edited version"


I am editing and cleaning up my original post on the game as it was written real time, as the game was unfolding. So there is a lot of anger and frustration with a few issues evident in that post.
But for the sake of the existent of a separate F+ forum, I have tried to clean and tidy up the post. So if in the process it looks/reads sterile and a bit distant, well that is how things work. I guess hind-sight 20-20 does allow you to dissociate your emotions and tension one experiences DURING a game.


FIRST HALF:


CQ obviously surprised me by reverting to his old ultra cautious nature and started with an extremely defensive line up with only 3 offensive players (RGN, Shojaei and Jabbari), while the other 8 players were defensive ones. Pretty strange given the fact that we really need to get a win to maintain a glimmer of hope to directly qualify.
The formation looks like 3-6-1 to me with sadeghi, montazeri and hosseini as defenders with Heidari and Beikzadeh on flanks and I assume Shojaei having the task of connecting the massively defensive midfield to the lone striker, up front, RGN.

But here’s the problem (albeit quite expected with such a defensive attitude). The gap between the midfield and RGN was too large and having a player with low work rate (Shojaei) tasked with connecting them was more an exercise in futility than anything else. And this was the the general sense of the first half as RGN was cut off and shojaei with his slow pace and poor passes and turn overs hardly was able to bring RGN into the fold. The only thing going for Shojaei (for some fans, at least) at the moment is “he plays in Spain”. Otherwise his first half performance was extremely poor and easily the weakest player in our team.

On the other end of the pitch though, I was pleasantly surprised to see Sadeghi after many years’ absence from TM, show a very confident (and his usuall c0cky) performance that seemed to have reinforced our back line. In absence of Aghili, TM needed a tough, physical player (I label such a defender as a Thug as any team needs one) and Sadeghi made Aghili’s absence a forgotten memory.
- Jabbari has terribly underperformed. But seeing he has 5 other Iranian mids plus at least 4 more qataris in his natural zone, it is understandable he hasn’t done much beyond a couple of moves/shots. The middle is TOO crowded, while up front we have only 1 !!
- Nekounam seems to have upped his game from previous games. Good sign.

- Shojaei finally contributes something to the team after 41 minutes!!! Now lets see how we waste the set piece! Not a bad kick. I wish sadeghi had connected wt the ball.


- Min 43 - Wow! What a chance for RGN. Lucky save. perhaps a better decision was to hit the ball to the ground. That would have gone in and put us firmly in charge of the match.



End of half.
I would immediately take out shojaei. not only for totally under performing, but also that we need more attackers next to RGN, who is too far from the midfield and being outnumbered
but having a complete unqualified person (Namazi) as the decision maker in absence of CQ, I doubt he even notices where we lack and what we shd do to change things around!! another major blame on shoulders of CQ for opting for this nobody.

Speaking of the nobody as decision maker of the game, why isn’t Vingada sitting with this loser to at least give him ideas and push him when things need to be addressed?

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

SECOND HALF:


- Great spot for a freekick. If only we had a specialist and didn’t waste such opportunities as has become the tradition in TM!!!!!!!! He didn’t even try his one kick!!

- Once again a great ball from heidari to shojaei who was alone with space, but shojaei is too slow to react and control the ball, allowing the defender to reach him !!!! God, how slow can you be?
Baba, get this chap subbed for someone with quicker decision making abilities! This is what you get if you look at NAMES for team selection!!!

- I’m liking our new TM thug, sadeghi. He does the dirty work in defending quite well. If only he maintains his cool.

- Ok. Now the animals have started their usual barbaric nature, hacking jabbari and RGN in a minute. Btw, jabbari’s injury is due to shojaei’s pisspoor and slow pass that allowed the qataris to reach jabbari before the ball reached him! get this shit out, you freaking nobody. [IMG]file:///C:\Users\home\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\c lip_image001.gif[/IMG]

- Heidari has been playing great. Very determined, gutsy play in both defense and offense. Great crosses too. One of the better TM players in the game for me.

- And finally RGN scores in a run in the middle. Lovely toe in. very cool.
a bit lucky as jabbari tries to run, but hits the qatari defender's leg and the ball ricochets towards RGN. But hey, I'll take it. [IMG]file:///C:\Users\home\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\c lip_image002.png[/IMG]


- I still say shojaei needs to be taken out. He is slow and totally incapable of defending. And we need a little more energy and creativity on the left. Maybe someone like Hajsafi or even khalatbari (for quick counters since Qatar will come forward)

- Is ando playing still? I haven’t seen him at all in the 2^nd half. How can he be so invisible? I just saw him at min 72. I am sure he’s been running a lot as is expected from him. But I think given his experience, he has to make more impact in the game.

- The ref wasted no time in handing RGN the yellow. that card was too quickly whipped out. Almost as if premeditated.

- Min 76 and still no subs and still shojaei is wasting a spot on the pitch. The Qatar has come up field and RGN is busying the defenders. It is the perfect time for a quick player like rezaei or khalatbari to make use of the spaces .
But since this Namazi has absolutely no qualifications, he clearly is lost and dumbfounded. I’m afraid we may yet pay the price for not making a decision at this crucial passage of the game!

- And shojaei almost gave a penalty. Even if he didn’t connect very hard, but given qataris and the whole situation with fifa, ref, afc, we are very lucky the ref didn’t call a penalty. I wish someone would replace this chap. Even a goal keeper.

- RGN does beautifully on his runs. Yet another run and forces the keeper to come out and receive a yellow. A little better control and first touch, he could have lobbed the ball over the keeper.

- 84 min and still we haven’t made a sub!! I’m just flabbergasted at how much risk we’re taking with our timing of subs.


- Ando shows his fighting spirit. Love his gheyrat.


- Finally khalatbari to come in. but for the wrong player. At least shojaei deserved to be removed earlier than jabbari.

- The assistant-ref calls a perfectly good pass to khalatbari an offside where a Qatari in the middle had played him in. that could and WOULD have been a great chance for us.

- The ref shows 5 minutes, for when we hardly saw any grassrolling and only 1 goal. not a surprise though. Afterall this is afc and Qatar.


- Rezaei for heidari?????? While shojaei is doing nothing (but put us in danger of penalties or red cards!!!)

- Oofffff. Ahmadi tried to collect the ball instead of punching. And becoz of that, the Qatari attacker connected earlier and almost scored. Very bad mistake by ahmadi that we got away with.

- 6 minutes extra time!?!?!?!
Although I must add, the ref did surprise me with not blatantly giving a silly penalty against us. in Asia anything is possible. So, all in all, even if we include the 1 minute overtime, he did well.


Whoooffff. Finally!
Great win for us and puts us in a better position. A bit shaky first half by us. But a better 2nd half ... even if we allow for the mistake of keeping shojaei on.

[Doctor DOOM]

A few notes, post game

• The team’s performance as a whole:
  
  The team did decently in the second half. Especially after the goal and in defensive duties as mentioned. Hell, we SHOULD have won by a bigger margin, had RGN taken his 2 chances better. Maybe if Khalatbari had come in earlier, we could have seen a healthier result. That would have reflected the sense of the game better than a 1-0.
  But Qatar also was not a formidable opponent to speak of. Aside from getting lucky on the break in the first half when they hit the bar and one header late in the second, they hardly threatened our goal.
  
  
  - The referee:
  I gotta give credit when it’s due. I seriously think the ref refrained from blatant and over the top calls against us (even the one occasion he could have rightfully called shojaei’s penalty) mainly because of what CQ did in the run up to the game, by putting pressure on the ref and AFC.
  So much that all the ref could do was to call a baseless 5 minutes of extra time and then add another minute to it for good measure. I’d take this any day over a shitty call like a penalty.
  
  I gotta hand it to CQ for skillfully forcing the ref to call it down the middle and not try any crazy stuff in the game. Thank you CQ, for this move.

- Players:
Other than shojaei who had at best a couple of nice moves the entire game but was quite poor and deserved to be replaced at the half, the rest played pretty well. Ahmadi also didn’t have a great game. He had a few good saves and exits, but a couple bad mistakes that gives him only a slightly above average score.
But for me, a few players stood out. First it was Heidari, Sadeghi, Montazeri, and RGN. These 4 were great.
Also Nekunam, hosseini and ando (except for 10-15 min of the 2^nd half) were pretty good. Jababri faded in and out of the game and perhaps the traffic in the middle of the pitch had something to do with this. A little more open space, I am sure he can do far better.



- Defense :
I think the focus on HEIGHT in defense was a very good decision by CQ. This means our defenders were in control of any possible cross or set piece as was evident. Montazeri, sadeghi and beikzadeh took care of the flanks and hosseini swept up the middle pretty well too. If you notice, we didn’t look that vulnerable on crosses and set pieces and our defenders had above normal success in connecting with the balls and deflecting them.
I see that as an improvement in defense. Nekunam also did well.




- The game as a whole:
I must say CQ did well. But lets put things in relative terms. The opponent was qatar, not germany. Not even korea or a tier 1 asian team. That too a depleted qatar without a couple of their most influential players.
Keeping this in mind and I'd say if CQ had tweaked his formation and selection a tiny bit, I am pretty sure we could have shown much better quality performnce as well as a healthier margin on the score board.

[Martin-Reza]

Shojaei was absolutely marvelous. He's so important for the team, so secure on the ball and great overview. You can see why he is playing in La Liga. He's one of the main reasons for the deserved three points today.

[Nokhodi]

Shojaei was absolutely marvelous. He's so important for the team, so secure on the ball and great overview. You can see why he is playing in La Liga. He's one of the main reasons for the deserved three points today.

He's in the right place at the right time, but he could have been easily caught for that slow reaction and poor handling in TM's penalty box.

[zzgloo]

- Oofffff. Ahmadi tried to collect the ball instead of punching. And becoz of that, the Qatari attacker connected earlier and almost scored. Very bad mistake by ahmadi that we got away with.

That was an " IQ " mistake, or lack of it.....even more stupid than his earlier kicking the ball into the qatari forward.......
This goal keeper...is defenetly not to keep !!

[Paradigm]

Apparently the Lebanese goal keeper was doing his magic against the Koreans: http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/prelimi...witter_fifacom

He only got scored on in minute 97 off of a deflected free kick.

[Doctor DOOM]

Shojaei was absolutely marvelous. He's so important for the team, so secure on the ball and great overview. You can see why he is playing in La Liga. He's one of the main reasons for the deserved three points today.

^ I really dont know what game you were watching, coz I dont see ANYthing that justifies the above 3 remarks (in bold) on his game.
The amount of bad passes, losing in challenges and slow runs in the first half was not even azadegan level, let alone la liga.
the only reason for anyone to defend him is in the second half, he had two good moves which was his dribble to go past the incoming defender and enter into the box. and his direct attempt to the goal on his corner kick.

But then again, these 2 occasions when put against his extremely low work rate in the second half, inability to defend and basically bringing down the team's movement, more than CANCEL OUT his two contributions.
And don’t get me started on his penalty that could have damned our team!! I was watching ESPN and they were all talking about most referees calling the penalty!! Apparently even in iran the ref experts agreed it was a penalty. Whew!
(I hear the ref might actually be suspended by AFC, for not calling that penalty. )

So, Shojaei, “essential” to TM? Heh. I’d say “DETRIMENTAL” is more like it. At least at times (byt mostly he is imminently expendable/replaceable). No wonder only after his exit in the korea game, the team played better and even scored.


************
================

note on the first post:
I know it's a bit raw and angry as I was typing real time, while watching the game so you can imagine what I was going through. eventually I will get to clean it up.
But the sentiments are the same. I will not lie or change the truth about issues that I had a beef with ... just because the result suited us. the HONEST truth is more important

[zzgloo]

I see our chances very decent..to qualify...
Lebanon should not be that hard to handle in Azadi,and this south Korea team,unlike previouse ones, is very beatable !

[yashar_fasihnia]

my views on the game:

1) a very immobile and uncreative team. heydari was poor, jabbari didnt have much space and shojaei was focusing too much on himself and not a team player. he pissed me a lot in the end of the game where twice he dribbled into the box towards the end but he refused to pass to our striker who was free infront of the goal. and his careless fouling which should have been a penalty. very disappointing for our only player playing the worlds top league. even the camera zoomed on carlos when masoud wasted those chances and carlos was furious.

we needed to inject pace into this team much earlier,, hashem and even pejman were been outrun on two sides,, i was hoping khosro would be RB and someone like khalatbari or rezaei would play infront of him.

2) rahman ahmadi is a disaster waiting to happen. i dont trust this guy at all, he is very shaky and not confident either.

3) the second wave of attack for lose balls behind gucci were missing..shojaei, jabbari and khosro were all too slow to move up.

4) our team was poor in pressing, we lacked pace and aggressiveness. i felt ando isnt as aggressive as his days in IPL. maybe qatari league laziness is hitting him as well?

however,

5) i think hosseini and sadeghi were relatively ok in defense. with pejman moving to RB and sadeghi moving into center, our center of defense once again has some aerial ability. hosseini-montazeri is a very short and aerially weak center back pair and this was exposed the most against korea in tehran where the koreans kept hitting us on set pieces.

6) i liked nekounam, he was everywhere always offering support and creating space for his team mates. jabbari was also doing the same but the problem was he would then be too far away from the goal to create any real danger. again comes back to more mobility of our players which i think we need to work on, the whole team is slow and uncreative. we need more dynamic players in the team which dejagah and heydari combo provide on the right or khalatbari on the left. but yesterday, heydari was weak and jabbari was continuously pressed and tackled.

7) gucci ran his @$$ off all alone upfront. kudos to him that he made the most use of the fluke ball which fell to him after missing a perfect sitter on his head


overall,, this team is very impotent upfront but defensively quite ok. our biggest problem is creating changes and converting them. we will need to either start creating more chances by pushing up our midfield line higher for 2nd and 3rd balls or increase our efficiency in converting changes because against korea and a "greece type" lebanon, if we concede, scoring 2 goals will be a mountain to climb. we cant even hope for better goal difference incase equalling korea or uzbekistan on the last day because of our extremely poor goals scored stats, unless we will be content with a 3rd place finish and facing an asian plus a south american team which i dont fancy our chances again.

[zzgloo]

1- Our forwards will be fine once we get Dejagah back.
.
2-Our midfield,needs different style players..Nekonam and Ando are so alike...we only need one of them at a time..and use a dribbling faster offensive-mid instead.
.
3- Goal keeper,MUST be replaced..no doubt about that.
.
4-The deffense , we have the right skill sets....we just need more chemistry and the right selection of players.

[Doctor DOOM]

well, the team is MADE impotent. it can be more effective if ALLOWED.
by allow I mean the coach has to man up and stop being so bloody conservative. when you set your team 70% defensive and of the other 30% offensive segment, 10% is more a headless chicken and a disaster, then you have no right to expect the team to score goals or be potent in ots attacks.

a little more guts and daring by CQ would have turned out a totally different line up, team and match.... and possibly the result.

as said on player selection and formation & tactics, there are many things wrong with this team if we expect them to win a game. especially against a tier 2 team, weakened even more by absence of their influential foreigners.

[Paradigm]

I wonder if Seyed Salehi would have been of some use in these qualifiers had he accepted the invite to the national team.

[faraz]

well, the team is MADE impotent. it can be more effective if ALLOWED.
by allow I mean the coach has to man up and stop being so bloody conservative. when you set your team 70% defensive and of the other 30% offensive segment, 10% is more a headless chicken and a disaster, then you have no right to expect the team to score goals or be potent in ots attacks. a little more guts and daring by CQ would have turned out a totally different line up, team and match.... and possibly the result.

The more I watch this team Doc, the more I have to disagree with you. Let's call it for what it is - we have a bad team with sub-par players in most positions.

For us to afford a tactical change in favour of attack, we need a more reliable defence coupled with stronger, attack-minded players who can keep possession up front.

At this stage, these are the cards we've been dealt and I think an overly aggressive tactical change will further expose our already-weak defence.

[Doctor DOOM]

^ but reliable defense does not mean MORE defensive players.
just as better offensive doesnt mean "more forwards" (more than 2, I mean).

our defense is suspect as a TEAM. and we all know there are plenty of factors that are involved. from the front players who dont participate in defense, to def-mids who lose the plot at times and cant keep up with their marks, to our flank players who leave too much space behind them to be exploited and dont come back to cover the runners, to even the height of fullbacks who get bested in aerial crosses. and finally to some glaring keeper weaknesses that have been found out & exploited.

but adding more numbers beyond a reasonable one, to defensive minded players doesnt solve the issue. in fact, it actually hinders the team's movement and even defenses as players get mixed up with tasks and this confusion allows for many errors and gaps.

in other words, there is a magic number that a coach shd find that strikes a balance in his team. and for defense as well as offense or ..., there is a plateau beyond which, more means less actually.




( This simple diagram above, is one of the first lessons we learn in football and in fact, with many things in life in general.
I know some of the chaps here go on trying make light of what I say about having TWO forwards, by going to the extremes and say "then 3, 4 or 5 would be that much better?", and I allow them to jest. But the reality is the magic number for the front line, given our circumstances and weaknesses is two)

same thing with the required number of defensive players in our team. we had 7 out of 10 outfield players who were defensive players. that was absurd ... especially because we were not facing a highly prolific attacking team that scores goals at will and are among asia's best. Not only qatar finds it difficult to score, they also are not among asia's best AND were already depleted and devoid of some of their most influential players.

yes, we didnt concede. and that's because qatar simply wasnt that strong.
but we also didnt score off one of our own moves and had to rely on an accident!!
Jabbari would have gone past the defender (away from the goal and towards the flag) and most probably would have either tried to cross (which would have most probably found RGN in an offside position as he had already started his run). Or maybe pass it to the on-rushing heidari to do the cross ... which the exact same thing had happened many times before and after without any result!!!
(the above statements may not find many happy fans in the general forum. but here, we must face reality and be more realistic)


so to all those who claim this was a brilliant game and great master plan by CQ and what not ... they must realize not only the formation and line up were flawed. the goal itself was out of pure luck and chance. a luck in absence of which we could have ended the game 0-0 and we'd be tearing everything in sight about the lost opportunities (except those few who just LOVE 0-0 draws. you know who you are )




********

so to answer you, I'd have said even if CQ wanted to try 3 CB's (sadeghi, hosseini, montazeri), then having 2 other defenders (heidari and beikzadeh) and two mored defensive players (nekounam and ando) was OVERKILL, especially for qatar in their state.

I'd have added AT LEAST one more offensive player. maybe hajsafi on the left allowed to move in or join the attackers on the left, as beikzadeh was told to stay put and hover in our own half.
I'd have used a different player than shojaei too (and maybe brought shojaei later in the 2nd half). but that's a different matter.

so this is hardly an overly aggressive formation. BALANCE is required.
although I'd have said if the balance need to be tipped slightly to one side, it better be on the offensive side as eventually the GOAL DIFFERENCE may prove decisive.



***********

sorry for the long posts these days.
I'm somewhere in Asia, having little to do with most hours of my days (silly world conference . But watched the game on espn asia and found these commentators, most probably australians, quite uninformed about our players!)
free time isnt that great (with nod/reference to the diagram above )

[Doctor DOOM]

as for "cards we are dealt", I say there are always two sides to this.

on one side, as you mentioned, are the cards we are dealt and we cant change that.
but on the other is "what we do about them". here, we have control and shd make sure what we do and what decisions we make are the VERY BEST possible ones (here's when I bring in "no stones unturned" argument)

this is the difference between reactive coaches and proactive ones.
reactive ones keep on relying on fate, karma, cards dealt, luck, ... etc.
while proactive ones aggressively try to tip the balance of things in their favor. yes, smetimes, they dont succeed in tipping things in their favor. but to NOT TRY is absolutely unforgiveable.
and this is why I have a problem with some fans here, as they just want quiet obedience, no matter what .. in fear of rocking the boat. even if we see the boat heading down towards a bloody gorge!

more, later. gotta go now