Asia Cup 2015 - Group Stage

[Doctor DOOM]

THE WAY

[Hadi]

DD you continue to amaze me.

What goal qualifies in your books as result of "rehearsed and planned move"?
Only if we score like Arsenal or Barcelona after 30+ passes and one twos?

I think we did have a plan and every single win in the tournament was a direct result of the plan that CQ had and had rehearsed. Now, I am not saying this was the best approach. Perhaps we could have played differently and gotten better results especially versus Bahrain and Qatar.
But we did have a plan and we did not play randomly: The fact that CQ rested 4 key players, added them in the dying minutes and we got a goal from a corner was EXACTLY our plan. If we had scored after a string of 20 passes, I would have been shocked and definitely said that it wasn't planned. The fact that we isolated UAE's strikers and put immense pressure on their play makers was EXACTLY the plan and was rehearsed.

Here is my analysis of the Group Stages:


1) Backdrop

Team Melli came to Australia severely under prepared. This meant that there was no way for our team to dominate opponents from the get go. We did not even know our best starting 11 and had no practices whatsoever. The only feasible option we had was to build on our WC backbone and tactics since it was well rehearsed. This was also made more difficult after we lost Beikzadeh and Montazeri in the last minute. That is what you saw versus Bahrain. A team which played very similar to the World Cup. Good pressure, solid defense and lots of running. But lacking a passing game, creativity, high defensive line and marauding full-backs.

Adding to this, Team Melli came to Aus with lots of Hashiyeh. Almost no support from the ministry and IR politicians. Vatani coaches (like Azizi, MK, Jalali etc) dying to see the team fail and that saga with Ali Karimi.

All this meant that realistically we did not have much chance of winning anything. CQ knows that he needs results and basically his job is to salvage whatever he can from a train wreck. If you were expecting free flowing "Perssshian" football, you should probably be feeling disappointed by now.

2) The reality of our players abilities

Here is a bitter reality: the technical difference between Iran and a team like UAE was non existent, and in some cases, UAE players were individually superior in terms of technique. Our players individually were not superior footballers. We won because of our tactics, not because of our individual abilities. Same can be said versus Qatar and Bahrain.
In football, if your team is really individually superior, its impossible to just have 30% possession or get outpassed 400 to 100.

UAE players on average had better Ball control, passing, dribbling, first touch. I don't know how people still say we are winning matches through "individual brilliance?"....non of our players (barring Ashkan) is really individually brilliant and superior to Asian players. Gone are the days when we had dribblers, passers and players who could win a match with a moment of magic.

Instead, Iran's modern footballers are better athletes. Physically strong, good stamina, determined, organized and more importantly they have a no nonsense defensive style.

3) What CQ did

so we have already established the backdrop of what TM's arrival in Melbourne. And we know CQ's aim is to get results not play like Arsenal. So what he did, to me, was brilliant. He knew our defense is far far superior than the strike force of any teams we meet in the group stages. So he went for clean sheets, and he got 3 of them.
in 270 minutes of football, our goal was not really threatened. And that is because Asian (Arab) teams are unable to carve open defenses. sure UAE passed it pretty in the middle, but that was basically it. They could not get near our goal often enough. If our defensive style in WC was risky, it Asian level its a guarantee of earning "some" points. There is no way for Asian footballers to effectively beat a well trained defensive line.
So by playing a defensive game, and banking on counter attacks and set pieces, CQ aimed to advance from the group stages first. You may ask: so what if we go through? surely we will fail versus teams like Aus and Japan. Answer is: distant water cant save near fire. CQ will handle that obstacle when he gets there.

Some people here think that CQ plays his team this way by choice. But the truth is, he plays this way out of necessity. The technical ability of our team is simply not good enough to push forward, play a passing game and be attack oriented. our roster is more suited for pressing, disruptive play and set pieces.

Just imagine if Iran had played an attacking game. Perhaps 3 attacking midfielders or two striker. and Bahrain had sat back to defend. I doubt we had the ability to open their defense, and chances are they could have scored on us through some counter attack or a turnover, something which we have seen often from Iran's midfield.

[Adesor Vafaseya]

I am very satisfied with the way we played. We had less possession than our opponents at the same time had more corner kicks, shots on target, free kicks etc... = we played very efficient.
We played a 4-1-4-1 with very narrow spaces betwen each line, but at the same time we didnt play too deep i.e. most of the games took place in the center of the field, which automatically prohibited our opponents to come in a flank situation and sending crosses. There we zero crosses from the classic top right and top left of the filed against us. At the same we were the team who peneterated those spaces very often in opponents half.
Nekounam's role was vital coordinating the gaps between the two 4 lines (DF and MF) and the spaces pushed our opponents to either play the ball back to their own defence or take a risk and lose the ball.
The below analysis from UAE game shows it clearly.

DD, I have a different oppinion than you on our performance, but then again, as I always say: everyone's view and interpretation of football is different. In this case ours are very much apart I am afraid.