where are the branko spporters now?

[yashar_fasihnia]

1- thank god for denizli's single ( I'm using branko's vocabulary ) substitution which led to paas' elimination.
if not for that single mistake, I dont know what some of you ppl would have raised !!!



2- branko has benefitted from us and was ready to take any kind of shit, only for one reason:
he knew we were his ticket to fame.
and that did over-ride any self-respect and dignity any coach may have.

yes, becoz he knew there wouldnt be any way he would coach a team at the WC.
at least nowhere in near future.

so plz dont overgrandize his efforts and work, as it was all for himself mainly.

I said it 2 years back: his only aim is to reach the WC.
that is his cieling.
I also said, he will aim for draws at best , since he knows he doesnt have the knowledge and fortitude to face anyone at the WC.
and we all know if someone aims for a draw, he is sure to lose.

many of us knew his true aim was to restrict our losses and if we get lucky, get a draw against the top 2 teams.
that was his game plan all along, which was evident in his strategies in the friendlies ... no matter how few and how desperately weak the opposition he chose ( to save his own skin ).
those negative, cautious games shd have been the warning bells for ppl in power at IFF, becoz they shd have shown what exactly are his aims.

even before reaching the damned games, he was defeated by his fear and limited intelligence and ambition.

and who suffered in the end?
not him.
coz he got what he wanted : coaching at the WC, ... and the half Mill also isnt all that bad either.

no, HE didnt suffer at all.
it is WE and IRAN who suffered most.
becoz god only knows when we'd get such a collection of talent and stars in one team and reach the WC and actually get such an easy group !!
God only knows !

doctor jan,
First of all, denizli lost in the biggest exam he was offered so far. Branko lost to jordan in tehran and everybody started asking for his head. it was after that game the criticisms towards branko became more fierce. many people started hating him and to support their hatred, brought up many arguments, both wrong and right.
Besides, denizli showed "how professional" he was when he left pas in the most "hasas" time when pas was about to take the lead from esteghlal in IPL and could have a chance to win this years IPL!
Basically he made very 2 big mistakes, and considering he is only coaching club level which isnt as important as national level, that is more than enough to get a rough estimate about him. He isnt any better than branko!

Secondly, a coach just making it to the worldcup doesnt make him famous IN A POSITIVE WAY! so let me guess this straight, after serbia returns home, u think serbia's coach will have good offers?
Branko, even for the sake of his own resume, would try to get the best possible results by iran! so no, he wasnt satisifed by just reaching the worldcup!

Thirdly, even if we had jose mourinho, as long as our offensive engines were all injured and incapable of attacking, we couldnt do jack! iran's strong point is its offense, and guess wat, all the 4 offensive players who were the real dangers to any team were injured just before the worldcup and not fully recovered! so injury of these players (i hope u dont somehow blame this on branko as well!) was a big reason why our offense didnt work! our defense did its job very well overall (except for the 2nd and 3rd goal against mexico and maybe the penalty against portugal) but our offense whom we all were relying on let us down mainly because they werent 100% match fit. and no, our substitutes like u said (khatibi exmaple u gave) wouldnt have performed any better than these 4 main players!

we benefitted from branko a lot, and im not exagerrating, and we learnt a lot from him, both from his achievements and his failures!
and there is no denial he isnt a worldclass coach, but he is good enough to teach us stuff and help imrove our football other iranian coaches couldnt!

Inshallah we get a better coach after the worldcup, why not! but if we are going for one worse than him, we should just stick to this guy atleast!

[Ali Chicago]

Yashar Jaan thanks for the reply but I am really disappointed and even ashamed

After seeing the US spirited effort against (Italy remember they were Italy the team that won world cup three times and came second couple of times) and how Ghana killed Czech, I really felt small and humiliated with the performance of Iran.

US coach never ever came to say we are playing against Italy three times world champion blah blah blah. He said he wants a win and you saw how the team reacted. Hajagha has that funny thread about how in Branko's world all the teams are somehow number 4 or 2 of the world. In Branko's world we lost to the vice champ of Europe and it did not matter that we defended the whole god damn game. In his world it doesn't matter if Iran only had 37% ball possesion and if Iran played on 19 minutes of the game (See official FIFA report below).

Look at Ghana, how they wanted the ball, how they wanted to kick Czech's ass. I wish Iran had lost 4-0 or even 6-0 but we showed the world, we can play soccer too. I never forgive Dadkan or Branko with not setting the bar high enough for the team and setteling for the mediocrity.

I cut and paste the following from the Fifa's official match report:
Portugal (POR) Statistics Iran (IRN)
18 Shots 5
10 Shots on Goal 1
19 Fouls 18
13 Corner Kicks 1
2 Free Kicks (shots on goal) 0
1 Penalty Kicks 0
4 Offsides 3
0 Own Goals 0
3 Cautions 4
0 Expulsions 0
63% Ball Possession 37%
32 Actual Playing Time 19
Iran's play time is only 19 minutes. From what I remember no team and no other team has played so bad and differential between two opponents in a game has never been so lobsided.


Read the Ball possession Stat. For Iran is 37%. No team and I mean no team in the WC was worst than Iran during the Portugal's game. Only 37%. First half of game against Portugal was exactly like second half of mexico. After goal scored against us, then Iran realized oops we have a game and actually we can attack too.
This team was much better, stronger than what it showed up. Yashar if karimi is injured he should not start Period. Period. You saw he was non existant today. Even US tv comentator several times mentioned that. But in our god damn culture, no one got the ball to take the risk and bench him. Did you see How Teymorian did again? On what basis we didn't give the same chance to Shojaie, or even Kazemian?

As a huge evidence of how Branko sees the opponenets and how small his horizons are I paste the comment of Skoulari and Branko respectively.
First Scoulari's comments:

"I like the Iranian team. They have very good players, they are physically very strong and very tall . They will become the most important team in that area. We respected the Iran players because they deserved to be respected. "

Now Branko's reply:
"It was very nice of Mr Scolari to talk about the Iranian team like that. It was a nice compliment and I really appreciate it. "

What I read from this, is the fact that Branko is happy with bread crumbs that scolari though his way. I read lot of interviews by teh coaches after the game, no other coach ever expressed his lack of self confidence in his team so openly, by thanking the other coach for pleasentries (by the other coach).

See this guy is happy with this. I know you will say he is polite and stuff like that. Now, that is not the issue, the issue is Branko never ever beleived that it is possible to beat Portugal mexico and to be honest probably he is scared of Angola too. With this chicken**** attitude our team never shows up for the game in WC. Again look at today's performace by Ghana ( I know you will see they are Black Africans). How about Bunch of white boys in US team who kicked Italy's Ass?????? The difference was Bruce Arena has the balls to bench Beasly and his right and left backs and he openly in the media criticized Rayna, Beasly and couple of others. He made it clear he is not going to settle for good. He want GREAT and team either delivers great or their ass is on fire.

I was an idiot to even beleive in this team. I should have known better. What hurts more is to see that Iranian soccer fans are mostly in two camps. First camp is just angry and thinks we can be world champion and not realistic at all. Second camp maybe in response to the emotional attacks of the first camp is settling for minimum and defends status quo. This second attitude is deeply rooted among the more intelligent fans (like Yashar, Mansoor, etc.) that probably will take years to overcome this problem.

Anyway, best of luck and I will try to enjoy the rest of the WC without getting into the whole Branko Iran thing again. I runied my first 10 days enough.

Ali

[Doctor DOOM]

ali jan, this is the difference between a gutsy coach with balls, and a bloody gutless wimp like branko.

in this WC, in EACH & EVERY GAME we saw something that contrasted the coach, his responsibilities, systems, attitudes, ... with that of branko's.

in EACH & EVERY GAME, we saw how inferior, how un-informed, how gutless, how irrationally obstinate , how stupid branko is .

each and every game.

just as he always tries to find excuses for the impending failure, days before a game, his supporters also find all sorts of excuses to save his worthless skin, no matter how twisted, or illogical such defense !


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yashar jan,
now you are saying he wasnt world class.
you and ppl like you, my freind, are those who truely remind others of "nooshdaroo pass az marge sohrab...".

yes, you WILL insist he was the only one we could get, and deny reality as we had far far better choices available .

so be it , my freind.

you live with your standards, and I'll live with mine.
it is apparent these two dont meet .

cheers


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note: speaking of "standards", I must remind yashar jan how low branko's was.
when you said he wouldnt be happy with mere qualification, you are wrong.

his level and status is so bloody low ( he couldnt get one decent job in those 8-9 months in between iran assignments ) that mere qualification for the WC IS indeed enough for his hollow resume' .

( when you dont have the ability to buy a bicycle, if given a beat up ford, you'd be ecstatic. and when you're not ambitious or lack balls, you never ask for a thing ... lest your beat up ford is taken away ! )

no wonder he didnt show any sign of self-respect and dignity when others interferred in his work. ( as opposed to denizli, who did show it ... even if in a harsh way )
he didnt want to compromise his once-in-a-lifetime chance of coaching a WC team with trivial matters such as self respect and dignity and honor.

THIS is the person you excuse and support.

[yashar_fasihnia]

doctor jan, "NOW" i say branko is not worldclass??
I ALWAYS DID! we have had so many posts between us, and u dont recall not even once that i said, "branko IS ONLY THE BEST WE CAN HAVE"!
its not like we have mourinho and hitzfeld waiting at our door steps but we opt for branko!
its not like im totaly pleased with branko, his results,etc!
its not like he never makes mistakes, he doesnt have any flaws, he hasnt had bad games

ITS ONLY BECAUSE BRANKO WAS THE BEST WE HAD AMONG OTHER CANDIDATES! HE DID HELP OUR FOOTBALL A LOT, HE DID BRING US GOOD RESULTS! AND PEOPLE WHO HATED HIM DIDNT LOOK AT THE WHOLE PICTURE, THEY NEVER TOOK OTHER FACTORS INTO CONSIDERATION WHILE JUDGING BRANKO! THATS THE ONLY REASON I SUPPORTED BRANKO!

its not about ur standards and mine doctor jan, its about ur expectations and mine and the reality which we live in! (thanx to mansoor and his news from TM camp to support me here!)
now thats something, u and me will never have in common!