where are the branko spporters now?

[Martin-Reza]

right here

I don't agree with Branko not reacting to the poor second half and not replacing Daei by a quick striker when it became obvious quick counters would be our only chance, be the team was excellently organized and praised for that by every ****ing source.

Noone knows what would have happened with a different strategy, lineup or system. Just everyone assumes that it would have been better.

Don't go crazy now, it's three matches, every damn source told you in advance it's unlikely Iran will leave the two stronger teams behind them, also PFDC, ISP and Irankicks (in an article for footballmedia.net), so don't go crazy about an unlucky loss to the seeded team in our group.

[Ali Chicago]

Yahsar Jaan please read

First of all thanks for reading my long posting and taking time to reply to it. I totally agree with most of the things you said. Your posting righly lists the difficulties that exist in Iran. I totally agree. Before I forget, I would like to mention that what you listed as Mafia in Iran soccer, exists in everywhere. Beleive me here in US if you are involved with ODP program (Olympic Development Program) you see the same stuff is going on (favoritisem, you scratch my back I scratch yours, club favoritisem). The reason I mentioned it, was the following.

Lot of the things that you mentioned exist everywhere, maybe it is a way worst or little worst in Iran and despite that they still come to the world cup, ready to fight and perform at their optimal level. A big part of it is coaching. I have nothing against Branko personally and if I ever see him 10 years from 1now I will thank him for the positive things he has done for Iranian soccer. Having said that, It won't stop me from criticizing his performance on Sunday's game.
You said how come wins are result of players work but losses are for coaches. That is the unwritten rule of soccer. I agree it is not fair probably but it is how it is. Probably it is like that cause coach is given the authority to make decisions whereas players don't have the same decision making ability like coach. They are chosen and given a limited set of responsibilities. If they do that well, they are successful and if they don't coach pulls them out.

Point is Branko was given decision making ability, he was given authority, he made decisions and team lost. He will be on hot seat.
You mentioend fitness, well, IPL is finished for two months. The first three weeks of National team camp was conditioning. In Switzerland, that is what Iran did. I am sure even first division teams in Iran performing Cooper test and tests like that on the team at the begining and end of the camp. Branko I am sure has done Cooper or similar tests and I bet you our players are even fitter than mexicans. However, the reason our team gave in was the fact that our team can not maitain possession. Iran easily looses possesion. Hence, most of our player's energy is spent chasing the opponent. The defensive stratregy of our team allowed mexico to maintain possession and all our players did was chasing after them. Iran's team gave both the right and left flanks wide open to the Mexicans in the second half. Watch the game, how many times, mexico's right and left mid get the ball close to touch line and then they cross it. What did our team do to counter that? Isn't that something Branko and coaching staff has to see and remedy?

Bottom line, I agree with everything you said except the conclusion that you get. Situation in Iran is bad, there is Mafia, Branko can't party in Iran and all that. However Branko made that choice, he got awarded Half a mil year, not bad for him and I am sure he deservs it as well.

1- Let's remember, he was an assistant and he got the head coach responsibility. An opportunity that he probably would not have got for years.
2- There is a difference between hating and criticizing. I don't hate him or anyone for that matter. To me turth is usually larger than what one person can comprehend. Having said that, I don't think keeping quite and not disagreeing with Branko's timid approach to the world cup ultimately will help our country.
3-Let's dont' forget there are countries like T&T,Angola, Ivory Coast and they are in worst situation than Iran. Despite all the factors that you have listed and probably it is worst in Angola than it is in Iran, angola played a decent game. They didn't win but they never stood around their 18 yeard and gave all the field to the Portugees. Iran's performance almost reminded me of the embaressing performance of Egypt in WC against Republic in Ireland in 1990. When Egypt scored a goal and then they defended for like 60 minutes in their own 18 yard box.
Just as a footnote, consider the fact, that part of the problem could be that lack of self confidence in ourselves. I totally agree with your statement that "WE IRANIAN" overestimate our abilites and totally exaggerate our abilities, but the other side of this coin is underestimating ourselves. Very few countries are soccer crazy like us, few countries people play street soccer as much as Iran. These are all factors and it must translate to a better showing in WC in front of the whole world.
I will be very honest with you, I think Mexico Iran game was the worst game of the WC. I have seen all the games excpet Ecuador and Poland and telling you the truth in my opinion Iran Mexico's game in my opinion was the worst. These are legitimate questions Iran's Coach needs to answer. If there are forces won't allow him to do his work, he needs to come out and speak out. If he doesn't do that, then he will bear the responsibilty. Look at Togo's coach, the man has principals, he said if Togo's federation doesn't pay players he will resign and he did. That is integrity.

[yashar_fasihnia]

First of all thanks for reading my long posting and taking time to reply to it. I totally agree with most of the things you said. Your posting righly lists the difficulties that exist in Iran. I totally agree. Before I forget, I would like to mention that what you listed as Mafia in Iran soccer, exists in everywhere. Beleive me here in US if you are involved with ODP program (Olympic Development Program) you see the same stuff is going on (favoritisem, you scratch my back I scratch yours, club favoritisem). The reason I mentioned it, was the following.
Lot of the things that you mentioned exist everywhere, maybe it is a way worst or little worst in Iran and despite that they still come to the world cup, ready to fight and perform at their optimal level. A big part of it is coaching. I have nothing against Branko personally and if I ever see him 10 years from 1now I will thank him for the positive things he has done for Iranian soccer. Having said that, It won't stop me from criticizing his performance on Sunday's game.
You said how come wins are result of players work but losses are for coaches. That is the unwritten rule of soccer. I agree it is not fair probably but it is how it is. Probably it is like that cause coach is given the authority to make decisions whereas players don't have the same decision making ability like coach. They are chosen and given a limited set of responsibilities. If they do that well, they are successful and if they don't coach pulls them out.
Point is Branko was given decision making ability, he was given authority, he made decisions and team lost. He will be on hot seat.
You mentioend fitness, well, IPL is finished for two months. The first three weeks of National team camp was conditioning. In Switzerland, that is what Iran did. I am sure even first division teams in Iran performing Cooper test and tests like that on the team at the begining and end of the camp. Branko I am sure has done Cooper or similar tests and I bet you our players are even fitter than mexicans. However, the reason our team gave in was the fact that our team can not maitain possession. Iran easily looses possesion. Hence, most of our player's energy is spent chasing the opponent. The defensive stratregy of our team allowed mexico to maintain possession and all our players did was chasing after them. Iran's team gave both the right and left flanks wide open to the Mexicans in the second half. Watch the game, how many times, mexico's right and left mid get the ball close to touch line and then they cross it. What did our team do to counter that? Isn't that something Branko and coaching staff has to see and remedy?
Bottom line, I agree with everything you said except the conclusion that you get. Situation in Iran is bad, there is Mafia, Branko can't party in Iran and all that. However Branko made that choice, he got awarded Half a mil year, not bad for him and I am sure he deservs it as well.
1- Let's remember, he was an assistant and he got the head coach responsibility. An opportunity that he probably would not have got for years.
2- There is a difference between hating and criticizing. I don't hate him or anyone for that matter. To me turth is usually larger than what one person can comprehend. Having said that, I don't think keeping quite and not disagreeing with Branko's timid approach to the world cup ultimately will help our country.
3-Let's dont' forget there are countries like T&T,Angola, Ivory Coast and they are in worst situation than Iran. Despite all the factors that you have listed and probably it is worst in Angola than it is in Iran, angola played a decent game. They didn't win but they never stood around their 18 yeard and gave all the field to the Portugees. Iran's performance almost reminded me of the embaressing performance of Egypt in WC against Republic in Ireland in 1990. When Egypt scored a goal and then they defended for like 60 minutes in their own 18 yard box.
Just as a footnote, consider the fact, that part of the problem could be that lack of self confidence in ourselves. I totally agree with your statement that "WE IRANIAN" overestimate our abilites and totally exaggerate our abilities, but the other side of this coin is underestimating ourselves. Very few countries are soccer crazy like us, few countries people play street soccer as much as Iran. These are all factors and it must translate to a better showing in WC in front of the whole world.
I will be very honest with you, I think Mexico Iran game was the worst game of the WC. I have seen all the games excpet Ecuador and Poland and telling you the truth in my opinion Iran Mexico's game in my opinion was the worst. These are legitimate questions Iran's Coach needs to answer. If there are forces won't allow him to do his work, he needs to come out and speak out. If he doesn't do that, then he will bear the responsibilty. Look at Togo's coach, the man has principals, he said if Togo's federation doesn't pay players he will resign and he did. That is integrity.

thankyou too ali khan for the nice conversation, i too agree with wat u say but here are a few comments of mine:

1)yes, there is mafia everywhere, but as far as i know, no case has been seen similar to daei's. im not accusing this hero of corruption, but im not ruling it out as well. when i said that line, i meant was MAYBE, just MAYBE (since we or atleast i who is sitting behind a monitor cant see wats going on behind the curtains), daei could have had some sorta influence or some party of daei could have kept him inside the field. im not sure, but all im saying is, i dont wanna be so quick in judging branko, specially regarding Daei & friendly matches, because i wanna hear it after the worldcup from the horses mouth himself once he leaves iran.

however, if the above situation was non existant, i too agree, that daei should have been removed in the first half itself and i have mentioned it in all my posts.

2) again, i think there were 2 main reasons why we lost too much possession in the second half:
first, karimi who was the main guy who could control the ball, dribble between 1 or 2 mexicans, find an unmarked team mate and pass it to him. once he left, unfortunately, none of our players could do that. as soon as they got the ball, the mexicans pressurized them and they would lose the ball, and this is because of tiredness which takes me to my second reason
Secondly, our players were tired, and once they were tired, they couldnt run much to create empty spaces for themselves and receive healthy passess from tackles won by their team mates. as a result, they got evne more tired, chasing the mexicans passes!

3)our main legionnaires who we were depending on never lived upto the expectations because of injury. kia couldnt do much, karimi couldny stay much, hashemian couldnt receive any passes, zandi couldnt even play!
teymourian and nekounam covered these players absences in the first half, but second half, they couldnt, why? because they were tired! once they got exhasuted, our midfield collapsed and we totally lost the ball possesion. add to that, the subbing out of karimi!

4)True, angola played a nice game, but again there are a few things i would like to remind u off:
First, angolans are africans, and african players are stronger than us physically. they have better stamina, better physique (hence better tackles in general) and better strength.
Secondly, their match against portugal was like iran vs USA match for them. im sure u know why.
Thirdly, portugal unlike mexico didnt play a pressing game and played an open game which is one reason why angola could move with the ball and maintain possession. this is exactly why im very hopefuly of iran against portugal and i think the mexico game was the most difficult game for iran. portugal may have a stronger attack but they play an open game which gives space for our talented players to move around and create chances.
Lastly, again, our midfield (which is the heart of a team and supposed to be our best line in the team) wasnt its usual self inspite of the amazing performance of teymourian and nekounam. karimi and kia let us down! to give u a better picture, imagine a portugal with an injured and unfit front line of figo, ronaldo, pauleta and deco! temme frankly, how much difference would portugal be with and without them? i think A HELL LOT!

5)i bet u our players arent as fit as not only mexicans but most other teams in the worldcup. 2 major problems in fitness, stamina & physical strength. there is no denial our team is weak in these 2 areas (not the legionnaires though). did u watch brazil vs croatia today? did u see the amount these 2 teams players ran?forget them, did u see trinidad and tobago, did u see how much they ran? togo? angola? korea? even japan! they had stamina, but unfortuantely, we dont, specially if we have to play against stronger teams who have more ball possession than us. i remember mansourian after the worldcup saying, we only succeeded in worldcup because of ivic. he gave us amazing training, he made us run 20 times around the field!
nowadays, we run twice around the field and the players start complaining!
Sorry ali jan, but on this argument, i totally disagree with u.
whether it is branko's fault, faraki's fault, IPL's fault, its another story, but our players arent fit enough for such a high level of football.

6)Yes, branko just like any other manager is responsible for his team, and is supposed to answer the critiques! and yes, branko could have made mistakes in the mexico game specially in the substitution department, but this doesnt give anyone the right to talk about him the way they are, neither him, nor daei! just take a look at the football forum (not football +) and see all the things that our "HAMVATANS" and "TEAM MELLI SUPPORTERS" are saying!

[Doctor DOOM]

Yashar jan,
Lets be realistic .

I say most of the blame ( not all ) shd befall the coach becoz many mistakes could have been prevented, stopped or cut short at least.

1- It IS the coach’s responsibility to decide the best possible line up.
We all agree.
But shdnt this line up be based on form and present performances?

2- shdnt the line up be based on the needs of the game ?
such as do we need a draw only, or a win.

3- shdnt the coach observe and evaluate his players during the game and do the needful, which is keep, change position, change tactics, substitute, … ?

4- shdnt the coach who is leading a team at the WC already know with a suspect defense ( for years ), and a non-existent left wing, a slow and lethargic offense, lack of play-maker …. With such a team, he shd never attempt to defend a DRAW ( not even a lead !! ) for 45 minutes, against a team stronger than them, with a coach well renowned for his tactics ?


A) Plz explain why a coach after seeing mirza’s fright in coming out, observed even by simple fans like me, shd not instruct to avoid passing back to him during the half at least?

B) Plz explain why he shd persist with an ineffectual striker who does not run, does not move about to create space for himself and others, who despite his fame, could not jump to head the ball on many occasions, was actually one of the reasons ( daei and VH ) we filled the offside for the Mexican first goal ( otherwise the rest of the team had moved up to put the scorer in an offside position ) due to his lack of movement, …… and many more reasons.


C) Plz explain why this coach shd wait so long to make his second subbing ( the first one also is open to much argument and controversy ) , and moreover, forget he has another one, and not make use of it at all, while his team was losing 3-1 ?
( refer to many other games where the “proper” coaches change the whole story of the game with one or two subbing )


D) explain why a coach shd blame his players for the loss, based on their lack of fitness … while HE was the one who chose them, who sifted through many other deserving players to get this bunch, who declined inclusion of a “proper” physical trainer to the team to build the team’s physical fitness, who …. .
E) explain why a coach would change tactics 180 degrees, from a productive and positive first half to a negative and damaging tactics in the second half.

F) explain why after many months and even years of fans crying about the left flank, he adamantly refused to address this flank properly, and actually claimed his left flank had no problems ( I still have the picture of the poll where human jan was one of the scant few – about 3% - who claimed the left flank had no problems whatsoever ) … and come the match-day, we find the left flank non-existent and miserable.


G) and best of all, the coach whom all experts and coaches within Iran, and many outside Iran, like Ruud Gulliet , Bryan Robbson, …. have questioned his decisions and tactics, yet some of you still don’t find fault with. ( unless you all think you are better than all these professionals ! )

And many more.
Explain how can you not hold this coach responsible for these ? and yet you defend him.

Why ?
Becoz he supposedly led us to the WC , Against teams like n korea and Bahrain?
Reminds you of something ?
Was this sense of hospitality and loyalty the reason ?

I hope, at least, you are happy and content with accomplishment of this sense, coz it really cost us very dearly.

==========================================

you know what?
when some of you ppl talk about "inexperienced" I just laugh .... a bitter laugh , though.

werent you the same ppl who defended this idiot's decisions in fielding the main team over and over, even against crappy teams like laos, guam, panama, .... ?

when some of us were saying he shd field the alternatives so when the big games come, they, too, have at least some int'l experinece to rely on?

it appears you all either have lost ur memory or have double standards.


====================


Yashar agha, another hilarious matter is the issue of over-dependence on legionnaires.

Yet another issue, that many branko supporters persisted with, while some of us kept on suggesting on using the IPL players in many games that really didn’t need the main team players.

Our team had to be able to perform in case a couple of these guys were out of form or absent.
Which means branko HAD TO work with the IPL players also, and not rely only on his 5-6 main players.
He didn’t do so.
He even went on to cancel games just becoz these 4-5 players were not present !!

How many times we said our TM is not only these 4-5 players, and we SHOULD be a team , even without them ?

I can name ppl here on this site, who laughed and ridiculed this notion, and vehemently supported branko’s faulty mentality on the matter.
We kept on saying “maybe there’ll be a day ….” …. Etc.
But …. !


I know this is turning out to be “I told you so…” kind of things with these issues. But it hurts to see TM suffer becoz of incompetence of an assistant coach who was clear as day not the right choice ( nowhere NEAR it , in fact ) for the WC games.


And on the matter of “unfit” players:
Yes, we must first find out why branko refused to have a proper physical trainer in his staff, to properly prepare the players.
Not just some “deimi” fool who ran around and stretched.

Well, there is a guy who is paid handsomely to take care of these issues during the game also.
If x is seen to be unfit, who is responsible to change him with a more fit player?
Me?
You?

[Amirza]

I don't understand why this impression suddenly has struck many people to relate the issue of supporting TM & Branko with the Daei issue. Again, read what I said. I support Branko but I don't defend his mistakes. He did make couple of mistakes in that game but I am not gonna ask for his head. The first half of that game was not coached by "nirooye gheib". I have seen his capability, and the first half against a team that defeated Brazil and many big teams was simply superb.

Mansoor Jaan
"ON the field" Mistakes happen all the time in a football match - but Daei starting and not being subbed was an "OFF the field" mistake - we all knew about it long before the game. What you see is the natural reaction to what I can't even call a mistake - it was something that was DICTATED to Branko.

[Ali Chicago]

Yashar Jaan,

Here are my comments:

1)yes, there is mafia everywhere, but as far as i know, no case has been seen similar to daei's. im not accusing this hero of corruption, but im not ruling it out as well. when i said that line, i meant was MAYBE, just MAYBE (since we or atleast i who is sitting behind a monitor cant see wats going on behind the curtains), daei could have had some sorta influence or some party of daei could have kept him inside the field. im not sure, but all im saying is, i dont wanna be so quick in judging branko, specially regarding Daei & friendly matches, because i wanna hear it after the worldcup from the horses mouth himself once he leaves iran.

Based on the above if Branko still playing him, I have no respect for the man. All of us at one point of life has to make a decision on principals and if we choose the easy way out, then we loose our integrity and honor.

As for fitness let say I still disagree with your evaluation, yet let me clarify. As a top soccer player (in European leagues) you are expected to run about 6-8 kilometers during the game. At least this was until a couple of years ago when I was closely following soccer coaching. Now, if as a player you run 5 km chasing the other team's player cause the other team has ball possesion, then you only have left 1-3 km running left to make runs during offensice possesions. I think this was what happend to Iran.

Opposite scenario will be if as a player you run 5 kms with offensive possesions and only 1-3 km with defensive duties. Now in the meantime if my team has the possesion and maintains it, then the other team players are chasing us and they get somewhat tired and at least and I stress at least they will be tired and don't make runs when they get the ball (exactly what happend to Iran in the second half of mexico's game). So that is why maintaining possesion is so important.

Anyhow, there are no ways for us to measure that (fitness of Iranian players), so let the sleepy dog lie. Maybe one day in the future Hooman or someone from within the coaching staff will reveal if there were a cooper or similar tests from the players and and based on that how was the fitness of Iranian players during the 2006 WC.

3)our main legionnaires who we were depending on never lived upto the expectations because of injury. kia couldnt do much, karimi couldny stay much, hashemian couldnt receive any passes, zandi couldnt even play!
teymourian and nekounam covered these players absences in the first half, but second half, they couldnt, why? because they were tired! once they got exhasuted, our midfield collapsed and we totally lost the ball possesion. add to that, the subbing out of karimi!

So why Branko played them then? Or why at least he did not sub them when he saw they are ineffective. Excuse the language but I think this is one of the main areas "Ball department" where Branko did not have the guts to act and take risk.

5)i bet u our players arent as fit as not only mexicans but most other teams in the worldcup. 2 major problems in fitness, stamina & physical strength. there is no denial our team is weak in these 2 areas (not the legionnaires though). did u watch brazil vs croatia today? did u see the amount these 2 teams players ran?forget them, did u see trinidad and tobago, did u see how much they ran? togo? angola? korea? even japan! they had stamina, but unfortuantely, we dont, specially if we have to play against stronger teams who have more ball possession than us. i remember mansourian after the worldcup saying, we only succeeded in worldcup because of ivic. he gave us amazing training, he made us run 20 times around the field!
nowadays, we run twice around the field and the players start complaining!
Sorry ali jan, but on this argument, i totally disagree with u.
whether it is branko's fault, faraki's fault, IPL's fault, its another story, but our players arent fit enough for such a high level of football.

You are saying African players are fitter and all that. Ok, then could you explain how Saudi Arabia that isn't as strong as Iran in the physical strength and fitness outplayed Tunisia yesterday. It is not a secret that Iran's soccer is dominating Saudi Arabia and most other Asian teams in Size and stamina. Whereas Saudi Arabia are a better and more coordinated team. So if we accept your assumption that African players are better and fitter than Asians, so how come Saudis outplayed Tunisia (a very strong African team)?.

Anyhow, looking forward to hear from you.
Ali

[yashar_fasihnia]

Yashar jan,
Lets be realistic .

I say most of the blame ( not all ) shd befall the coach becoz many mistakes could have been prevented, stopped or cut short at least.

in general, the coach, just like the manager is RESPONSIBLE for a loss in a company, sport team, watever, totally agree with u.
but this doesnt mean the manager always has to be bear the major part of the blame.

i never did, and i still say, branko makes mistake, branko is not a worldclass coach, branko doesnt always play the most entertaining games, branko doesnt always satisfy me with him and his team performance.

BUT, i also say, branko in my opinion is the best we could have given our current circumstances, branko has a good experience of the worldcup (which only mohajerani and talebli have in iran even though branko's is favourable because he coached a more professional team, played against more professional teams, faced a lot of different situations, and is more updated with modern football). i also say branko is a realistic coach, doesnt get involved with hashiye unlike most of our coaches, always respects the media,fans,etc although he is treated very unfailry and sometimes even rudely, branko is a coach who the players are satisfied with, and has good psychological skills and most important of all, is by far a more realistic person than almost all our coaches in iran. he is more educated, more experienced and more respectable than almost any coach in iran.

Secondly, if i support branko, that doesnt mean i agree with all his decisions, try to cover up his mistakes, or have any personal relationships or benefits from him. i just think that firstly, like i said, he is the best we can have and we should know his worth before we actually lose him, secondly, because many people on this site specially in football forum just blindly talk for or against him and come up with really disturbing and shocking words, and i try my best to show my gratitude to him for all his hardwork for our country by TRYING to alteast show these members branko's good side as well. thats all.

my personal agenda is not branko, i only put my avatar as branko upto last week because there was a pact earlier in this site, and as u can see, i have changed my avatar now because of another pact recently.

coach's responsibility true.
present form and performance, dependable, because u face trade offs in selecting the main 11 just like u face trade offs in almost any other activity in life. in obvious examples like choosing between an out of form alavi & a hungry teymourian, ur words are right, but in a situation where u can choose between madanchi and shojaei, one may be slightly fitter than the other but the other may be more needed for the team's circumstances. its a trade off, and the coach decides wats best, BASED ON HIS PERSPECTIVE.

2- shdnt the line up be based on the needs of the game ?
such as do we need a draw only, or a win.

agreed, a huge factor can be this, but not the only one.
again if its on the needs of the game, how can it be on the fitness and form of the players as well? like i said, its not just one factor which decides, there are many factors, the coach has to weigh the pros and cons, and make an ultimate decision based on his perspective.

very true, definitely, but remember, wat u, see, is different from wat i see and wat i see is different from wat the coach sees, again its PERSPECTIVE. just because his perspective failed (which couldnt even really be his fault but some external factors) doesnt necessarily mean urs or mine will turn out successful. However, i still say, i wasnt really pleased with branko's substitutions and disagree with his views, just like most fans were.

first of all, there is no lack of playmaker in our team, zandi, karimi and shojaei all are playmakers.
second, our left wing was never and will probably never be as strong as our right wing, specially in offense, as long as we see the kaabi & kia duo (khoda omreshun bede) on the right flank. this kinda diminishes and underates our left wing. however, i still think our left wing is of very good help specially in defense with the help of zare in LB who was very good in performing his defensive duties as an LB. when nikbakht was there as LM, our left wing looked more active, with more "ensejam" but with zandi, our left flank is more professional. i would compare the first situation to an african teams style of play, the second to a german's.

Secondly, i dont think branko actually wanted to defend the draw despite wat many people think or wat it looked for 2 reasons which i already stated earlier:
-If he wanted to defend the lead, he would pull out a forward(lets say hashemian since many people believe branko will never sub daei out) and bring in a good tall experienced physically fit, calm, leader, called sohrab bakhtiarizadeh, add him to the defense or the defensive midfield line to help us protect the score and tighten up the defense line
-Two, he would have asked the players to waste time by kicking the ball into outs, or taking them to the corner flags or something, u know those time wasting skills, or even, in extreme cases, "grass roll"

The main reason i believe we played like that in the second half was because:
-Karimi was pulled out and he was the only player who could maintain ball possession and get rid of the mexican "pressings", find an unmarked teammate and pass the ball to him.
-Teymourian & nekounam were getting exhausted and eventually lost the battles in the midfield and our team dissolved!

No player, neither an experienced one like zidane, nor a professional one like ronaldinho or a young hot headed one like kaabi is a robot to listen to the coach and more importantly remember all his instructions during the game, specially when they have to make decisions in a fraction of the second and they are under huge pressure (nsorati's biggest weak point in my opinion).
i wish there was the technology we could program such instructions on a chip and place them in our players brains, but unfortunately this is not possible, and im sure u agree with me, not only our players but players from all teams dont always listen to all the instructions of their coaches, whether intentionally or unintentionally. if u realized, the number of back passes to our Gk have decreased over these few years, mirzapour's kicks have become better (still needs work) and many times our defenders take the goal kicks or free kicks from our defense line. all this shows that branko is not blind and has worked on these waek points of ours, however, we should remember, that branko alone cant get rid of these problems, it requires the players themselves as well, and secondly, this isnt the only duty branko has. branko has a lot of other duties and unfortunately, he cant spend all his time on asking mirzapour to kick the ball after the half line!

All im saying is, u cant say so confidentally, without any real proof, branko hasnt worked or instructed our players with these instructions or certain others. if u can accept this, then i think u are being realisitic.

the daei thing is far beyond my knowledge, because there are a lot of behind the curtain stuff which MAY or MAY NOT have a role in this controversy. i am quite frankly fed up with this constant argument of why, how, when daei plays, but i too think branko should have subbed out daei after the first half itself (or i think the best thing is to bring him in the last 20 minutes of a game when the pressure on our players go high and we need someone to give them "roohiye" and lead them).

another argument i agree with u and disagree with branko. id unno why too either. i think he should have brough in shojaei when he saw his midfield is losing the battle to help strenghten the midfield line.

all coaches make mistakes, or atleast have different views than ours and branko is no exception. however, again i repeat, i support branko in general, not defend him asif im his lawyer. i only try to put myself in his situation to find a possible rational explnanation for his decisions so that i can try to look from the same perspective he does. At times, i dont reach any conclusion, and its at this time, that i disagree with branko on certain issues. however, i refrain myself from making quick judgements, specially when im pissed off because i know my brain wont be working as it should at that time.


unfortunately, branko has only 5 legionnaries to deal with, and the rest of the 18 are from IPL. even the fittest of these players (which im sure he has taken this into consideration) are not fit enough for the worldcup. in other words, whoever he would have chosen from IPL or even azadegan league, i believe would still get tired and maybe even sooner than our main players in such a high level of football.

and plz dont be unfair about branko and him being illusional about players fitness. i think him leaving out his favorite players like navidkia, nikbakht, kamlei mofrad, alavi, rahmati all showed that he doesnt just choose based on names or based on the league/team they play in or the bias he has towards them.

im not aware of him decling a proper physical traininer to be added to the staff, but if he REALLY COULD BE OF SOME HELP & REALLY COULD HAVE MADE A DIFFERENCE, i think branko made a mistake by not accepting him.

E) explain why a coach would change tactics 180 degrees, from a productive and positive first half to a negative and damaging tactics in the second half.

Again, i dont think he changed his tactics, because if he really changed his tactics, he would have made the appropriated substituions like sohrab, but he didnt. the problem was, he DIDNT make the right substituion when he saw that our players had lost the midfield possession. thats how i see it. he should have added a good ball handler like shojaei to firstly, populate the middle of the field with iranian players to have more ball possession, and secondly use his nice visions, passes and dribbling skills to start off kia and madanchi for counters!

again, i said, maybe in his perspective, the left flank is performing its duties well and quite frankly, i think it really is, atleast as long as zare was there as LB! if u and many fans want iran to attack continuously from left and right, it may not be wat the coach wants. i personally feel the right flank is more for offensive purposes and the left for defensive, and this is a nice balance in a team whose defense is quite shaky and has a very offensive minded RB!

nope, i would never even dream of anyone comparing myself with these professionals, but like i said, every coach has his own vision, his own perspective, and infact, netihre gullit nor robbson know wats really going on. they are just like u and me, wathching iran play mexico on a screen or live, except that they have better understandnings than us. but do they really know the status of our players? of our teams? our opponents and their style of play? our strong points? our weak points? opponents weak and strong points? the players mentality, the players physqiue, fitness, skills, etc? I SERIOUSLY DOUBT IT!

im sure coaches always disagree with each other, and each one has his own comments about anything, so its not surprising there are comments against branko by even professional coaches. again, for the 54789358904385904385043958043859043584309th time, i would like to remind u that im not sayin branko is right in watever decision he makes, and im not just blindly defending him, i support him in general, inspite of his flaws, but that doesnt mean i dont get pissed at him, my views dont contradict his views and i dont criticise him.

[QUOTE=Doctor DOOM]
And many more.
Explain how can you not hold this coach responsible for these ? and yet you defend him.

Why ?
Becoz he supposedly led us to the WC , Against teams like n korea and Bahrain?
Reminds you of something ?
Was this sense of hospitality and loyalty the reason ?

I hope, at least, you are happy and content with accomplishment of this sense, coz it really cost us very dearly.

if that was the case, i would have also defended valdir viera when he took us to worldcup 98, and although i wasnt around to prove to u then, i tell u i never defended him and i was happy ivic took over because i think he was one of the best coaches for iran based on the circumstances that time.

i totally understand that this is professional football and me, just like anybody else wouldnt like to see my country's national team get robbed by anyone or anything, iranian or non iranian. im a hardcore esteghlali fan, maybe one of the most "taasobi" u will ever come across, but when it comes to TM, i dont even think amir hossein sadeghi should be in TM camp because there is no way he can help our national team. the only thing it does is it helps him add to his experience and self confidence and im happy for that because he can be a future for our football. i would prefer mirzapour over talebloo for the first GK position considering their current circumstances although talebloo literally made esteghlal this years IPL champs. Now plz temme, where would a croatian fit in all this?

i told why i support him and again, i would like to correct u and i hope ur not doing this mistake on purpose, i SUPPORT him, not DEFEND him! im not his lawyer and i would not like to be, because he makes mistakes, and he makes me go mad at times!

And why in the world would i be happy my team lost to mexico 3-1? im not happy, im not happy at all with the result, with TM performance in second half, with branko's substitutions, with kaabi's back pass, with mirzapour's kick, with rezai's "taalol", with our legionnaires injuries, with our players physical fitness, but is there anything i can do?

This is seriously almost the best we can have, when u look at the whole picture from a general perspective and u have a broad vision. we need to be happy with all these achievements (ofcourse, not everything was an achievement and there were downfalls as well) and we should try to learn and solve these problems!

U know peyman khan, the difference between u and me is that i support branko but im ready to criticize him (and offer my possible solutions!) but u just sit and blame branko for everything. u are not ready to give him credit for all his positives! this isnt fair, and i think it would make ur arguments and ur position in these types of arguments more credible if u be fair and state the truth, and then point out ur arguments.

you know what?
when some of you ppl talk about "inexperienced" I just laugh .... a bitter laugh , though.

werent you the same ppl who defended this idiot's decisions in fielding the main team over and over, even against crappy teams like laos, guam, panama, .... ?

when some of us were saying he shd field the alternatives so when the big games come, they, too, have at least some int'l experinece to rely on?

it appears you all either have lost ur memory or have double standards.

as far as i remmeber, i never supported the idea of fielding the main 11 for games against guam and laos.

However, i do support his idea of fielding our main 11 against teams like panama, costa rica, togo because CONSIDERING OUR LIMITED NUMBER OF FRIENDLIES (which again i dont entirely blame branko for it), we needed some games to give match practice to our main players as well, to get used to each other and also to get used to playing opponents of different style.

yes, if we had 12 friendlies arranged like korea or saudi arabia, i would get pissed if branko doesnt field different arrangements of players, in 5 or 6 of them to judge different formations, different players combinations, etc.
But unfortunately, we didnt have this luxury and so, we had to make maximum use of our friendlies and TRY TO HIT "2 neshoon with 1 tir".

====================

Yashar agha, another hilarious matter is the issue of over-dependence on legionnaires.

this argument of urs i find quite vague.
im not sure if this really happened or not, even if branko said it, im not sure if it was the real purpose behind it or not.
i think we all know branko is a very diplomatic guy and doesnt give out his thoughts easily, AT ALL! "dahanesh ghorse ghorse"

he needs to come up with different answers (many of them are yes, excuses but just because he makes excuses doesnt mean he is trying to save his own behind! many times, people lie and make excuses because they cant or they prefer not to say the truth, wat we say in farsi "durughe maslahati")

but again i say, i would disagreee with branko if he wouldnt play games without our legionnaires or field our main 11 players against laos & guam.

i hope this doesnt turn out into such a thread, because atleast i know i dont have such intentions. so far, its been the branko haters who have come up with all sorta threads after just 1 game whose result was infact quite expectable!

i think greed is the root of all evil, and i think many here are being unappreciative towards branko and his hardwork and more importantly success and development he has made for iran and TM.

i will say it to u this way, i dont think we would even perform that single first half performance against mexico if we went to the worldcup with a coach like maelli kohan or almost any iranian coach. Atleast be happy we could play happy with one good half because i seriously think our capabilities arent much more than this, maybe just a lil bit more, but not much, unless ofcourse, certain revolutions and i dont mean only politicxal revolutions but an entire transformation takes place in our country in factors that decide our football, like we get an excellent worldclass coach, with all the requiried facilities, the required budget, etc because talent & passion alone wont get us far and u & me both know it!

as i said, i havent heard of the story where branko refused to accept a proper physical trainer, im not sure if our current physical trainer is "proper" or not, im not sure if the refused physical trainer was "proper" or not and could have helped TM much, but if he could, i would really be mad at branko for not taking him!

he, being fit is PARTLY job of the national coaches, but mostly, it comes automatically with the league and the team u play in. i think its more the role of a club rather than the national team which decides on the fitness of a player!

why do u think esteghlal scored goals after 75th minute much more than any other team in IPL? simple answer, FITNESS & PROFESSIONALISM. they didnt get all this through TM, they got it through their club, and once the coach sees such a good status among esteghlal's players, he invites 8 of them! its no coincidence, and neither is it because esteghlal won the cup! The players were invited to TM because they showed their fitness level, and not the other way around where they were invited to TM to become fit!

its not branko's job to invite alavi, & rahmati to TM camp and then work on their fitness, its branko's job to invite talebloo and bakhtiarizade to make sure they are fit players and can carry on with other important trainings of the camp like adapting to different formations, systems, tactics, team mates, etc. ofcourse basic trainings like fitness, passing, shooting, etc wont be neglected!

[yashar_fasihnia]

Yashar Jaan,
Here are my comments:
Based on the above if Branko still playing him, I have no respect for the man. All of us at one point of life has to make a decision on principals and if we choose the easy way out, then we loose our integrity and honor.
As for fitness let say I still disagree with your evaluation, yet let me clarify. As a top soccer player (in European leagues) you are expected to run about 6-8 kilometers during the game. At least this was until a couple of years ago when I was closely following soccer coaching. Now, if as a player you run 5 km chasing the other team's player cause the other team has ball possesion, then you only have left 1-3 km running left to make runs during offensice possesions. I think this was what happend to Iran.
Opposite scenario will be if as a player you run 5 kms with offensive possesions and only 1-3 km with defensive duties. Now in the meantime if my team has the possesion and maintains it, then the other team players are chasing us and they get somewhat tired and at least and I stress at least they will be tired and don't make runs when they get the ball (exactly what happend to Iran in the second half of mexico's game). So that is why maintaining possesion is so important.
Anyhow, there are no ways for us to measure that (fitness of Iranian players), so let the sleepy dog lie. Maybe one day in the future Hooman or someone from within the coaching staff will reveal if there were a cooper or similar tests from the players and and based on that how was the fitness of Iranian players during the 2006 WC.

1)branko has a profession and a family to run. u name me 5 coaches who u think would have quit if they were imposed to play daei in their lineup. i doubt anyone would do that, specially when it comes to representing a team in the worldcup, the biggest stage of football throughout the world where 6 billion pair of eyes are on u!
2)I said, it is a possiblity such things are going on, i dunno. Besides, there might be some other circumstances which are out of branko's power to do anything about it!
3)i wouldnt just blindly agree with a person who said, KHATIBI IS BETTER THAN DAEI! this in my opinion is an inaccurate and wrong opinion. first of all, i think daei has more plus points than khatibi. secondly, there might be situations where daei is better than khatibi to TM and vice versa. (maybe daei wasnt the best option for mexico, atleast for 90 minutes, but this doesnt mean that khatibi is always preferrable to daei in any game) Daei is by far a more proffesional, ba gheyrat, hardworking player than any of our other forwards and mansour khan confirmed this when he reported from the camp. infact, he was so disappointed with both khatibi and enayati that he said if it was upto him (mansoor) he was ready to go to the worldcup with just 1 extra forward (borhani) but not take these 2 along!
All im saying is, just like many people might consider a better option for goalkeeping position than mirzapour, many people (maybe branko if he chooses daei based on just his own decision and nothing else) see daei a better option than khatibi, enayati or borhani.
lippi preferred that italian forward(iqonuita or something) to an established striker like cassano, and its perfectly normal for coaches from around the world to sometimes rely on veteran or unknown stars.

he is the head, he is responsible for eveyrthing, im afraid its his call. besides, daei playing wasnt exactly the reason iran lost, and im not sure if khatibi playing would have made much of a difference instead of daei since our midfield was DEAD but still, i would have liked to see branko sub out daei after the first half, but mostly for shojaei to help tighten up the midfield belt.

4)as far as im aware, a european player (a player playing in a top team in europe) runs on average a MINIMUM of 10 kms. they run around 12, i remember khiyabani saying this once and an asian player or iranian player (not sure which one he said) runs around 6 kms or so, almost half. so ofcourse this is gonna affect ball possession.

i totally agree on why its important to have ball possession, infact, i already knew it, and i never denied the importance of ball possession, and again, THATS EXACTLY why i wanted branko to bnring in shojaei in the second half. because of his ball handling skills, because he is a midfielder, he can populate the middle of the field, he can hold on the ball and together with 4 other midfielders, he would be able to keep ball possession in the middle. but once karimi was removed, and considering an hour of countless tackling and running up and down by nekounam and teymourian, our midfielders could no longer keep the ball or even go for tackles, win ball possession and create spaces for each other to pass the ball to. hence, the role of tiredness, fitness & stamina (and alsoabsence of a player to be able to keep the ball and attract opponents to itself thereby making his team mates unmarked)

So why Branko played them then? Or why at least he did not sub them when he saw they are ineffective. Excuse the language but I think this is one of the main areas "Ball department" where Branko did not have the guts to act and take risk.

karimi could play one half, branko played him. kia is the heart of the team, branko played him. these guys needed match pratice and at some point of time in the worldcup, they had to play their first match after their injuries, so the sooner the better, unless u are suggesting we keep all these legionnaires on the bench and send in a totally young and inexperienced team in our most decisive match!

u cant deny how decisive these players can be for ours in these matches, and i dont think if karimi and kia and hashemian didnt play from the beginning of the match, we would get a better result. i think it would have been much worser as the removal of karimi after 60 minutes proved it to us!

in this way, atleast kia got some play time, so did karimi and hashemian, next match they will perform better if everything goes on under normal circumstances. if branko had benched these players and gone with those inexperienced subs, kia, karimi and gang had to play their first national game after injury in the second game of the worldcup and that would be a bit too late for them to underperform!

You are saying African players are fitter and all that. Ok, then could you explain how Saudi Arabia that isn't as strong as Iran in the physical strength and fitness outplayed Tunisia yesterday. It is not a secret that Iran's soccer is dominating Saudi Arabia and most other Asian teams in Size and stamina. Whereas Saudi Arabia are a better and more coordinated team. So if we accept your assumption that African players are better and fitter than Asians, so how come Saudis outplayed Tunisia (a very strong African team)?.
Anyhow, looking forward to hear from you.
Ali

by african players, i meant the dark skinned africans, not the arab africans. yes, in general, all africans are strong, but even stronger are the non arab africans (watever u call them, black or watever) because, it has scientifically been proven black people have stronger bodies , stronger muscles and some even say they have slightly more muscles than non-blacks.
now assuming this is not even true, u tell me one thing, frankly, based on the players u saw, the teams u saw, their style of play,
do u think a tunisian, is as strong as an angolan or an ivory coastian or watever its called. ofcourse not!

when i said african, i meant the blacks, not the tunisians, algerians, etc.
Besides, heres news my friend, many saudi arabians and arabs in general are stronger than us iranians in general and are fitter than us. Arabs are strong and are pretty big (im not talking about height but bulk and physical strength). i live in dubai, i know, i can see. ofcourse there are many skinny ones as well here, but if u look at their sportsmen, they are quite strong and i would relate this to their diet which involves lots of dates (as a coach, u must be knowing how healthy and strong dates make u) and also because they have been brought up under extreme heat, temperatue and moisture, they are quite strong and fit!

i will give u an example, make iran play against saudi arabia in dubai at 5pm (temperature can reach upto 50 degrees in summer! it never snows here, hardly once or twice i have seen hailstorm!) i can bet u iranian team will get tired much faster than saudi arabian team. and again as a coach, u must know that its not actually heat but actually moisture which tires out a player more than heat!
now let the same 2 teams play in the same ground at 10 in the night! i can guarantee u iran will have a much better performance against saudi arabia! (although the moisture will still have its effect and still our players will get tired more easily than the arabs)

oh yea, and in case i forget, many saudi arabian players are also of african (black) origin as u can clearly see like mohammad noor (#8) and redha tukar (#2 i think, defender)

[perspolees]

We failed today. Our coach did, our players did, even our fans did. Only a "non-existing" 5000 fans????????????? The stadium was overtaken by Mexicans! and with all these Iranian immigrants in Europe??? We failed in every department.

Mansoorjan with all due respect as shoma in entezar nabood!

I was in the stadium and we were for sure more than 5000.
plenty of people were not able to join because of visa issues.
even so we tried to be as loud as we can.
If by the longest shot you think thatt he fans failed u r dead wrong. This is iri iran with their budget n capabilities. I still believe that teh ticket selling committee had a lot to do with blocking iraninas from getting enough tickets.
Perhaps a measure of security..

none the less I am most dissapointed in a knowledgable person like yourselfs analysis of the situation!! The whole world knew what and where our soorakhs were and nothin was done...

on a day that mexico came out vulnerable we could have taken the three points but we had a chickenshit and a brainless coach! period!
if you cant make the right adjusments and relief pressure for players not to make mistakes( cause we know mistakes always are doomed to happen whoever makes less of them comes out on top) u are not qualified to coach a world cup team and branko has never been that...I have read the blind on support of the likes of Branko , daei, mirza, etc. they are even more disgusting than the blind on criticism of many other issues that could not be attended to secondary to iri and teh rules and regulations...

failures are out there for all to see as experts and even simple fans have been able to expose them.... they have been out there for a long time..its unfair and uncalled for to pinpoint the whole team, the fans, and etc...we all know the problem whats more disgusting for me is that no one does anything for it...just because of this i put up my tix for sale on ebay before coming here foreseeing the situation and the disgust that I will have but could not live with myself and retracted them to come and attend to just see how right I was about everything!

[Ali Chicago]

Yashar Jaan,

I see you were pretty active last night. A long reply to DD and you made couple of other remarks. I read your well thought reply. With all the respect, I would say a professional coach god even a semi pro coach won't stand in the way of anyone putting their nose in business.

You metioned several issues, I only address the coaching and legionars playing issues. I never mentioned I prefer Khatibi blindly to Dai in all the situation, I won't address that issue.

Professionalisem of Coach
=====================
Look at Ari Haan in Persepolice, he clearly have said to Iranian Media that Sallah Hassan and Talebloo aren't in his list and if Ansari Fard signed them, he wont' let them play and Ansari Fard is responsible for all the consequences.
We need to bring forigners that bring this organizational skills and professionalisem to our society (to our soccer in this case). I am sure Haan has wife girl friend, boy friend whatever. He still sticks to his gun.
In Ali Dai situations no matter what, Branko is lost. If Branko has compromised and given in to the outside pressure, he did not act professional. If he willingly plays him 90 minutes, then I question his soccer judgement.

This is a soccer forum and I don't want make it to a social political forum, but if Branko despite having wife and kids and 6 billion pair of eyes allows other people impose Dai or anyone else for that matter to him, he is unprofessional, Look at Pekerman, Italian coach as you mentioned, they make the decision and they have the guts to stand by their decision. Pekerman only brought 4 of the 2002 players back under tremendous pressure by every one in Argentine's society. Even Maradona and former player /coach and anybody who was somebody in Argentine soccer criticized him. Did he give in? Nope. I am sure he was man enough or had enough integrity to resign had the Argentine done bad.

Branko isn't of these people's caliber. That is all we (DD, I, Haji and tens of Iranian are saying in this forum). Gist of what you, martin, mansoor and other saying is " he is the best we can afford and we should settle for that".
I guess time will show who was right or wrong, or maybe both of us are right in certain regards and wrong in others.

Bottom line, as a coach or a leader you take charge make decision and if you can't do that, it is time to step out. I personally don't want Branko to resign now or be removed. All I want from him is to review his performance and specially revise his attitude about setteling for minimum and playing safe.

Legionars playing
=============
As a coach one day you have to make a decision and play lesser known players. When Mayelee played Khodad, nobody knew him. Or PashaZadeh same story. This decision will be heck of a lot easier if you see your fixed players are coming out of injury and ain't fit.
I read Mansoor Jaan's interview with Mr. Hooman Afazeli in the main page. (BTW, thanks Mansoor and the whole PFDC for doing the interview. It is good to get a reliable source inside Team-e-Melli camp in the middle of all these rumors and unprofessional Sport media in Iran.) Back to Hooman's interview, with all the respect to Mr. Afzali I couldn't beleiev that he said Legionars got injured too close to the World cup we can't do much about their fitness. If a player ain't ready he won't play. Why we Iranian are so chicken****. Look Roonie is on the bench and Crouch is playing. Hell didn't freez? Ballack was on the bench. 3 -4 top Italian strikers were not picked. Portugal did not paly Decco. How come is it that Kia if he is not fit or Karimi if he is not fit has to play? In today's soccer if one ain't fit and can't play, he regardless of how big his name is "IS USELESS". I don't care how big your name is and how fancy a players is. If he ain't fit he won't start. Yashar Jaan, come on brother, emotioanl comments like Kia is the spirit of the team. Are just that a motto an emotional statement (in my opinion). In my opinion, I dont' care who a player is even if he is Ronaldinaho, if he is injured and not fit he should not start and shouldn't play.

Soccer world has progressed a lot. There are less and less of gaps between teams. Camoroon in 1990 was a dark horse when he bit Argentina and got to 1/8. Nowadays everybody thought IvoryCoast may even beat Argentina. Point is gaps have shrunk. Even in Iran's national team, I bet you right now we can form three national teams (3x24) players and let them play and game will be very closed. In mid right now Iran has like 15-20 quality players, very close. So it is not like 40 years ago, when Ali Parvin's leg broke in the NewZeland friendly right before 1974 world cup qualification against Australia, Iran's midfield was like in total disarry.


Conclusion
==========
It is all coming back to that factor of risk taking and trusting oneself and having higher aims. These are factors that Branko lacks. Even the game against China in quarter final in the Asian Cup he was very conservative. Everyone gave him credit for getting Iran to 3rd spot on Asian Cup. To be honest (in my opinion) Iran got there becuse Ali Karimi, Madhavi Kia and Kaabi were just unstoppable during those games. Specially past second round. Remember what Karimi did in the game against South Korea.

To me root cause of the backwardedness in countries like ours in part is due to the lack of organizaiton and professional standards. See all these Iranian came to US and are so successful and rich, Why? Had they stayed in Iran lot fo them wouldn't have got this far. Why? Becuase in this society either you learn to work and act professionally (as an Enginner, doctor, mechanic, whatever), or you won't progress. People like Branko and all the forigen people who come to Iran must bring that spirit of professionalisem, organizational skills, puctuality, establishing Rules of law rather than favoritisem to Iranian society. If they don't do that, down the line they are not an element of progress for our society.

Speaking of professionalisem, I spend so much time to type this, therefore no lunch for me today and have to work (to show I act as I preach).


Anyways, Zendeh Bud Iran, Payandeh Bud team-e-Melli Iran

[yashar_fasihnia]

Yashar Jaan,

I see you were pretty active last night. A long reply to DD and you made couple of other remarks. I read your well thought reply. With all the respect, I would say a professional coach god even a semi pro coach won't stand in the way of anyone putting their nose in business.

You metioned several issues, I only address the coaching and legionars playing issues. I never mentioned I prefer Khatibi blindly to Dai in all the situation, I won't address that issue.

yes, i was
i think doctor doom and me are the perspolis & esteghlal of long messages here on PFDC. noone even comes close to us and i think it bothers some members here. however, the only reason i try to get into the minutest details being typed out is to avoid any kind of misunderstandings, jumping to wrong conclusions or not looking at the matter from the same angle.

about khatibi being blindly preferred to daei, i wasnt referring to u or anyone in particular, but im sure u have noticed members posting players like khatibi and enayati in their lineups! Believe it or not, some people have even preferred them to HASHEMIAN

anywayz, wat i was trying to say there was that for sure, khatibi or any other forward in iran DOES have certain advantages over Daei, but overall, i think Daei has more than the other forwards of iran. unfortunately, he is the best we got (After hashemian), we have no choice to use him. However, under certain conditions like playing against a tall strong but slow german defence, he might not be useful for the team and then i think its right if daei is subbed out and some other player like khatibi comes in who can rely on his speed and tecnique to break into the german defence! or maybe the simple reason that daei is injured or exhausted. The coach can also change his formation and becaues of the abundance talent in our midfield, play with a system with max number of midfielders!

anywayz, i read ur post, and i agree to almost everything u say except wat i have written betlow.

Professionalisem of Coach
=====================
Look at Ari Haan in Persepolice, he clearly have said to Iranian Media that Sallah Hassan and Talebloo aren't in his list and if Ansari Fard signed them, he wont' let them play and Ansari Fard is responsible for all the consequences.
We need to bring forigners that bring this organizational skills and professionalisem to our society (to our soccer in this case). I am sure Haan has wife girl friend, boy friend whatever. He still sticks to his gun.
In Ali Dai situations no matter what, Branko is lost. If Branko has compromised and given in to the outside pressure, he did not act professional. If he willingly plays him 90 minutes, then I question his soccer judgement.

This is a soccer forum and I don't want make it to a social political forum, but if Branko despite having wife and kids and 6 billion pair of eyes allows other people impose Dai or anyone else for that matter to him, he is unprofessional, Look at Pekerman, Italian coach as you mentioned, they make the decision and they have the guts to stand by their decision. Pekerman only brought 4 of the 2002 players back under tremendous pressure by every one in Argentine's society. Even Maradona and former player /coach and anybody who was somebody in Argentine soccer criticized him. Did he give in? Nope. I am sure he was man enough or had enough integrity to resign had the Argentine done bad.

Branko isn't of these people's caliber. That is all we (DD, I, Haji and tens of Iranian are saying in this forum). Gist of what you, martin, mansoor and other saying is " he is the best we can afford and we should settle for that".
I guess time will show who was right or wrong, or maybe both of us are right in certain regards and wrong in others.

Bottom line, as a coach or a leader you take charge make decision and if you can't do that, it is time to step out. I personally don't want Branko to resign now or be removed. All I want from him is to review his performance and specially revise his attitude about setteling for minimum and playing safe.

i think the daei situation (if political and based on "party bazy") is quite unique in iran and cant be compared to any other situation. arie can says he wont play talebloo and hassan in perspolis even if he buys them, so wat? i dont think talebloo or hassan can force themselves into the team like daei does in TM.

i know ur talking about coach's integrity and self respect and arie han clearly stating "this is wat i want, this is wat i dont want!" but i dont think this or any other case is similar to that of daei's. i dont think branko would forcefully use talebloo and hassan in his lienup if he was in haan's situation. almost all the buyings and sellings take place with consultings to the head coach, and ansarifard who is a hardworking man and is here to save perspolis from this crisis is making sure everything goes on fine.

so again, i say, i dont think any situation can be compared to daei's situation in TM ASSUMING THERE IS A LOT OF PARTY BAZY, ZUR, and similar stuff invisible to us fans.

Now i ask u this question, imagine arie haan was our TM coach, and this party bazy and zur existed in TM and daei was being forced to play, u seriously think arie haan would have left his job just before he gets the chance to take part, show himself and maybe prepare his future in the worlds biggest sport event infront of 6 billion pair of eyes? I doubt it

However,,,,,,,,

If we assume that branko plays daei solely because of football reasons, then again, like i said, first of all, every coach has his own vision, his own taste, his own plans and based on that, makes his own choices.

And again, i say, daei is arguably the OVERALL best forward iran has after hashemian. so, i dont see why we shouldnt play our 2 best forwards in the team, WATEVER THEIR AGE!

however, if any of them fail to impress or make any kind of positive impact on the game, there is no doubt they should be substituted. now i think personally branko should have brought in shojaei for daei to regain the middle of the field, whether that would have got us a better result or not, i dunno. And i dont think i will ever know wat would have happened if branko would listen to my suggestion, urs or anyone elses here. Branko had different ideas and visions, and because he was incharge, that was wat he opted for and that was his results.

Watever it is, yes, branko isnt a world class coach, and he isnt an experienced HEAD COACH, but time and again, he has proved his worth, and showed his results to us under all types of conditions, with different kinds of players. there is no doubt branko is not only a diplomatic cunning coach, but also an intelligent and hardworking one too.
Him being result oriented isnt something shocking, because many coaches and big coaches in todays worlds are, and have shown the world they can do wonders using their policies. Whether it is eriksson with england or otto rehadel with greece, they got the necessary results, and thats wat matters.
but if the most daring coach, (van basten maybe?) was coaching the same greece in euro2004, i even doubt greece would make it out of the group stages!

Its not a coincidence that when iran plays weaker teams, they play defensive against iran. and its no coincidence they tend to get results at times as well. whether jordan beats iran or mexico beats brazil, its because these teams know they cant match the offense of the superior teams, they dont have the ability to play a beautiful match and they wont even GET A BISCUIT even if they happen to play a more beautiful game than brazil, but they do know that if they happen to beat brazil, they will get praise, fame, bonus, and 3 points! so which would they go for? Hmm, its not hard to figure out! and guess wat? iran isnt a superpower on an international stage, so it makes more sense to be result oriented than just play beautiful football.
However, just playing a result oriented game doesnt ALWAYS mean u will win a game, but it atleast lets u take a decent shot for those 3 points!

so, i dont mind branko being a result oriented coach considering we are iran, and i wont be surprised if we lose to better teams than ourselves. However close football has got like u said, there is still a slight edge one team has over the other and as u may know, its this small differences like (experience, influential players, psychological situation, individual errors) which can turn decisive in a game!

Yet again, branko just like any other coach, his his flaws and his mistakes, which SHOULD BE forgiven and expected, because they too are humans!

Legionars playing
=============
As a coach one day you have to make a decision and play lesser known players. When Mayelee played Khodad, nobody knew him. Or PashaZadeh same story. This decision will be heck of a lot easier if you see your fixed players are coming out of injury and ain't fit.
I read Mansoor Jaan's interview with Mr. Hooman Afazeli in the main page. (BTW, thanks Mansoor and the whole PFDC for doing the interview. It is good to get a reliable source inside Team-e-Melli camp in the middle of all these rumors and unprofessional Sport media in Iran.) Back to Hooman's interview, with all the respect to Mr. Afzali I couldn't beleiev that he said Legionars got injured too close to the World cup we can't do much about their fitness. If a player ain't ready he won't play. Why we Iranian are so chicken****. Look Roonie is on the bench and Crouch is playing. Hell didn't freez? Ballack was on the bench. 3 -4 top Italian strikers were not picked. Portugal did not paly Decco. How come is it that Kia if he is not fit or Karimi if he is not fit has to play? In today's soccer if one ain't fit and can't play, he regardless of how big his name is "IS USELESS". I don't care how big your name is and how fancy a players is. If he ain't fit he won't start. Yashar Jaan, come on brother, emotioanl comments like Kia is the spirit of the team. Are just that a motto an emotional statement (in my opinion). In my opinion, I dont' care who a player is even if he is Ronaldinaho, if he is injured and not fit he should not start and shouldn't play.

Soccer world has progressed a lot. There are less and less of gaps between teams. Camoroon in 1990 was a dark horse when he bit Argentina and got to 1/8. Nowadays everybody thought IvoryCoast may even beat Argentina. Point is gaps have shrunk. Even in Iran's national team, I bet you right now we can form three national teams (3x24) players and let them play and game will be very closed. In mid right now Iran has like 15-20 quality players, very close. So it is not like 40 years ago, when Ali Parvin's leg broke in the NewZeland friendly right before 1974 world cup qualification against Australia, Iran's midfield was like in total disarry.

its not a very good idea to comapre the 1998 situation with our present TM situation. circumstances have change, A LOT!

the easiest example, imagine if maelli kohan was the coach today, U SERIOUSLY THINK HE WOULS BENCH HASHEMIAN, KARIMI, KIA & ZANDI, ALL 4AT THE SAME TIME AND PLAY 4 UNKNOWN YOUNG INEXPERIENCED PLAYERS IN THE MOST DECISIVE AND DIFFICULT GAME OF IRAN IN THE WORLDCUP??
i dont think so my friend, and im quite sure u agree with me.

u seriously werent expecting branko to bench all his main, experienced, influential, professional, active players at the same time and send in a bunch of unknown naive inexperienced less influential players against a very storng and experienced mexico side specially in our most difficult and decisive game?
Specially when we all know the huge difference between our main 11 and our substitutes!

yes, ballack sat out because they had tim borowski, rooney sat out because they had owen, who else did u say?
They have a very good squad, all of whom have the abilities, both mentally and physically to play on a worldcup stage, but does iran have that? i dont think so. i dont think scolari with all his stars would be ready to bench pauleta(hashemian), figo(kia), deco(karimi) & ronaldo(zandi) all at the same time against a strong team?(forget the fact that iran had to face a stronger team with this situation but portugal doesnt really have a team stronger than itself)

like u said, gaps in soccer has become very small between different nations but, howmuch ever small the gap is, there still is a gap! and it is only influential, experienced, professional players who can cover these gaps!
like i said earlier, whenever u see 2 almost equal teams playing each other, or a closed game which we say in farsi "bazi gereh khordeh", its always an influential, professional player who usually makes the difference in that game and always plays a role in changing the result of that game. if we remove all such players from TM and send in a group of youngsters, wat hopes do we have?


and no, i wont overlook the role, kia, karimi and even daie play just in the mental and psychological state of our players in the field! for sure, definitely, they feel they have a "tekyegah", and they will listen to these players out of respect and charm, and this itself motivates them! one of daei's biggest roles which is also branko's good skills is psyhcological skills. daei is a very good leader, and never has a loser's mentality, and im sure u agree with me he also tries to impose this on the rest of our players.

why would a player like zidane make a return to france even at this stage after retiring? because he is a person who can single handedly make a difference and change the outcome of a game!
not only with his skills, but also just his presence gives confidence to the french players. i remember after france 98, didier deschamps who was france captain that time, imagine the captain saying this, "whenever we didnt know wat to do, we gave the ball to zidane" the role of leaders backed up with experience, courage, skills and win or die mentality charges up the players on the field. Trust me, i have been in that position, and even when my team would be losing badly, i always had hope, because i knew there were players in our teams who could get us back in the game!

and u saw for urself, not even one game, just 30 minutes without karimi, zandi, and an unfit mahdavikia, our midfield was indeed in disarry and we are really dependent on our legionnaires!

Conclusion
==========
It is all coming back to that factor of risk taking and trusting oneself and having higher aims. These are factors that Branko lacks. Even the game against China in quarter final in the Asian Cup he was very conservative. Everyone gave him credit for getting Iran to 3rd spot on Asian Cup. To be honest (in my opinion) Iran got there becuse Ali Karimi, Madhavi Kia and Kaabi were just unstoppable during those games. Specially past second round. Remember what Karimi did in the game against South Korea.

To me root cause of the backwardedness in countries like ours in part is due to the lack of organizaiton and professional standards. See all these Iranian came to US and are so successful and rich, Why? Had they stayed in Iran lot fo them wouldn't have got this far. Why? Becuase in this society either you learn to work and act professionally (as an Enginner, doctor, mechanic, whatever), or you won't progress. People like Branko and all the forigen people who come to Iran must bring that spirit of professionalisem, organizational skills, puctuality, establishing Rules of law rather than favoritisem to Iranian society. If they don't do that, down the line they are not an element of progress for our society.

Speaking of professionalisem, I spend so much time to type this, therefore no lunch for me today and have to work (to show I act as I preach).


Anyways, Zendeh Bud Iran, Payandeh Bud team-e-Melli Iran

Yes, being daring is a very good advantage in almost everything in life. But remember, "risks" dont always show a postivive outcome! and considering the successes of many result oriented coaches and teams, its kinda acceptable to believe sometimes, its better to play safe than sorry.

But i also want to add that, in my opinion branko is not a wimpy coach, he has made daring decisions nobody has ever made.
he made a 16 year old right midfielder play as RB for the national team!


he had the guts to go against almost all the iranian coaches in bringing back zandi and even hashemian, he supported his players - all of them infront of the media and while the whole country was destroying mirzapour's self esteem, he single handedly was ready to confront a nation and bring mirzapour back to his old psychological state. u could clearly see it in his eyes and in his games once mirzapour joined TM camp again, and the mistake he made was not because of self confidence but because of carelessness, lack of practice or watever u wanna call it. branko is constantly being threated, insulted, criticised by media, fans, critiques, about mirzapour, daei, nosrati, yahya, etc yet he stands behind them and supports them to the extent that they come and score the most decisive goals for us (nosrati in asian cup 2004 against oman & against bahrain which took us to the worldcup) and yahya in the worldcup!

branko has shown time and again, he will take riskts, but only when necessary. he is a result oriented coach and like i said, many such previous coaches have achieved results, so he cant be blamed for following an ideology which has proved time and again it works!


And finally, yes, professionalism and standardization are 2 big problems in iran, and its not only in football but everything, but wat has branko got to do with this? like u said, many people left iran because of this, and became successful, would they be successful if they had remained in iran? NO
So how do u expect branko to reach the highest level of success when he is facing the same problems iranians themselves cant tackle??
Iran's football has problems from the roots and like i said in one of my earlier posts, branko, TM and staff are a leaf of this tree. they are not the real problem of this tree, the roots are! as long as the roots are problematic, even if we have the best leaves, we will never have the best tree!

Iran porteghlao chikar mikone? Ab porteghalesh mikone
Inshallah!

[Doctor DOOM]

, yashar jan,
so basically you are excusing each and every fault and mistake of branko .

you start by agreeing with the question, then bring in a “but” !

very well. That’s your side of the story.
But remember, we are stagnating and stuck in 4 years back , BECAUSE many ppl excuse these mistakes.

We are regressing , BECAUSE ppl actually show no desire to improve and are happy with bread crumbs !

We are on the verge of elimination ( Yes, becoz we COULD have & shd have advanced, considering the crappy Mexican team and all ) BECAUSE ppl never demanded progress and betterment, and excused every damn failure on the part of branko …. Just because he was …. ( whatever, man. Whatever !! )

You think he is the best we can afford?
Why do you slight Iran?
Why do you put down our capacity and potential?
Look at the coaches who WERE plying their trade in Iran itself: Denizlli, Haan, …
Also Gunes, Terim, and Daam and … who expressed their desire to lead Iran .
Is this Croatian reject better than them?

( oh btw, was sitting on his arse, looking frightened, confused and distraught for 90 minutes, one of those “duties” you mentioned? )

Na agha …. You are just excusing everything for the sake of persisting with your original opinion of him months and years ago.
Something that I see in many of his supporters.
It’s simple laj baazi ( dare I say, “like coach, like fan” ? )
We don’t like to admit to our wrongs and bad choices.
Thus, we persist with these wrong choices and defend and defend and … !

So be it, My friend. so be it.

My conscience is clear.
2 years ago I said branko may be good for asian teams and tourneys.
But he is totally and absolutely out of the league of WC, and if we do qualify, we MUST replace him with a better coach.

As for other’s conscience … well, they can deal with it themselves.



But , lets ALL remember, by finding excuses for failures, we not only don’t learn from them, we also stagnate and regress.
by being satisfied with whatever crummy hand we are dealt, we will never improve or progress.

Exactly what’s happened to our football !

[yashar_fasihnia]

doctor jan,
first of all, im the last person who will excuse each and every short coming of branko. i have agreed to many posts here about branko's mistakes, and i always say branko has shortcomings, and so do other world famous coaches because in the end, we are all humans and we are bound to make mistakes and wrong decisions!

Secondly, if anyone here is lajbaz, its not me aghaye doctor, because although im a supporter of branko, i do admit his mistakes, and my dis satisfaction wither certain matters concerning him. You on the other side however, have done nothing but complain about him all the time and u never ever appreciate any positive thing done by him! i dont close my eyes on his mistakes, i do point them out, but i support him for several other reasons which include his achievements as well. but u ignore (whether it is intentional because u hate him too much or u dont realize it because of ur more than required expectaitons) and u sit and only fire him for everything that happens, whether it is right or wrong, whether it is branko's fault or not, whether it is even related to branko or not!

Thirdly, yes, i agree to many of ur comments and arguments, because many of them are true, branko has shortcomings, and u have mentioned them, but. and i still say BUT, TO SOLELY BLAME BRANKO FOR ALL THOSE SHORTCOMINGS IS, SORRY TO SAY THIS BUT IGNORANT! if i say "but" thats because i dont go and blame branko alone for every problem, branko is just a leaf or a branch in our football structure, most of our problems arise from the roots, and even if we get the best leaves and branches for our tree, as long as our roots have problems, our tree will never be healthy and successful!
So stop blaming branko for everything, and more importantly, ONLY BRANKO!

Lastly, about other coaches coming to iran and me "slighting iran" is not true, im just being realistic. ur just underestimating the rest of the world, specially the developing countries and their football. just because we got talent and passion doesnt mean we can get far. if we got passion and talent, angola has physical strength and fitness, korea has professionalism and speed, japan has team work and ability to cooperate with each other all in their blood. we arent the only gifted people on earth, god gives one something and takes something else from him. This is the law of nature (if u believe in god).
We might be gifted with skills but we dont have the physique god has gifted the africans. we dont have the speed god has gifted the east asians!
iran has a lot of social, political and economic problems and is lagging behind many other developing football countries. Unless we dont get rid of them first, we will never have a completely successful but permanent football career in iran!

And btw, denizli and haan, how have they ever been more successful than branko? denizli messed up pas in last year's ACL! denizli left pas this IPL when they were on the verge of winning the title from esteghlal!
denizli traded a 3-1 victory for a 3-3 eventual knockout! maybe being result oriented is important, and thats why greece could win the euro 2004! thats why jordan could actually perform so well in both WCQ and asian cup 2004 and almost knocked out japan if it wasnt for that controversial penalty kicks!

and haan, he has failed every where he has gone, he never achieved anything significant! he might have been a good player from hollands golden generation but as a coach, he hasnt done crap! they arent anything better than branko!

and fateh terim didnt even reach an agreement with iran, and many other coaches! even the same arie haan didnt reach to an agreement with iran earlier in hte 1990's! i wonder why, maybe its because of our so called "root problems" which i was referring to!

branko was ready to accept these harsh conditions, and he was given the job. ofcourse he benefits from us because its his first experience as a national coach and also participates in the worldcup! but we have had our benefits as well, and we owe a lot of our football progress and results to him!

[Martin-Reza]

Hashemian played the same shit Daei had. It's time to stop blaming scapegoats and rather accept there's simply a difference in quality between Iran and Portugal.

[Doctor DOOM]

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 !