The reason why TM did bad in WC: Karimi's injury

[KasraKhan]

Im not saying that if Karimi played we would have beat Mex and Portugal, but if Karimi was 100% fit and match fit, this WC would have been different for us.

It was obivous that Karimi was not match fit, and it was obivous he still is injured the way he was favoring his ankle.

But the thing that we ALL KNOW here is that Karimi is the engine of our team, he is our entire attacking game plan, and if he is injured, so is our team, and this was evident in the 2 matches.

The thing is, with Karimi out, we need somebody like Shojaei or Mobali in there, a play-maker, somebody to switch the ball, give a through pass, give a dribble or something, but I guess Branko thinks otherwise.

I feel bad for Ali, this WC was his to shine and we was unlucky enough to sustain a serious injury a few months before the WC. Poor guy...

[Under Lahaf]

yes indeed if it wasn't for all the injuries; karimi, kia, zandi's we would've been able to play much better. maybe we would end up losing but would play exciting games.

better luck next time. and as you said too bad for karimi he could've shined in this WC. I hope he gets back on the track soon and shine with Bayern. for sure he deserves it.

[Martin-Reza]

It was a reason, but we should stop thinking one or two little things were between us and success. Surely our chances would have been better with fit key players and surely we had the chances to get better results, but overall you simply see there is a big difference between our boys and the likes of Deco, Ronaldo, Maniche and Figo.

[Doctor DOOM]

kasra jan, it may be ONE of the reasons.

but to address this issue, it is actually branko's over-reliance on "names" and his gutless nature that didnt take risks ... logical ones, at that too.

he wanted "names' and names dont play the game. ppl with motivation, desire, passion, ... play it.

if this idiot had guts, he would have worked with the alternatives that many of us were shouting for, so when the big games came and these "names" didnt perform ( as we are aware now ), we could rely on the skills, desire, motivation of the alternatives to do the job for us.
just as in each and every other team we saw happen.
names like ronaldo, figo, totti, van nistelroy, .... are taken out or benched , and younger or more useful players are given the chance.

but since branko is NOT a coach anywhere near WC level, he lacked the intelligence, guts and standards to do so.

now, we suffer from the very same thing many of us were talking about.
while his supporters, like a flock of sheep, regurgitated whatever crap spweed out of branko's mouth as defense of this illogical over-reliance !

did we have a crystal ball?
no.
did we see the future ?
no.
we just wanted the best for IRAN , and not a man ( as some friends did ! ).
and wanted IRAN to be ready for all contingencies.

we were not, becoz of branko's low level intelligence and guts, and his supporters irrational and dogmatic backing of this miserable failure.

they have to answer their own conscience for this wrong.

[Paradigm]

The reasons are plenty Kasrakhan, but the one that accounts for it the most is bad coach selection by the IFF. In fact we need a shuffle inside the IFF itself to start things off. The last time we had some progress and managed to qualify for the W.C. was just after the AC '04 when people most criticized Dadkan and his company, and we were not sure if we could handle Jordan.

[Martin-Reza]

The reasons are plenty Kasrakhan, but the one that accounts for it the most is bad coach selection by the IFF. In fact we need a shuffle inside the IFF itself to start things off. The last time we had some progress and managed to qualify for the W.C. was just after the AC '04 when people most criticized Dadkan and his company, and we were not sure if we could handle Jordan.

Who was not sure if we could handle Jordan?

Everyone who had seen the match in Tehran knew that it was just pure luck that Jordan didn't lose 3-0, there was no doubt whatsoever that out of 20 matches against Iran, Jordan could maybe avoid losing once or twice.

But same with Iran against Portugal.

[Kian]

We have no youth facilities worth mentioning.
Our league is amature.
Our two most popular teams still have not paid their players.
We are not united.
Our country is a third world country where football is just a luxury.
Due to politics we did not even have decent friendlies.
Our players are all individualistic.
We have no understanding of team.
We like to point fingers and fine the one party at fault.

That is why we lost, not because of Daei/Branko/Rezaei/Mirzapour/Karimi or who ever else that might be taking the wrath of the people right now.

[Spyder]

Excuses Excuses...

[kasai]

As others stated, Karimi was part of the problem. I think mentally, we just somehow were terrified of the enviroment we were in. We played a good first half against Mexico and then everything went wrong from there. I know Portugal is a good team, but they looked 10X better than us on Saturday. I just don't see how we can compete with good sides like Japan and Korea and then turn around and play like we did in 1998 vs Germany.

As Paradigm said, hopefully this is a good learning experience. It took Korea a long time before they could actually win games at the WC. We need to continually qualify and our fortunes will turn. It will take time, money, and resources which I am not sure about...

[yashar_fasihnia]

We have no youth facilities worth mentioning.
Our league is amature.
Our two most popular teams still have not paid their players.
We are not united.
Our country is a third world country where football is just a luxury.
Due to politics we did not even have decent friendlies.
Our players are all individualistic.
We have no understanding of team.
We like to point fingers and fine the one party at fault.

That is why we lost, not because of Daei/Branko/Rezaei/Mirzapour/Karimi or who ever else that might be taking the wrath of the people right now.

thankyou, this is wat i call a realistic view at the big picture as a whole!
mirzapour,branko,daei,nosrati,karimi were all secondary reasons!

[Iranian soccer fan]

As others stated, Karimi was part of the problem. I think mentally, we just somehow were terrified of the enviroment we were in. We played a good first half against Mexico and then everything went wrong from there. I know Portugal is a good team, but they looked 10X better than us on Saturday. I just don't see how we can compete with good sides like Japan and Korea and then turn around and play like we did in 1998 vs Germany.
As Paradigm said, hopefully this is a good learning experience. It took Korea a long time before they could actually win games at the WC. We need to continually qualify and our fortunes will turn. It will take time, money, and resources which I am not sure about...

as far as I remember Iran played well against Germany in 1998
Maybe I have bad memory lol