3 of 4 teams from Asia made it to the next round time for reflection

[tmfan]

My rankings of the performances

1) Japan - 6pts against powerhouses
2/3) Korea - 3 pts against a powerhouse B team & 1 pt against a solid African team
2/3) Australia - 3 pts against a solid Euro team & 1 pt against a solid African team
4) Saudi - 3 pts against a powerhouse
5) Iran - 3 pts against a weak Euro team that qualified for the first time since 1958

[Damavand]

• While I agree that cq got the game plan wrong, I greatly disagree that Denmark or Portugal’s B team are better than this US team. They were class, and they went toe to toe with the same England who beat us 6-2. Once again, I don’t deny we messed up tactically (not saving Azmoun for the second half and not starting Torabi/Amiri to ensure we kept the pace and the goal closed in the first 45), but we held our own overall with all the off field issues. Just a bad situation all around.

I am sorry but this US team is nothing special. Sure they went toe to toe with England but they also tied Wales which we defeated 2-0. Remember they are quite young and very inexperienced just like Spain.

And to top it off their coach Berhalter is a clown. Even the American fans were not happy when he was selected.

All CQ needed to do is to start with speedy players like Amiri, Torabi or Saman to neutralize their midfield and bring in Azmoun in the 2nd half when their defenders are tired.

With the right lineup and tactics this team was very much beatable or at very least a tie.

Wow, I never thought CQ would be Out coached by Berhalter. Truly Shameful.

[Hosseini]

The same people complaining about "mediocrity" like Doctor Doom and Ozone and the rest, who somehow expected us to advance under the worst of conditions, will also say that Iran under the current system is dysfunctional, and corrupt, with a broken infrastructure that won't set us up for any success.

I agree it is, so which one is it? Are we being fed mediocrity? Or should this be the expectation given the lack of professionalism, disorganization, and deficient footballing culture? Pick a lane atleast.

Also, what's the alternative? Which Iranian coach will get us to the next round with all these external negative factors going against us?

[K. Nader]

There needs to be a distinction b/w advancing once in a blue moon and doing so consistently. Japan is advancing to the Round of 16 (+ performing excellently in Asian Cups) because they invested heavily in their football since the early 1990s and also have a clear identity which they play with (and has been integrated into their youth academies). The same is similar in South Korea - albeit not to the level of sophistication as Japan.

If the goal is to make the Round of 16 for the sake of it, then yes, I believe it will eventually happen for Team Melli but I don't necessarily understand what the point of it is? Yes, you get your occasional North Korea (1966), Saudi Arabia (1994), Senegal (2002), Ghana (2006/2010), Costa Rica (2014), Algeria (2014), and others but none of these nations sustain these performances consistently because they're not really investing properly into their systems.

If Japan is in the R16, it's because they aspire to start consistently making the QFs and onwards until they can actually WIN the World Cup itself (much as they already have with their Women's team).

With Iran making the R16, aside from the short-term 'feel good' factor, I don't see what it does for our football? Our investments won't increase. Corruption won't be rooted out of our league nor will the quality increase overnight. This same Japan team has also qualified for every Olympic tournament with their U23 team since 1996 and placed 4th twice. The same with South Korea since 1992 (having placed 3rd in 2012). In contrast, we have not even qualified once for the Olympics since the revolution.

I admire that our players are talented enough to semi-consistently qualify for the World Cup and are now starting to accumulate a decent # of points. However, the Round of 16 really is a moot point. I want to see a TM that will one day be a consistent threat on the global stage, much as we are in Futsal, for example. But if all people want is to check off the box of the R16, then yes, I believe it will happen even under these circumstances if we throw spaghetti on the wall enough times.

[Nokhodi]

I went and looked more deeply at the stats from fifa.

https://www.fifatrainingcentre.com/e...ry-reports.php

the Asian teams that won their last games - they didn’t do anything too differently compared to TM. Some were understandably even more defensive. The more I read into it 3 things become clear

1 - too many players who were not fully fit
2 - we got the worst possible opposition in our group for our style of play
3 - we started with the wrong players in every game.

the rest really has to do with luck.

[Iran_19]

CQ made USA look like world giant. Same shitting the bed strategy happened vs England.
Sorry folks, but this guy have zero optimal strategy when his team is behind and he even admitted that in his press conference after losing to USA(when you score first goal you usually win).

I am not saying ok lets attack like headless chicken but being scared, bezan ziresh strategy and going with wingers which are not fast in ultra defensive system which rely on fast attack, was suicide.

He played 4-3-3.
Non of 3 midfielders were fast, neither of Taremi, Sardar and specially Gholi, JB are known for their speed..
He refused to start Torabi and didn't play Amiri at all.
He refused to even take a guy like Mohebbi with 2 spots available. A guy which his style could have helped us in second half.

I know we were limited in level of talents in midfielder, Azmoun was clearly not a 20 min player., JB is done and Gholi can not put up 2 consistent performance together, and Taremi was trying to do too much by his own but that was too pussy way of playing in 3rd consecutive WC despite what was going on, on and off the pitch


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[Iran_19]

I went and looked more deeply at the stats from fifa.

https://www.fifatrainingcentre.com/e...ry-reports.php

the Asian teams that won their last games - they didn't do anything too differently compared to TM. Some were understandably even more defensive. The more I read into it 3 things become clear

1 - too many players who were not fully fit
2 - we got the worst possible opposition in our group for our style of play
3 - we started with the wrong players in every game.

the rest really has to do with luck.

Agha i don't agree on opposition.
We clearly had fitness and speed issue, and the only reason we were better than Wales was they were slower than us
We were in probably easiest group.
We will see what USA does in elimination but amrika ro kheli gonde kardan.
For a team which waa behind for 1 hour, we didn't create much tbh!

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[Tarsal Claw]

Don’t forget his lack of utilizing Ghoddos until the last half of the last game. A player of his caliber playing in the EPL??

[peiman92]

Don’t forget his lack of utilizing Ghoddos until the last half of the last game. A player of his caliber playing in the EPL??

He’s not playing, he’s warming the bench. Big difference.

[Tarsal Claw]

He’s still getting world class training. Studying film. And rubbing shoulders with many of the players that were in our group. That alone should be worth more Nourollahi or Karimi.

[peiman92]

As for the thread itself, here is my reflection.
We’re looking at another exit in the QF/SF in the AC23 if we have to play any of S.Korea, Australia, Japan, Saudi. Especially with the mindset of our current coach.

To be successfull in the AC23 we need to take the game to those teams. I’m talking about 60/70% ball possession, 20-25 shots in each game etc.

Is it possible with a coach like Renard? I don’t know.
Is it possible with a coach like CQ/Skocic? No.

[peiman92]

He’s still getting world class training. Studying film. And rubbing shoulders with many of the players that were in our group. That alone should be worth more Nourollahi or Karimi.

He can train all he wants, it’s playing time that matters.

[leviathan]

"As long as we're happy with crumbs (and meaningless, useless titles like No. 1 in Asia) , we will remain stagnant." The Best statement I have read so far. And playing defensive against USA was a huge Blunder(parking the bus)
- when you need a Draw - you go for a win, if you aim for draw -you lose. And that is what carols Did.
we can keep just qualifying for WC year after year and cry when we are Knocked out of first round or we can man up

[Hosseini]

Ghoddos was terrible in the playing time he received

[perspolis#1]

I get want you’re saying Navid jan, but there are other issues.
I don’t think having a democracy is why a country does well in football. There’s no significant relation.
In Iran’s case democracy probably wouldn’t hurt our football but we have a major development issue in football in Iran.

I don't think its the democracy part but the freedom of the federation to operate independently. If IR or any of the communist Iranian factions were not in charge, Team Melli would be run by an independent IFF that would have clubs that would be getting TV money and have more to work with. Investment would be encouraged where half of the teams would be able to build up actual fanbases(instead of their company's employees) and the snowball effect would lead to a better league, better players etc.

We failed to qualify this time because of poor tactics and player selection as well as an ungodly amount of pressure on athletes by two sides of external forces. Even with all the things that are wrong with Iranian football we missed the next round on a 1 goal margin. If our football was run by the right people and regulations, the difference would have been that we would have had strong academy players, a deeper bench, a starting XI with a higher ceiling. We would have given England at least a shadow of a game and punished Wales more severely. The US game we would have won.