World Cup USA Qualifiers 93

[Ararat Tehran]

I often think about Iran's world cup qualification for the 1994 world cup. Iran certainly had a solid squad with a mix of young and experienced players. Unfortunately, just prior to the qualifiers, Abedzadeh was not available and Behzad Gholampour was selected as Iran's number one goalkeeper. That was the end of the campaign right at the outset. One of Gholampours greatest weaknesses was he couldn't catch the ball (or slow coming off his line). That was a tragedy for Iran in all the games of the final round of qualifiers and I still cant believe Ali Parvin had him in the squad. Here are the goals/highlights of the final round of qualifiers for USA 1994 held in Doha,Qatar.
GAME 1 - IRAN V SOUTH KOREA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlSSysEin2Q
GAME 2 - IRAN V JAPAN
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yt5nlE1PuTo
GAME 3 - IRAN V IRAQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXEsWiosTdQ
GAME 4 - IRAN V NORTH KOREA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVQGG2I34jc
GAME 5 - IRAN V SAUDI ARABIA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rl_rME1vo20

[Damavand]

Thanks for bringing back some bitter memories. I was in Tehran and I watched these games live on STAR TV satellite which had just begun broadcasting in Iran for the first time.

[_Navid_]

What a terrible goalkeeper. Always Seemed fishy to me!

[Ararat Tehran]

Does anyone have links to the full matches of any of the games?

[AIrani]

I remember it but did not like what took place.

[ehsan singapore]

what crappy goal kipping, if we did well in keeper and had abedzadeh we would have gone through

[Iran_19]

There are rumors about Gholampour and few others and their family being threaten by Vezarat-e-Ettelaat to not perform well because the WC was in USA and up to that time no Iranian team traveled to USA if i am not wrong. We also know what happened to Parvin when they came back home when he said in airport, i will talk about many many insider issues that happened in Doha and as result Parvin who was very popular in that time was disappeared from everywhere for almost 2 years.
I am not saying this is true 100% but it was very fishy, that team was really good, i remember every single game of us, the way we were allowing goals wasn't normal.
I was talking with Gholampour relative few years after outside the country and he was telling me exact same thing.
Remember Gholampour was on fire with his club, Pas, for over a season and people even questioned who should start, him or Abedzadeh?(Before Abedzadeh's injury).

[Ararat Tehran]

Pressure from the government could have been a factor to his performance. He definitely under-performed in every game. In the match against Japan, Iran was up 2-0 and conceded a ridiculous goal in the last minute. It has to be one of the most bizarre goals ever conceded.

[Gucci10]

what crappy goal kipping, if we did well in keeper and had abedzadeh we would have gone through

That group was one of the closest I have ever seen. If I recall all teams before the final match day had a chance to go through with a win.

[Damavand]

That group was one of the closest I have ever seen. If I recall all teams before the final match day had a chance to go through with a win.

All except N Korea. They had zero chance. Our chances was very slim also. Even if we had defeated KSA by 3 goals we still would not have qualified, since S Korea and Japan had a much better GD .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_F...fication_(AFC)

[Nokhodi]

There are rumors about Gholampour and few others and their family being threaten by Vezarat-e-Ettelaat to not perform well because the WC was in USA and up to that time no Iranian team traveled to USA if i am not wrong. We also know what happened to Parvin when they came back home when he said in aiport, i will talk about many many insider issues that happened in Doha and as result Parvin who was very popular in that time was dissapread from everywhere for almost 2 years.
I am not saying this is true 100% but it was very fishy, that team was really good, i remember every single game of us, the way we were allowing goals wasn't normal.
I was talking with Gholampour relative few years after outside the country and he was telling me exact same thing.
Remember Gholampour was on fire with his club, Pas, for over a season and people even questioned who should start, him or Abedzadeh?(Before Abedzadeh's injury).

I never believed that. The team wasn't a good team. Good individuals but kharaki style of play. Remember TM at this stage missed out on qualifying for WC 1990 in the first round, got eliminated in AC 1992 in the group stage and also the 1994 Asian games.
As much as people shit on him, Mayeli Kohan was the first post revolutionary TM coach to get some decent wins.

[AIrani]

Iran is a dictatorial religious country. Sports, religion, and politics have been mixed especially after IRI 1979 take over.

[Iran_19]

I never believed that. The team wasn't a good team. Good individuals but kharaki style of play. Remember TM at this stage missed out on qualifying for WC 1990 in the first round, got eliminated in AC 1992 in the group stage and also the 1994 Asian games.
As much as people shit on him, Mayeli Kohan was the first post revolutionary TM coach to get some decent wins.

Team didn't have good coach but squad was pretty strongl. I agree Parvin wasn't right choice but that team should done better than how they performed.

[Ararat Tehran]

Hi all,

Has anyone seen the following documentary on the history of Iranian football? I have posted the part regarding the 1993 world cup qualifiers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToaMy7cDKEA

A few interesting comments:

After the 2nd game against Japan, the backup goalkeepers were asked to take Gholampour's place and start the next match but they both said no!? Definately something was not right...seems like some players were purposely asked not to perform well.

There are comments that the goals conceded by Gholampour were the worst goals he had conceded in his career! and how is it possible that after the Doha qualifiers he never conceded such lousy goals.

Against South Korea we conceded 3 goals. In my opinion all 3 goals were Gholampour's fault.
Against Japan we conceded 1 goal, definitely Gholampour's fault and the worst goal ever conceded by Iran in its football history (thank you Gholampour).
Against Iraq we conceded 2 goals, 1st goal was Gholampour's fault, don't know about the 2nd.
Against North Korea we conceded 1 goal, again Gholampour at fault.
Against Saudi Arabia we conceded 4 goals, goals 1, 3 and 4 were Gholampour's fault.

The question that comes to mind is why would Daei use this goose as his goalkeeping coach?!

I found the full game of Iran and Saudi Arabia:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ix9VAYGjLlA&t=710s

And Iran v Japan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yt5nlE1PuTo&t=668s

Does anyone have Iran v South Korea or Iraq?

[KC McElroy]

The 1993 squad was simply not as good as it seemed. If you remember we passed the first round with very poor results against nobodys, tying Syria home and away and tying Oman at home and advancing only on goal difference. Parvin's insistence on using Persepolis players, some on the verge of retiring, the suspension of two of our key players who were in their prime (Pious and Moharrami) and Abedzadeh's injury all contributed to failure to develop a strong and gelled team. The lineup looks strong because it includes players that became very good in years to come but at that point they were young and inexperienced and thrown in the lineup in crucial matches before it was their time.