I think when it comes to football everyone is biased toward the first generation they became familiar with. But it's still true that the group of players that emerged in Iran during the 80's, especially the early to mid 80s, were the best we've ever had in their position. The reason for this is they spent their formative years in the 1970s. Which means to this day they are the only generation that grew up with systematic and even European training, something we didn't have before the 1970s and haven't had ever since. This is what makes that generation unique: they had been developed in a youth system that in that era only Iran had in the entire continent.
Where I disagree with KC is that I don't think the 85-90 generation were much better than the early 80s generation. They were better in some positions such as Left Back (Moharrami), Right Midfield (Namjoo Motlagh), Midfield General (Ghayeghran) but in every other position the 80-85 team had players that were just as good and even better. From what I've read in interviews even the veterans of that era consider the 1984 Asian Cup squad the most talented group Iran has produced.
At forward, Alidoosti had a similar record to Pious while playing for a less stacked team like Homa. Pious always benefited from playing with the best midfielders both at club and national level. We could have easily won the 84 cup if Alidoosti hadn't broken his leg in the first game against UAE while scoring the first goal.
On the wings, we had Nasser Mohammadkhani and Changiz who for my money are the best wingers we've ever had. Mohammadkhani was a faster version of Ali Karimi, and just look at that goal Changiz scored in 85! The guy was a damn genius.
In attacking midfield we had Derakhshan and Shahrokh Bayani, again as good as the best we've ever had in that area.
Panjali is considered by most our best CB ever. Even in goal we had Behrouz Soltani who the late Hejazi himself called our best keeper after the revolution. He wasn't necessarily better than Abedzadeh but easily just as good.
To refer to what I said earlier, Shahrokh Bayani used to train with Esteghlal's foreign coach one-on-one as a teenage kid back in the 70s. Today our youth are lucky if they get ANY professional coaching let alone a European one!
To add more perspective, with that 85-90 generation we beat Bangladesh at home 1-0 in 1989.
With the earlier generation, with a smaller budget and non-existent preparations at the height of the war, we beat them 5-0 away from home in 1984.
I have no doubt without the revolution and the disasters that followed, this team would have shocked the world in the 82 and 86 world cups. Against Asian opponents that 80-85 generation always looked like an adult team playing against U-20s. It was completely one-sided. They were just in a difference class talent-wise. Even when they lost they totally outclassed the other team and only lost by bad luck after blowing chance after chance. And this was in the middle of the war when the national team budget was around zero and most friendly matches were against our own 2nd division clubs.
Where I disagree with KC is that I don't think the 85-90 generation were much better than the early 80s generation. They were better in some positions such as Left Back (Moharrami), Right Midfield (Namjoo Motlagh), Midfield General (Ghayeghran) but in every other position the 80-85 team had players that were just as good and even better. From what I've read in interviews even the veterans of that era consider the 1984 Asian Cup squad the most talented group Iran has produced.
At forward, Alidoosti had a similar record to Pious while playing for a less stacked team like Homa. Pious always benefited from playing with the best midfielders both at club and national level. We could have easily won the 84 cup if Alidoosti hadn't broken his leg in the first game against UAE while scoring the first goal.
On the wings, we had Nasser Mohammadkhani and Changiz who for my money are the best wingers we've ever had. Mohammadkhani was a faster version of Ali Karimi, and just look at that goal Changiz scored in 85! The guy was a damn genius.
In attacking midfield we had Derakhshan and Shahrokh Bayani, again as good as the best we've ever had in that area.
Panjali is considered by most our best CB ever. Even in goal we had Behrouz Soltani who the late Hejazi himself called our best keeper after the revolution. He wasn't necessarily better than Abedzadeh but easily just as good.
To refer to what I said earlier, Shahrokh Bayani used to train with Esteghlal's foreign coach one-on-one as a teenage kid back in the 70s. Today our youth are lucky if they get ANY professional coaching let alone a European one!
To add more perspective, with that 85-90 generation we beat Bangladesh at home 1-0 in 1989.
With the earlier generation, with a smaller budget and non-existent preparations at the height of the war, we beat them 5-0 away from home in 1984.
I have no doubt without the revolution and the disasters that followed, this team would have shocked the world in the 82 and 86 world cups. Against Asian opponents that 80-85 generation always looked like an adult team playing against U-20s. It was completely one-sided. They were just in a difference class talent-wise. Even when they lost they totally outclassed the other team and only lost by bad luck after blowing chance after chance. And this was in the middle of the war when the national team budget was around zero and most friendly matches were against our own 2nd division clubs.
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