A Realistic Look at Our Chances- How to Approach Group B

[Kian Persepolis]

beating Moroco will be harder than getting a draw versus Spain or Portugal

I feel like it will be a great match regardless of what happens though. They need to beat us almost as much as we need to beat them, so I doubt either team will just sit back and defend

[Hadi]

I feel like it will be a great match regardless of what happens though. They need to beat us almost as much as we need to beat them, so I doubt either team will just sit back and defend

yeah but i can bet with you that it will be us who will do the majority of defending and hope for chances on the counter

[KeonKish]

yeah but i can bet with you that it will be us who will do the majority of defending and hope for chances on the counter

But I feel like our team has changed and is much better at the transition into attack.

I’m sure we’ll have plenty of chances.


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[Surenas]

This is still one of the best posts I've seen in all of PFDC.. Take a bow bro... Top class analyzing.

Thx, German coaching acadamy strikes, you learn a lot in such academies
But for now, watching the Germany - Spain game, I'm afraid, Spain is soooo good, it hurts.

[Doctor DOOM]

Fact: this is one hell of a tough group. For every team in there, but particularly for us.
Fact: barring any extraordinary incidents, most probably Spain & Portugal will top and the other 2 will have to kill themselves for the 3rd.

These two facts we all know.

That actually makes our strategizing very easy. Can be written on the back of a postcard, in fact:
1- go all out, kill yourself and do whatever you can in the first game. I'm pretty sure the Moroccans also will have the same idea.
2- Play defensive/Counterattack against the other two, with speedy forwards (especially against their slow defenders)

Key element:
1- Physical preparedness and extreme fitness of every single player
2- Drills to maintain 100% focus till the final whistle



Had we been in a slightly weaker group, then strategy, when to apply our full force or when to let off or which game or ... would be more complicated. Here? it's rather straight forward.

[elnino99]

The more I think about it, the more uncertain I get.

I have zero expectations for the Spain game, as long as we don't embarrass ourselves. At the same time, I have every belief that we can go toe to toe with Portugal, but they have one of the greatest players to ever play the game that can single handedly change the outcome fo the match in one minute. We saw Messi do it with Argentian 4 years ago, and Ronaldo do it for his country vs. Egypt the other day.

At risk of sounding blackpillled and pessimistic, I'm thinking we could play the game of our life, defend like heroes, and then Ronaldo can come and ruin it all by one moment of brilliance like Messi did 4 years ago. I'll lose ZERO sleep if Ronaldo got a red card vs. Morocco, or got a bruised leg to miss the game vs. US.

Morocco, at least in current form, is stronger than the last 2 African teams we've played in WC both Angola and Nigeria. Fair to say, this is THE hardest world cup team melli group in modern era. Hope we rise to the occasion, that's all.

[DireStraits]

We are going to play like Iran Arg against Spain and Portogal. But against Morocco we go to win. I watched Iran Tunisia once again during weekend. I think that ref was cruel to us and
we could have won if he was fair.

[diz]

fatigue for game 2 and 3 will be a huge issue. Yes we have to give it all against Morocco, but if we have no gas in the tank left for either Spain or Portugal, then we’re in trouble.

[Kavian]

There is no magic in football.

The better team usually prevails, but sometime unexpected also happens in the field of football .. and not just by fluke but by reasons that can explained.

There is no doubt that Iran will face a formidable task in World Cup 2018. Morocco, Spain and Portugal, are all powerful teams, each with unique style and system of play which on the paper and on the field ahead of Iran by head and shoulder. No dispute there!

So, when you are faced with a situation like that, there are a couple of things you can do. One is to disillusion yourself that in some magical way you advance to the next stage by beating Spain or drawing Portugal or some other combination of that, when you haven't yet figured out who your defensive midfielder wold be, and the other is to be realistic and forget about score, winning, losing and advancing altogether, but focusing on doing your best and playing good football without fear or stress.

That is how Costa Rica did it in the last World Cup is case you wondered what happened. They didn't fear Italy or England. Iran needs to get out there and enjoy being there and play football .... real football. No parking the bus in front of the goal and failing to put together 3 healthy passes. And it is not like we can't do, we have the abilities, we just need to have the self confidence and trust that we can do ... Just like how our futsal team did it against Brazil.

[Sarbaze-Vatan]

Arsenal Head Coach Arsene Wenger analyzed our group. You can see what he thinks about our group.

[Lorestani]

He basically shows he knows shit about Iran. He only knows CQ, that's it.

[Leicester City]

He basically shows he knows shit about Iran. He only knows CQ, that's it.

He probably doesn't know Ghoddos plays for Iran, otherwise it'd be a different story.

[inarsenewetrust]

I mean thats pretty much the chance we have. If we do something it will be amazing.
But I think its good, everybody is under rating our offensive potential. Guys like Azmoun, Ghoddos, ARJ, Jahanbakhsh, Rezaei are of similar technical level to offensive players in morocco. Actually our forward line is stronger than theirs is. But they have a way stronger midfield. Defensively I think we are a similar level. In reality we are very close to morocco, the difference is they have more legionairres at higher quality teams.

[Paradigm]

Morocco Qualifying campaign

Against Gabon (FIFA ranking 93):
6-0 win at home
0-0 draw on road

Against Mali (FIFA ranking 71):
3-0 win at home
0-0 draw on road

Against Ivory Coast (FIFA ranking 61):
0-0 draw at home
2-0 win on road

Defensive team like Iran it seems like. But this compettion seems weak. I’m not very impressed by them. Especially since Yaya Toure and Drogba retired from Ivory Coast’s international team in 2015 and 2014 respectively.

Gabon and Mali? Let’s be honest. If we played friendlies against those two teams, 99% of people on this forum would be like “khak bar saremoon. What are these friendlies against shit teams??”

Any info on their recent friendlies?

[Azeem98]

Any info on their recent friendlies?

WON 2-1 against Serbia and 2-0 against Uzbekistan

Matches vs Ukraine, Slovakia and Estonia in May.