How Carlos Queiroz turned Iran into Asia’s best World Cup hope

[Ando Teymourian]

CQ is a good coach considering the 2nd qualification to the World Cup in a row and he put us back on the map with his disciplined and compact style of play. Kudo’s to him for being so passionate despite all difficulties within IFF.

But lets not forget that he made some huge tactical blunders which costed us important games like against namely Bosnia (strange defensive substitutions while needing to score) and Iraq (keep playing Hajsafi at LB).

Or on a side note the first WCQ 2014 final round game where he went with a 4-6-0 formation and put Karimi as a striker in Tashkent against Uzbekistan, getting dominated for 90 minutes and an Uzbeki goal luckily disallowed, very uninspiring for Asia’s best.

Those two games could have had a different outcome if he made the right decisions / approach IMO.

The less talented squad in 2014 is BS, Costa Rica had players all over 2nd even 3rd tier (Norwegian, Swedish) EU leagues and topped their group above Uruguay, Italy and England.

We need a R16 appearance or win the Asian Cup, given all the years CQ is leading the team and his familiarity with ours and Asian football. Anything less than Asian Cup win is unacceptable to be honest, especially since his salary is one of the best paid NT managers of the world.

Who calls those tactical blunders? Blunder is a pretty big word, it shouldn't be used when what you really mean is that they are not the tactics you would have liked to see.

Iran had to play like that against Bosnia - we weren't fit enough to be that attacking against Bosnia in the third match. Look what happened as soon as we slightly opened up in the second half - sure we scored, but Bosnia literally scored minutes later. There was no way we would last in a back or forth game like that.

Talent argument is not BS - You're Costa Rica argument is a rare outcome, not the norm. Of course we could argue why Iran couldn't be that rare outcome, but thats a different story. And I counted exactly 3 players in Sweden and Norway (correct me if I'm wrong) - doesn't seem like "all over". (dont forget our own Gucci came from 2nd div Belgium - we still would have taken him if he still played there in 2014).

The only case I slightly agree with you there is the Uzbek game - but now look how far back we are going. Literally the first game in the final round of the 2014 qualifiers. It was an experimental arrangement and clearly it didn't work (nor did CQ ever use it again).


It is so easy to say that only result X or victory Y will mean that CQ was successful. IMO that is a narrow mindset and completely ignores anything that he accomplished on the pitch.

People are so easily forgetting how we played a few years before CQ... Even the 2004-2007 team had some shocking performances against questionable opposition. Part of it is just football, things happen. But the bigger part of it is that a group of 11 - 16 very talented Iranians could not cooperate on the pitch and had 0 on field awareness. That falls purely on the coach. It is an easy thing to miss or take for granted when we are winning every game in Asia.

[RaginG Inferno]

We would likely have won AC15 but for Ben Williams.

Simply put, against any top Asian side, we are virtually guaranteed a win or, on a bad day, a draw. We've been undefeated in Asia for many years.

We had terrible preparation for WC14 when the sanctions were at their peak, so that really hurt our preparation. Ultimately, we should've held the World Cup finalist to a draw if we were given the penalty.

[Ando Teymourian]

We would likely have won AC15 but for Ben Williams.
Simply put, against any top Asian side, we are virtually guaranteed a win or, on a bad day, a draw. We've been undefeated in Asia for many years.
We had terrible preparation for WC14 when the sanctions were at their peak, so that really hurt our preparation. Ultimately, we should've held the World Cup finalist to a draw if we were given the penalty.

AC15 was ours for the taking, still hurts to think back at that one. The momentum, chemistry and team camaraderie were at their peak and we didn't fear anyone.

CQ might look back at his time here and AC15 could full well be the one that stings the most for him.

Of course the best revenge would be thumping everyone in AC2019 and bringing the hardware home!!!!

[Sly]

Dejagoh At his prime, Nekonam, Ando, Gucci, Haghighi at his prime, Masoud, Seyed Jalal... Yup, no talent at all.

I'm sorry but when CQ came to Iran, there was no Dejagah. There was no Gucci. Haghighi was playing in the second division of the Portuguese league.

He inherited the least talented TM of all times. We had Nekounam and a half ass Masoud (mostly playing as a sub) who were playing in Europe. That's all!

He was the one strengthening that talentless TM with the likes of Dejagah (whom until then was never invited to TM because of his tattoos) and Gucci. He was the one discovering the likes of Pooladi to become our best player in the WC.

Did he inherit the talents? No he didn't. he discovered/created them!

[PersianLegion]

CQ was the messiah who raised Iranian football from grave with his miracles, he is second coming of Jesus Christ. He is son of god! He is more Iranian than all of us. He love Iranians and money doesn't matter for him. He is in love with Iranian culture.