Morroco - Iran POST MATCH DISCUSSION

[euphory]

i Think ghoddos did great since he was subbed, wasnt a lot but he did great, he might even play against spain ( unless amiri isnt fit ) amiri is the next ando! this guy ran 10.36 KM!

[mbaizai]

Guys i have few questions which i didnt find answers yet...
1. Whats wrong with sardar..is he injured? He looked amatuer player in that game with that waisted chance
2. ArJ was also nervous..come on dude ur top scorer in dutch league
3. What are we gonna do in front of spain?!!!! We played anti football in this game ..as much as im happy but we cant do that in front of spain..entire world will be watching

[val]

Morroco - Iran POST MATCH DISCUSSION

Post match article before it officially goes up...


Lady Luck: “From Russia with Love!”

2018 Years ago, three high-priests of the ancient Iranian religion of Zoroastrianism – more commonly known as the 3 Magi or the 3 wise men - are said to have witnessed an alignment of the stars that foretold the birth of a king.

Although no Magi - or wise men for that matter - were involved in the writing of PFDC’s exclusive article before Iran’s opening match, it did foretell of a serious alignment of the stars and the birth of a new period of luck for Team Melli and the “Group of Defying Odds”.

Before the start of the tournament, only the most optimistic Team Melli fans believed that Iran had the quality and talent to defeat Morocco, but after the announcement of a rather bizarre and confused line-up and a nightmare start for Iran, it was clear a victory would require some intervention by Lady Luck.

That intervention would be delivered at the oddest time and in the oddest manner… in the 5^th minute of injury time, Moroccan striker Aziz Bouhaddouz who had been substituted in the 77^th minute to find the back of Iran’s net and to break the stalemate, netted in a header but on the wrong side of the field!

A minute later the match was over, Iran had secured a dear victory and its first ever win in an opening match, second win of all time and back-to-back clean sheets in its last two openers, and Lady Luck had forever marked June 15^th as “Rooze Aziz” [meaning day of the dear] for Team Melli and its fans!

Team Melli also made history by becoming the first team since 1966 to score in a half of a World Cup match, oddly enough without having attempted a single shot! Consequently, Iran moved up 8 spots in the all-time World Cup table, jump-frogging rivals Saudi Arabia and Australia, as well as Senegal, Greece, Ukraine, Tunisia and Wales.

But it wasn’t until hours later that Lady Luck’s contribution and the significance of the numbers 5 and 1 – the minute in injury time when the 1 goal of the match was scored – aside from being the reverse of the date of the match (15), started to become clearer.

At the time of the draw for the qualifying rounds of this World Cup, Iran was 51^st in the FIFA rankings. Iran’s first victory came against Guam at the Azadi Stadium which is minutes east of the 51^st Meridian East, after a disastrous away start at the “Door to Hell” as popularized by PFDC three years ago.

But knowing how cynical some Team Melli fans can be, Lady Luck was not going to let her contribution to Iran’s victory go unnoticed or be marginalized and within 3 hours Cristiano Ronaldo had scored the 51^st hat-trick in World Cup history which was coincidentally - or not - the 51^st of his career!

With that intervention, Iran sit at the top of a World Cup group for the first time ever and just a win away from reaching the second round and breaking the curse of being the only 1 of the top 5 Asian teams not to have advanced beyond the first round!

And one cannot help but appreciate, that with all the sanctions and controversy surrounding Puma and Team Melli, maybe these manifestations of 51 are also Lady Luck’s cruel way of reminding the United States, a country with only 50 stars in its flag, that they fell one point short of reaching the World Cup, as she subtly whispers to Team Melli and its fans “from Russia with love”!

[emoji115] Best writer ever lived to post on any forum

Everyone we are very very very lucky to have such humble and talented fellow among us

Amazing stuff!!
For God’s sake, Someone change his username to Ba-Honar

[Persian-Pride87]

Stop using that bs term "anti-football". Defending masterfully and frustrating your opponent entirely is not "anti-football".

This term is used to discredit Iran by Moroccans. It should never ever be described by an Iranian to describe Iran's fantastic performance against Morocco who came into the match thinking they could run all over us.

Guys i have few questions which i didnt find answers yet...
1. Whats wrong with sardar..is he injured? He looked amatuer player in that game with that waisted chance
2. ArJ was also nervous..come on dude ur top scorer in dutch league
3. What are we gonna do in front of spain?!!!! We played anti football in this game ..as much as im happy but we cant do that in front of spain..entire world will be watching

[mbaizai]

Ok fine but we did kill the game..you didnt amswer my questions

[Bessos]

Post match article before it officially goes up...


Lady Luck: “From Russia with Love!”

2018 Years ago, three high-priests of the ancient Iranian religion of Zoroastrianism – more commonly known as the 3 Magi or the 3 wise men - are said to have witnessed an alignment of the stars that foretold the birth of a king.

Although no Magi - or wise men for that matter - were involved in the writing of PFDC’s exclusive article before Iran’s opening match, it did foretell of a serious alignment of the stars and the birth of a new period of luck for Team Melli and the “Group of Defying Odds”.

Before the start of the tournament, only the most optimistic Team Melli fans believed that Iran had the quality and talent to defeat Morocco, but after the announcement of a rather bizarre and confused line-up and a nightmare start for Iran, it was clear a victory would require some intervention by Lady Luck.

That intervention would be delivered at the oddest time and in the oddest manner… in the 5^th minute of injury time, Moroccan striker Aziz Bouhaddouz who had been substituted in the 77^th minute to find the back of Iran’s net and to break the stalemate, netted in a header but on the wrong side of the field!

A minute later the match was over, Iran had secured a dear victory and its first ever win in an opening match, second win of all time and back-to-back clean sheets in its last two openers, and Lady Luck had forever marked June 15^th as “Rooze Aziz” [meaning day of the dear] for Team Melli and its fans!

Team Melli also made history by becoming the first team since 1966 to score in a half of a World Cup match, oddly enough without having attempted a single shot! Consequently, Iran moved up 8 spots in the all-time World Cup table, jump-frogging rivals Saudi Arabia and Australia, as well as Senegal, Greece, Ukraine, Tunisia and Wales.

But it wasn’t until hours later that Lady Luck’s contribution and the significance of the numbers 5 and 1 – the minute in injury time when the 1 goal of the match was scored – aside from being the reverse of the date of the match (15), started to become clearer.

At the time of the draw for the qualifying rounds of this World Cup, Iran was 51^st in the FIFA rankings. Iran’s first victory came against Guam at the Azadi Stadium which is minutes east of the 51^st Meridian East, after a disastrous away start at the “Door to Hell” as popularized by PFDC three years ago.

But knowing how cynical some Team Melli fans can be, Lady Luck was not going to let her contribution to Iran’s victory go unnoticed or be marginalized and within 3 hours Cristiano Ronaldo had scored the 51^st hat-trick in World Cup history which was coincidentally - or not - the 51^st of his career!

With that intervention, Iran sit at the top of a World Cup group for the first time ever and just a win away from reaching the second round and breaking the curse of being the only 1 of the top 5 Asian teams not to have advanced beyond the first round!

And one cannot help but appreciate, that with all the sanctions and controversy surrounding Puma and Team Melli, maybe these manifestations of 51 are also Lady Luck’s cruel way of reminding the United States, a country with only 50 stars in its flag, that they fell one point short of reaching the World Cup, as she subtly whispers to Team Melli and its fans “from Russia with love”!

I'm speechless!!

[Amin_]

Happy that the hated domestic players like Beiranvand, Ebrahimi, Cheshmi, Amiri proved everyone here wrong by performing heroically on the biggest stage.

Just like Montazeri, Pooladi and co did in 2014.

Historic win for TM!

Don't forget Amir Hossein Sadeghi with his amazing performances against South Korea and also in the WC of course.

[inarsenewetrust]

Guys i have few questions which i didnt find answers yet...
1. Whats wrong with sardar..is he injured? He looked amatuer player in that game with that waisted chance
2. ArJ was also nervous..come on dude ur top scorer in dutch league
3. What are we gonna do in front of spain?!!!! We played anti football in this game ..as much as im happy but we cant do that in front of spain..entire world will be watching

you seem to not really know whats going on. I know many here are casual fans, but try to have deeper understanding of game before posting stuff. Sardar's linkup play was great, and he was really dangerous besides that missed chance which he rushed. He played the 96 mins and looked fitter than i have ever seen him. ARJ was not nervous, but was marginalized, Hakimi was on his ass throughout the match. And we did not play anti football, the manner in which we defended was so tactically impeccable, we had excellent chances on the counter attack that our legionairre stars failed to execute (all three of Sardar, Karim, ARJ), so many openings that should have been at minimum shots on goal. Maybe its just time for you not to worry too much or tell what we should or shouldnt do. CQ knows so much better than of us here, and he proved it again with this win. Lets trust him for the spain game instead of saying "Guys, we cant play anti football (whatever the fuck that means) vs spain, because people are watching". LOL

[Bessos]

[Parham10]

you seem to not really know whats going on. I know many here are casual fans, but try to have deeper understanding of game before posting stuff. Sardar's linkup play was great, and he was really dangerous besides that missed chance which he rushed. He played the 96 mins and looked fitter than i have ever seen him. ARJ was not nervous, but was marginalized, Hakimi was on his ass throughout the match. And we did not play anti football, the manner in which we defended was so tactically impeccable, we had excellent chances on the counter attack that our legionairre stars failed to execute (all three of Sardar, Karim, ARJ), so many openings that should have been at minimum shots on goal. Maybe its just time for you not to worry too much or tell what we should or shouldnt do. CQ knows so much better than of us here, and he proved it again with this win. Lets trust him for the spain game instead of saying "Guys, we cant play anti football (whatever the fuck that means) vs spain, because people are watching". LOL

this.

[Danoosh]

I remember the day we were all saying bad things about Cheshmi but damnnn... CHESHMI MOCHAKERIMMM🇮🇷🇮🇷❤

[mbaizai]

you seem to not really know whats going on. I know many here are casual fans, but try to have deeper understanding of game before posting stuff. Sardar's linkup play was great, and he was really dangerous besides that missed chance which he rushed. He played the 96 mins and looked fitter than i have ever seen him. ARJ was not nervous, but was marginalized, Hakimi was on his ass throughout the match. And we did not play anti football, the manner in which we defended was so tactically impeccable, we had excellent chances on the counter attack that our legionairre stars failed to execute (all three of Sardar, Karim, ARJ), so many openings that should have been at minimum shots on goal. Maybe its just time for you not to worry too much or tell what we should or shouldnt do. CQ knows so much better than of us here, and he proved it again with this win. Lets trust him for the spain game instead of saying "Guys, we cant play anti football (whatever the fuck that means) vs spain, because people are watching". LOL

Sorry mate but i was on my toes the entire match...i dont like us playin vdefensive games but i guess we have no other choice.

[zereshk-ali]

Amazing result, perfect tactical set up to start with and as usual his individual team coaching on defensive shape was superb and spot on and sorted out many of the positional errors we saw from some of the players we were criticising in friendlies. (Not sure why people are talking about 3-4-3 formation though)?

Pluses:
1. Tailoring the players used to the task was generally great yet again - several very talented Moroccan footballers were made to look ordinary. But I do have to say that although he gave us a little more ability in possession from the left Hajsafi was a liability at left back defensively. The ease with which Amrabat was beating him was worrying.

2. The form of the domestic players were amazing. I’ve always liked Cheshmi as a footballer, but CQ’s set up and coaching resulted in us not needing to be concerned about his lack of agility. Happy to see Ebrahimi proved me wrong - I think he’s a good player but wasn’t sure that he was capable at this level. He was more composed both in his harrying and in possession than the much more experienced players around him.

3. Rezaeian - have always liked how he tries to play out from the back. He’s an excellent football player and I think we can utilise his range of passing ability more in the coming games.

4. The first 20 minutes didn't lead to a mental collapse - which given how little WC experience we had on the pitch is a credit to them. They stuck at the task and eventually the game plan worked out.

My concerns:

1. I didn’t feel our tactics were reactive enough to how the game changed. This game developed in a very similar way to the Nigeria game at the last WC - once it was clear Morocco were running out of steam and ideas we were simply not good enough on the ball to take advantage of this. I think the subs were good, but didn’t come quickly enough and we should’ve changed the tactic and started pressing them higher up the pitch like we did in the qualifying and in some of the friendlies. Even when we weren’t pressing they were simply giving us the ball and it felt like we were happy with a draw in the opener again. Even though we obviously eventually scored, we have to acknowledge the fact that we did not have a single shot on target against a sloppy Morocco side in that second half. To not do so would be to overlook a major issue I think we have in big games when we need a result and will not allow us to improve going forward.

2. The nerves - I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and say I don’t think CQ tells them to go out and play this rushed and at times amateurish play on the ball. You can see him on the sidelines urging them to play it around at the back and calm the play. I understand the counter-attacking style is important and so sometimes the opposition are allowed to have the ball, but the supposedly more talented players like Azmoun, Jahanbaksh need to step up and be braver and do better in possession and in particular we all know Shojaei really needs to be less sloppy and give it earlier.

3. CQ needs to learn the mistake from the last WC and rotate the squad. I rate Amiri very highly, but we can’t rely on players to run and track like he does for 3 games. Mental fatigue as was as physical will take its toll but I’m concerned based on his reliability and willingness to run CQ will use him in all 3 games.

Lastly, just a point that some people on this forum seem to think that getting a result (specifically with this coach) means there is no room for criticism of tactics, selection or performances. Yes, he is more often than not tactically superb, but there were obvious points of concern that we need to acknowledge . It doesn’t make you any less of a TM fan for pointing these out.

Great result, now let's step up the performance to that next level, which we know we're more than capable of.

[Iran_19]

Wonder why Milad didn't start, hmmm!!

[KasraKhan]

Guys, I feel like Hajsafi's assist on Team Melli's goal is going unnoticed and being under-appreciated.

Hajsafi's assist is officially in the "Pantheon of Team Melli Assists" in modern history, along with:

1) Daei's peach assist for Azizi's goal vs. Australia for 98 WCQ

2) Javad Zarincheh's inch-perfect cross for Estili's goal vs USA in '98 WC

3) Daei's other peach assist for Kia's goal vs USA in '98 WC

4) Gucci's self-assist vs Korea to seal the qualification in '14 WCQ

Now, officially, we can add Hajsafi's assist for our greatest WC win and a major upset vs. Morocco.

I feel like PFDC, including myself, have somewhat glossed over Hajsafi's assist because it was an own goal, but make no mistake about it, we have Hajsafi to thank for that goal. His inch-perfect and perfectly-weighted cross put the Moroccan in a tough spot and forced him to make a decision that led to our goal. Next to that, Hajsafi also had a nice long-range free kick effort in the first half.

I know he's not great defensively (hi, Nokhodi), but there's no question that Hajsafi has matured into a very good midfielder for TM, and unarguably one of our most consistent players that CQ knows what he's going to get from day in and day out.

Thank you, Ehsan, for your professionalism and calm play. You have officially entered the "Pantheon of Team Melli Assists" with your beautiful cross.