Iran vs Spain [Post-match discssion]

[footballeirani]

Gutsy performance by Iran. I wish they believed in themselves from the start. Taremi should have put that ball on target.

Our legionnaires including Azmoun, Jahanbakhsh, and Ansarifard have not really done much thus far. Hope that changes in Portugal game.

Vahid Amiri's nutmeg was amazing. Still wish Taremi had found the target.

[krol]

I love hearing the foreign commentators praise our team the whole game, see well-known analysts applaud us on twitter, then come on an Eyerainian message board and read some of the genius commentary

If anyone at any point in this game was "embarrassed" by our performance, they need to find a hobby they can at least understand. We have some of the most ungrateful buzzkills on the planet.

This is just one of the foreign comments. From BBC Sports' Chris Sutton:

[OFFSIDE_1]

We need to study Ronaldo's goals vs Spain. He scored 3 and we scored none. Time to study.

maybe it's because they had a Ronaldo

[maniei]

That was not an offside.
Said was on the same height and not offside on the freekick. There was no contact from other players in the air. Maybe there was a slight hand contact, but that's not what the refs called. They called an offside from the freekick.

Isn't having a Spanish-American ref in your game against spain kind of the same as playing Arab teams with an Arab ref, or being grouped with Bosnia and getting a Serbian ref?
In the end of the day this was another Iran Argentina 2014, the type of the game was identical and Iran list due to robbery.

[peiman92]

If you are a truly neutral observer, you would say a fair result would be a draw!
Lucky deflection goal spain, unfortunate goal by Ezzatolahi getting called off!
First half Spain had NO CLEAR scroing chances! second hald also NO CLEAR scoring chances, while Iran had in second half clear scoring chances!
A draw would have been fair...
same story vs Yugoslavia 1998.
same story vs Argentina 2014!
and now Spain...

Until when are we going to play like this but never get any result? We should at least have had 7 points from the matches against Yugoslavia,Argentina and Spain. This is seriously killing me!

[Doctor DOOM]

Another World Cup, another heart-break for a valiant Team Melli.
Another respectable, hard fought master-plan that caught the world by surprise. The word that was wetting their mouths for a goal-fest with western TV commentators trying to upstage each other with the number of goal the World & Euro champs are going to score on Iran.
However, while the shock was evident in their faces at halftime at TM’s resolute tactical display, by the end of the game they all praised & admired our game, many of whom actually said Iran didn’t deserve to lose.

A lucky ricochet and an undeserved goal could never take away from TM’s brilliant display, be it when they were defending the 0-0 draw, or when fighting back to get the equalizer.
Plenty of admirable performances by every player. But I’m sure Beiranvand holds a special place in everyone’s mind. Next to him, Amiri’s tireless running, Ebrahimi’s & Ezzatollahi’s gladiatorial display, Ansarifard & Taromi’s near misses against a team worth more than 1.5 Billion dollars are great highlights for all TM fans for years to come. TM made all of us proud.




A few notes:
The game looked to have three distinct parts.
1st half which seemed to go as scripted by mastermind, CQ, with a few half looks by TM at Spanish goal.
2nd half which until the goal, which was looking slightly less imbalanced where Spaniards were getting frustrated.
And post-goal, where we came out of our shell and showed our attacking prowess, which put the world champs under immense pressure, scored an offside goal and almost scored two more. So much that spain looked rattled.


FIRST HALF:

Taromi missed a golden, once in a lifetime chance by behaving in most amateurish way possible.
He somehow finds himself behind the defense line, with the ball passed to him. He has the pace and space to attack the goal from the side of the box, with the closest defender at least 6-7 yards away . What does he do? Stands around and looks at the ref!!!!!
Any semi-intelligent player would continue to play on and attack. IF at all the ref calls it, at the worst case your approach or even shot will not count. But what if the ref doesn’t call it? You could get gifted with a golden chance at scoring a goal.
I’m not even bringing up the class of the opponent & the fact that the likes of him may never get a whiff at the Spanish goal ever in his lifetime again!
So to call that as a missed opportunity is a monumental understatement.


Amiri has been wonderful in both his offensive & defensive duties. And a constant threat to the Spanish.
Ezzatollahi has shown why he’s there in the starting line up. His break ups and interceptions, confidence with the ball and physical presence alongside the plucky & energetic Ebrahimi, has created a tough wall to crack.
Even those balls that slipped through the cracks, PAG and especially the birthday boy, Hosseini have been stellar and flawless in dealing with them.

The only complain (aside from Taromi’s foolish amateurish chance) is the grass-rolling and feigning severe injuries when there are simple taps or stomps. Not nice at all. I wish we could do it in a more professional manner, if we HAVE TO.

SECOND HALF:

Spain’s goal may have been karma, for the gift Morocco gave us. Would I trade that one for this? Would you? I don’t know.
Cant really hate on Rezaeian for this slight lapse in composure as he harried through his clearance. Just freak luck. Especially when he made up for this by selflessly sliding and blocking the ball that was going over our goal line later. I just cant help wonder what if he had angled his clearance or what if Ezzatollahi had blocked Iniesta’s pass or … ! Alas … .

But what I really enjoyed (aside from the heartbreak of that fluke goal) was when we opened up and attacked the world giant, with such gusto and determination that made them look hassled & shaken, with multiple occasions creating goal scoring threats that with slight luck, would have gone in. Ansarifard’s thunderous shot was fantastic and all it needed was a slight spin. Or Taromi’s header needed a slightly lower angle.
Gave me some clues to my long standing question on what would CQ’s team do when fallen behind. I think we did well, but still scoring goals is another matter and we’d have to work on that.




Seeing CQ’s line up and subs, I am inclined to believe he has big plans for the Portugal game and has strategized our campaign more on that game than today’s. JB, Ghodoos, RGN, and even maybe Dejagah may play a far more important role in that game. Whatever his plans are, I know I am excited and cant wait to shock Portugal.

[zereshk-ali]

Fellas...

First off, Azmoun had a thankless task up front today. He won a lot of aerial balls tossed up aimless towards him. There was little movement off his flicks from Taremi and Ansarifard, particularly first half.

Secondly, I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so. Amiri is a class player, both on and off the ball. The levels of abuse he gets on here is pathetic. Just because he's taking the space of your favourite legionnaire doesn't mean he is a bad player.

Thirdly, my biggest complaint with our tactics under CQ were on display here. Yet again we set up too deep from the start and invite too much pressure. That second half is exactly how we should've been all match. Those of you saying if we open up we would've got beaten 5-0 like Saudi... it's not an either or situation! By playing 15 yards higher up the pitch, we can apply a higher press and still be compact when we lose the ball. It made such a difference as we had an outlet to relieve pressure and make Spain wary of sending every man forward and still maintain a defensive shape once we lose the ball. We didn't get ripped opened up by Spain once we did so. We can't show Portugal that same amount of respect. They're really not that good.

[KasraKhan]

Ansarifard - toff. i cannot believe how many golden opportunities this guy is gonna waste for us

I agree with the rest of your post, but not that part, SVD jan.

You call Karim's thunderous shot a wasted opportunity? He pulled a snap volley out of no where that went inches wide. It wasn't even a chance, Karim created it.

I know he's playing out of position, but Karim has showed me so much this WC. He really has a heart of a lion and is far removed from his Cinderella days. Much praise Karim!

[OFFSIDE_1]

Fellas...
First off, Azmoun had a thankless task up front today. He won a lot of aerial balls tossed up aimless towards him. There was little movement off his flicks from Taremi and Ansarifard, particularly first half.
Secondly, I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so. Amiri is a class player, both on and off the ball. The levels of abuse he gets on here is pathetic. Just because he's taking the space of your favourite legionnaire doesn't mean he is a bad player.
Thirdly, my biggest complaint with our tactics under CQ were on display here. Yet again we set up too deep from the start and invite too much pressure. That second half is exactly how we should've been all match. Those of you saying if we open up we would've got beaten 5-0 like Saudi... it's not an either or situation! By playing 15 yards higher up the pitch, we can apply a higher press and still be compact when we lose the ball. It made such a difference as we had an outlet to relieve pressure and make Spain wary of sending every man forward and still maintain a defensive shape once we lose the ball. We didn't get ripped opened up by Spain once we did so. We can't show Portugal that same amount of respect. They're really not that good.

I've always defended Amiri's style of play. Never understood the hate for him. Never gives up, practically plays in every corner of the field.

as for our strategy, If only it were that easy ...You have to factor in the scoreline when you're watching teams play....... Spain sat back because they were up 1-0...Kinda like Morocco's constant attacks AFTER the Portugal goal. Spain needed a win today and had the score been 0-0, they would not have let up, and any attack by us would have left us wide open. Remember, Spain scored after the Ansarifard attack which opened up the middle of the pitch to them.

... Also, physically there is no way we could maintain that style of game for 90 minutes without getting destroyed

[Abtin]

Damn I'm proud of these guys!! Not a word to put on their gheyrat!!

[The Realist]

Real football pundits pour in the praise
Diego Costa gets luck of the bounce as Spain deny stubborn Iran
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.the...c-match-report

[ShiroKhorshid]

I really do believe that we can win against Portugal. Result is gonna be a 1:0 of course. Who is with me?

[vatanparast]

Don't expect an eliminated Morocco to put much challenge against Spain. It will be like us and Bosnia in 2014. Spain is all but gauranteed 5 pts had we drawn. We woulda had 4pts but they would be above us on GD and less bookings tie breaker even if we drew portugal. Portugal too would be on 5 and above us with a draw against them since they already have 4pts. Regardless today a win woulda done wonders. A draw meant we still had to beat Portugal. Still everything to play for. Must go for all out offense first.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

I disagree. morocco are like the Bosnia of 2014. Both already eliminated. we had to win but the early goal deflated us and we didn't have the quality upfront like we do now. This game the correctly disallowed goal deflated us. We can't expect morocco to beat Spain by 2 goals though. two big differences since last cup. We have much better quality upfront and the midfield. We didn't give up after getting scored on. We lost our spirit after the disallowed goal. We kept fighting but the disallowed goal really hurt their spirit. They still fought till the end but they weren't as confident. my two cents

[sarbaz]

I give a score of 8 or 9 to every single TM player.

There were all great today.

[zereshk-ali]

I've always defended Amiri's style of play. Never understood the hate for him. Never gives up, practically plays in every corner of the field.

as for our strategy, If only it were that easy ...You have to factor in the scoreline when you're watching teams play....... Spain sat back because they were up 1-0...Kinda like Morocco's constant attacks AFTER the Portugal goal. Spain needed a win today and had the score been 0-0, they would not have let up, and any attack by us would have left us wide open. Remember, Spain scored after the Ansarifard attack which opened up the middle of the pitch to them.

... Also, physically there is no way we could maintain that style of game for 90 minutes without getting destroyed

Perhaps physically it might've been beyond us to do that the whole match. But I also think there's the concept of resting on the ball. The mental fatigue of constantly defending at that level is enormous.

Also, we managed to do it for 35 mins perfectly well and we both know that they would have continued to defend that deep until the 85th minute if we were still 0-0. Even if we needed a win. We did the same against Nigeria last WC, and Morocco this WC. Ultimately, it's defeatist to be that respectful to the opposition. We are better than we clearly give ourselves credit for!

Finally, I also think Spain are not the type of team to sit back and be happy with a 1-0 win. I honestly think they were rattled by us rather than sitting back on purpose.