[POLL] Which top national team, TM has the most chance to upset at the next WC?

[Keshwardoost]

Fun thread, speculating about these things is what its all about.. I pick England, dont know why but have a feeling the way they play fits us better than lets say france/italy/holland.. with CQ id be much more confident.
but with our recent defence under the last years i feel that we will be in big trouble against all these teams, when they come with speed and have better finishing qualities than bahrain/iraq.., maybe our free giveaway of chances will dissapear with more games and a longer more well prepared training camp, but well we will se what happens i guess.. just hoping for the best.

[Bi-honar]

No option for "all of the above"?!

[Iranianarsenal11]

They struggle against teams that park the bus. See Hungary

Yes they do.. I could see us getting an early lead like Hungary did against France, but with proper CQ defense we shut them out the rest of the game and win 1-0

[teammelli91]

This Iran team can upset any team at the World Cup. We just need to improve our defense and improve our defense without help from our wingers/strikers dropping back to defend. I’m okay with Shoja, for now. But Kanaani I’m worried about still. He’s inconsistent and makes too many unnecessary mistakes. We need a consistent duo CB who have played alongside one another for over 20-25 matches before the World Cup.

There is nothing this Team Melli can’t do at the World Cup. We all, I even crack joke about our bus at the World Cup. But let’s not forget Spain had their front 4 defending with their nuts in their box the last 20 minutes of the match. The post-match analysis teams worldwide were shocked why we didn’t play this way from the beginning. Well if we can implement a defensive gameplan where Sardar, Mehdi, the wingers and our CAM don’t have to drop back, we will see more from our team up front and threaten big teams.

I still remember the smirk on CQ’s face while sweat was dripping from Santos’ forehead when they drew Portugal out the ball for the World Cup. That was then and this is now. Iran under CQ proved to be a big pain in the ass. But they won’t know what to expect vs. Iran under Skocic. So let’s fix/touch up our defense!

[teammelli91]

And lastly, we have to fix/touch up our defense NOW. I’m a Persepolisi but I do not trust Kanani as a starting CB. Put Pouraliganji next to Shoja. Have them play the next 15 matches together. We need our back line to have a solid, defensively built foundation.

[Damavand]

I don’t trust Kanani either. He does make too many bonehead mistakes and was easily dribbled by Bashar in the 46th min which gave the Iraqis a dangerous opportunity to score. In fact when you look at that play it almost seems like he purposely gets out of Bashar’s way.

And let’s not forget it was him who initiated the brain freeze among the players against Japan which led to that disaster.

Pouraliganji or Hoseeini should become our regular starting CB again

[Sepehr9]

TM can pull an upset against all of them! I'd say Brazil would be the most difficult and Holland the easiest. Actually TM has a good chance against Holland regardless.

[peiman92]

Would love a rematch vs Argentina. I think we could beat them, with a lot of luck of course.

[naderb94]

Holland is the easiest for sure. This is arguably one of their weakest teams they've had.
France/Brazil are the hardest for sure.

Germany is one where I think we can pull off. They struggled a lot recently and even lost to teams like Macedonia.

[Nokhodi]

Any team that likes to play with the ball and loves possession - we could have a chance against them.
Teams that love to run at us and press, would hurt us very badly.

[khodam]

[POLL] Which top national team, TM has the most chance to upset at the next WC?

None. From individual players we are at par with mid level Teams. But from a tactical point and flow we are not at the same level as any of EU or SA teams.

In terms of speed and physical strength we are also behind all other continents except Oceania.

For the first time with CQ we had discipline in defense. But even with him consistent team flow did not exist against WC teams.

[Nokhodi]

None. From individual players we are at par with mid level Teams. But from a tactical point and flow we are not at the same level as any of EU or SA teams.
In terms of speed and physical strength we are also behind all other continents except Oceania.
For the first time with CQ we had discipline in defense. But even with him consistent team flow did not exist against WC teams.

I think in terms of physical strength we have made tremendous advancements.
Easily the strongest team physically in Asia, and even in World Cup 2018 we won the vast majority of the physical duels.
Speed of play is definitely a major weakness though. Even if we have fast players, we don't play fast as a team. Although football seems to be changing alot on this looking at Euro 2020.

[PSGman#19]

Fun thread, speculating about these things is what its all about.. I pick England, dont know why but have a feeling the way they play fits us better than lets say france/italy/holland.. with CQ id be much more confident.
but with our recent defence under the last years i feel that we will be in big trouble against all these teams, when they come with speed and have better finishing qualities than bahrain/iraq.., maybe our free giveaway of chances will dissapear with more games and a longer more well prepared training camp, but well we will se what happens i guess.. just hoping for the best.

Well..

[Tarsal Claw]

I don’t even want to vote. Still disgusted. We are regressing. F the regime. F the infrastructure. F the corruption. F bringing coaches back cause we have no other choices. F getting our hearts broken every 4 years. I want the feeling the South Koreans have right now. Our talent alone should’ve taken us to the next stage. We had close to full home field advantage. But you gotta let the players play. And the players gotta concentrate on the game when the whistle blows. All else is just an excuse. We couldn’t connect 2 passes against England. F all this. We need a MAJOR reset. The same old Shiite is not working Sunni. Try something drastically different. Here’s an idea, why don’t we play actual football? Get this defensive bs outta here.