Ten reasons why Iran qualified for World Cup

Persianfootball.com – TEHRAN, Iran’s triumph in South Korea and the resulting World Cup qualification came at the end of a two-year qualifying campaign with many ups and downs. Persianfootball.com sums up ten major reasons why Iran prevailed, other than four years ago when Iran faced a bitter exit in the end.

Defense
Throughout his career, Carlos Queiroz was frequently confronted with the accusation of being too much of a defensive coach. There was quite some concern in Iran at the time of his appointment already that his approach would not fit the Iranian mentality. But Queiroz has done a splendid job in stabilizing Iran’s often shaky defense. After having conceded five goals in six matches in round 3, Iran by far had the best defense of all teams in the fourth and final round of AFC qualifiers, only allowing two goals in eight games, which undoubtedly was one of the keys to success.

Discipline
Tactical discipline is certainly nothing Iranian football is famous for, but things changed in the past years. The final match in South Korea showed almost perfect tactical discipline from the Iranians. Additionally, Queiroz accepted no egoistic and selfish behaviour. Mehdi Rahmati and Hadi Aghily were immediately removed after disciplinary incidents and, other than usual in Iranian football, not pardoned. The remaining players obviously got the message.

Esteghlal
Queiroz relied on mostly Persepolis Tehran players at the beginning of the final round, also because of Persepolis’ policy to buy as many current national team players as possible. But towards the end of the campaign, players from league champions and AFC Champions League quarter finalists Esteghlal built the main block of the team. With Montazeri, Sadeghi, Beikzadeh, Nekounam, Jabbari and Heydari, more than half of the team were Esteghlal players in the starting lineup in the recent wins against Qatar and South Korea.

Ghoochannejhad
The Mashad- born Standard Liege striker was the second Iranian living abroad to be added to the squad after Ashkan Dejagah in autumn 2012. There was some doubt in Iran about his possible impact, despite amazing club scoring statistics by Reza Ghoochannejhad. After two good but fruitless matches against South Korea and Uzbekistan, Ghoochannejhad went on to score five goals in as many appearances in 2013, three of them in the final three games, of which two were winning goals. Considering his three goals in his final two games for Standard this season, Ghoochannejhad scored six goals in five matches within the last month, proving his unique goal-getter qualities, something Team Melli has been lacking ever since the retirement of the legendary Ali Daei.

The Midfield
With skipper and “general” Javad Nekounam, fighter Andranik Teymourian and play-maker Mojtaba Jabbari Iran had a magical midfield in round 3 of World Cup qualifiers. However, due to Jabbari’s injury sustained in the opening match of round 4 in Tashkent, Iran’s midfield trio was torn apart until early 2013. During the defeat in Lebanon, also Andranik Teymourian had been missing. Jabbari’s return immediately inspired Iran to a 5-0 Asian Cup qualifying victory over Lebanon and certainly played an important role in the three consecutive wins in World Cup qualifying in June. In fact none of the six goals scored during those games came without direct involvement of at least one member of the trio.

Experience
The injection of youth has often been demanded and undoubtedly Iran is short of talent, especially in attack. But Queiroz had different plans. He mostly relied on older and more experienced players and those indeed kept their cool and perfectly executed his plans while the often youthful opposition paying a high price for their blunders.

Choi Kang-Hee
Iran’s success might not have been possible with a better and more honorable coach at helm of the South Korean national team. Collecting six points against one of their fiercest rivals in the end was decisive for Team Melli. Without Choi’s unnecessary ultra-offensive approaches in both matches, Iran would have had a much harder time scoring on their opposition. That the risky approach didn’t come out of sporting need for three points but due to personal anger of Choi, only makes the two defeats even more bitter for the brave Koreans. Of course also his insults and attacks against the whole of Iran certainly were the best motivation for Team Melli to fight for every inch on the field. In the end, trying to play God and deciding the fate of the other teams in the group instead of concentrating on his own duties almost cost South Korea direct qualification.

Away strength
Iran for years struggled in away matches. Four years ago, no single game on the road could be won in the final round of World Cup qualifying. But this time around, three out of four away games were won, only a shock defeat in Lebanon, where six key players were missing, prevented a perfect away record. Other than in recent years, Iran stopped trying to dominate the matches on the road, like they usually do in Azadi stadium, but almost completely relied on defending and a few counter attacks, which obviously payed off.

Match schedule
Other than four years ago, Iran was not forced to fly around half of the globe three times before their final decisive match. And other than in 2009, Iran didn’t have to play their final group game hours before their rivals’ clash, who then knew they both would benefit from a dull draw. Although Iran this time decided their own fate by winning in Seoul, the basic set of a fair framework certainly contributed to a fair outcome of the qualifying campaign. Especially the Koreans benefited from FIFA’s ruling this time – had Uzbekistan known they would need two goals more than they scored in the end in advance, things might have turned out much worse for Korea, just like it did for Iran four years ago.

Carlos Queiroz
Undoubtedly almost every of the mentioned issues is connected to the person of Carlos Queiroz. Beside his many qualities and vast experience, Queiroz also proved to know how to deal with the often challenging Iranian sports media, as well as the players. His decision to take Iran’s key players to one of the poorest quarters of Tehran to give autographs and have them play a game of football against some local children ahead of the final three qualifiers did not only give those kids one of the most joyful days in their lives, but also reminded the Iranian stars where they are coming from and who they are playing for. Not only Team Melli fought as if it would be about life and death in the following matches and booked a World Cup slot, also the players and staff decided to collectively donate their bonus payments to Iranian charity organizations.