Passive Iran knocked out in extra time

PFDC – DOHA, Iran never managed to live up to the high expectations after a very successful 2011 Asian Cup group stage and were eliminated by South Korea in extra time of the last quarterfinal match on Saturday evening.

Afshin Ghotbi, in his last match as Iran coach, went for the defensive version of the 4-3-3 with three defensive minded midfielders – which turned out to be a fatal decision.

Korea Republic dominated the proceedings from the beginning and Iran didn’t only have extreme problems in the build-up, but also looked shaky in the back.

Yet the Koreans barely created clear cut chances and so the game remained goalless until halftime.

Second half started like the first had ended, however, Iran, with Khosro Heydari replacing Mohammad Nosrati as rightback after the break and Masoud Shojaei coming on for Karim Ansarifard later, got into the game better towards the end of regular time, also due to the opponent’s increasing fatigue.

Still Iran had trouble with the Korean pressing and barely ever showed a controlled build-up, instead Ghotbi’s men always looked like they would just be looking for a lucky punch. The midfielders and defenders too often operated with long passes and attempted throughballs which almost always were easily picked up by the defense.

The few times Iran’s counters looked to be dangerous, they were stopped by fouls, however, the Uzbek referee at times looked like he had left his cards at home.

Korea Republic amazingly made very little out of their domination, but this should change in stoppage time of the first half of injury time when substitute winger Bit Ga Ram got into possession on the right wing after a Javad Nekounam mistake, took a solo run to get away from his marker Pejman Nouri and smacked the ball into the lower left corner from the edge of the area.

Ghotbi unfortunatly still needed several minutes to react, finally bringing on striker Mohammad Gholami for the hardworking but uncreative central midfielder Pejman Nouri and indeed Iran now pushed Korea deep into their own half and created two good chances to equalize, however, they were wasted by Andranik Teymourian and Masoud Shojaei.

And so once more South Korea had the better end to a quarterfinal clash, while Iran, despite remaining unbeaten in regular time in Asian Cup for 23 games in a row now, failed to set their mark on this tournament.

Iran – South Korea 0-1 a.e.t. (0-0, 0-0)
2011 Asian Cup quarterfinal

Goal: 0-1 Bit Ga Ram (105’+2)

Iran: Rahmati – Nosrati (46′ Heydari), Aghili, Hosseini, Hajsafi – Teymourian, Nekounam, P. Nouri (109′ Gholami) – Rezaei, Ansarifard (75′ Shojaei), Khalatbari

Iranian players booked: Teymourian, Shojaei