FIFA U-17 World Cup 2017: Iran bank on defence against Germany’s strike force

The Indian Express – MARGAO, Iran have been one of Asia’s top teams for years now, and Chamanian says countries from this continent need to keep chipping away to find eventual success.

Abbas Chamanian comes from Mashhad, the city known for the revered Imam Reza shrine, the world’s largest mosque. Commonly believed to be the spiritual capital of Iran, the city boasts centuries of history, art and culture – and some of the country’s top poets, writers, craftsmen, musicians, and engineers.

Many regimes came and ruled and went from here – Arabs, Turks, Mongols and Afghans, each changing, adding to, tweaking the culture of the city on the ancient Silk Route. “It’s a holy city and it also learned from everyone,” the 54-year-old Chamanian opens. Just like football, and the Iran U 17 coach’s own journey in the sport.

“You pick what you like and can from every influence,” says the former physical education degree holder, who believed every passion needed to be formally learned, and his love for football since age 5 too needed honing.

“For me, I used to be a Johann Cryuff fan. But you don’t say no to knowledge. So now, I learn from Iran head coach Carlos Queiroz about the discipline, from Pep Guardiola the beauty of football, from Mourinho how to grit it out and struggle and from Klopp about the fast attack,” he adds excitedly of how open-source his subject is, lending itself to being universally interpreted. “I want Iran to play fast attacking football,” he says ahead of Iran’s crucial group game against Germany.

He might look like a mix of military drill master and a strict mathematics professor (his charges indeed don’t proceed to lunch or breakfast till he nods, and altogether don’t talk in the team bus as soon as he’s on board), but he’s a strategist at heart who loves nothing more than to plot ways to get the Asian giants to progress further than ever before. Not too deep into diagnostic football or the schmaltz of video analysis, he nevertheless watches a lot of games and stays up-to-date with all the literature of football. Having coached a variety of club sides in Iran, as well as earlier stints with the U 20 and U 17s, he reckons he can out-think most of his rival coaches.

“We have perfect plans to attack Germany,” he’d said with a twinkle in the eye, soon after explaining how his forwards and midfield had smartly used spaces between the big Guinean forwards to negate the physical advantage of the Africans whom they beat 3-1. The team has also bought into the idea that good tackling doesn’t need massive size – it just needs good tackling skills, even skills possessed by shorter wrestlers can come in handy, while finding gaps in both offense and defense.

Iran’s U 17s – almost the same team as the U16s last year in Goa’s AFC – play the high passing game. Though Mohammad Sharifi is the anointed star of the team, Chamanian insists that any of the defenders Shariati, Esmael Zadeh or midfielder Namdari or forward Sayyad as well as custodian Gholam Zadeh are good enough to make the senior team in a few years’ time – if not sooner.

Iran has relied recently on foreign born or reared ethnically Iranian players with Ashkan Dejageh – the former German U 21 player, being the latest. “We’ve spoken to everyone while preparing for Germany,” he says, smiling cryptically.

Strong backline

Germany might have gotten over their nerves since the start against Costa Rica but they will be up against an organised Iran defense, testing their goal scoring itch, which was frustrated by the south Americans. Jann-Fiete Arp and Elias Abouchabaka will be keen to get cracking after they failed to find the net and finish their moves.

The Iranian colts lost the Asian U 16 final to Iraq on penalties, and Chamanian says he had told his players that till full-time they had been level with their opponents. “At the U 17 stage, the biggest challenge is to prepare these guys mentally,” he says, not having known losses in his second stint, save the one to Iraq. “Almost 100 percent record, and it’s because of the discipline,” he said.

The Iranian team is not really spotted with cell-phones once they step out of their rooms, and Sharifi is said to sport maturity well beyond his years, and goof around only when everyone else falls quiet. “We stress that we are not just about one player. No one wins with one star player only,” he says.

Iran have been one of Asia’s top teams for years now, and Chamanian says countries from this continent need to keep chipping away to find eventual success.

“Our federation is disciplined, and our boys will keep improving. One day certainly an Asian team will be winners,” he stresses. “I can say India is on the right track – with a league and stadiums and facilities. We were like India at one stage, so it’s a graph,” he adds, pleading patience and persistence.

“Teamwork, discipline and improving individual skills, it’s not rocket science. But it’s a good journey,” he says. “Even today, Iran considers every team as a challenge. The lower ranked the teams, the greater the danger. So the guard’s never down – even in friendlies,” he says. The team had a 4-0 win in one such friendly against France in Spain, though Germany will be his biggest challenge in his second stint.

Football is big in Iran, and commensurately the players court fame and equal social responsibility. “Football is not separate from international politics. We can’t pretend they’re different,” he says with a smile – cryptic not for the first time. “Thankfully in Iran there’s support from the rulers,” he ends diplomatically.