Iran - Portugal , from MY point of view

[Doctor DOOM]

Before anything, let me say I didn’t expect us to defeat the Portuguese.
Yes, somewhere I hoped for a draw, shd we have a good game and them have one of their usual bad days.
And I am more satisfied with today’s game ( overall ) than mexico.

Mexico game was the one we had to pull all the stops and go for the win, coz it was within our grasp. But we lost to branko’s attitude and nature !

To bring things to such a desperate condition that needs us to defeat Portugal was … well … really really desperate and almost mission impossible.


player ratings ( IMO ):

mirzapoor 10/10 ( simply marvellous )

rezaei 9/10

yahya 3/10 ( shdnt have even started the game. )

nosrati 8/10 ( I'm so happy he made up for all his screw ups in the past year. )

kaabi 12/10 ( the extra 2 points are for the delicious kick in figo's face . he was the most fantastic and professional player we had)


nekounam 8/10

teymoorian 9/10

kia 7/10 ( just becoz I know he has much more to offer )

karimi 6/10

madanchi 7/10

VH 8/10

zandi 6/10 ( I would have liked to see Shoja'ee instead of him )

Khatibi 7/10

Sohrab didnt play all that long, so no scores. ( I would have liked to see him start instead of yahya )


==================


First issue : SHOOTING

I would have liked to see more shots by our team.

We do indeed have quite a few players who shoot well, nekounam, kia, madanchi, … ( daei, in the first game ) etc.
But we never made any use of this.
I don’t know why , and I really would like to know why.

When penetration looked a bit difficult, why didn’t the order for shooting come from the bench?
Afterall, isn’t that one of the routes to score ?

I am really disappointed in our shooting.

=========================

Second issue : Substitutions

Secondly, today , again branko made bad substitutions.
He started well, by playing madanchi instead of daei, which injected more pace to the team.
He shd have replaced yahya with sohrab in the starting 11, IMO.
But the line up was good, at least.

But comes the second half ( coaches’ half ), and he crumbles down again !!

Bad subbing really hurt us.

1- karimi’s name was enough to keep one or two defenders at bay on his side, even if he’s not fully fit.
Some would keep him, some would take him out.
But if we take out our sole “playmaker” , why don’t we bring in another playmaker ; Shoja’ee, who also adds to the pace and speed of the team?

Zandi was again pushed down the left, and he , as it is, isn’t a speedy player anyway.

So this subbing reduced the pace of the team, as well as freeing those defenders to join in the attack.
( the very same mistake of mexico game )


2- khatibi :
this was a good choice if we just consider the act of subbing.

But when we go back to the past 2 years, when branko resolutely refused to play any other forward in all those meaningless games, we see why some of us were angry.

Khatibi was a bundle of stress the moment he stepped in.
But imagine if we had used him or enayati or … in many of those games.
By now, they would have been more comfortable with the team and at least wouldn’t have been in such a hurry to do something !


3- sohrab’s subbing:
this was the most ridiculous one of all.
He shd have started sohrab instead of yahya from the beginning.
( yahya, apart from his goal, didn’t do much in mexico anyway )

But what exactly prompts a “coach” ( :rolleyes: ) to bring in a defender when he is losing 2-0 in his last chance to do something at the WC?
It’s beyond reason and sanity.

Sohrab was ordered to warm up from minutes 75 !!! which is just ridiculous, and a sign of branko’s wimpy nature.

======================


Third matter is : Physical fitness of TM.

We lost late in the second halves, partly becoz of branko’s limited intelligence and spineless nature.
Also becoz our players didn’t have a proper physical trainer.

And who do you think opposed having a physical trainer in the team?
Yes. Branko himself !!! ( note to yashar jan )

His insecurities was the bane of TM and was the reason we never realized our full potential !
He was insecure in the fact that many said his team needed a proper professional physical trainer. And he couldn’t take that.
So he refused.
He basically put his own fragile psyche before the good of TM !

( just like refusing to work with the WORLD CLASS football analyst, A. Ghotbi !!!! borne out of his insecurity and selfishness )

[khabalood]

well said

[yashar_fasihnia]

i dont wanna start another debate here, i agree to some of ur points, many of them infact, except a few.

but i just wanna reply to the "note to yashar jan" ;)

i always said physical fitness is our problem, and thats why we cant maintain possession, or use them when we have them. we can attack with many players!
however, fitness isnt solely branko's job, but also develops in the clubs and the leagues the players play in.
HOWEVER, yes, the national team should also stress on physical fitness and i always said, we lack physical fitness. infact, i kept mentioning the example where mansourian said in an interview that before worldcup98, ivic would make our players run 20 times around the field, but now, they run twice and they start complaning. this is exactly mansourian's words.
Please note that im not sure if mansourian was referring to TM running just 2 rounds or just in general, but for sure, it wasnt as many as ivic's era!

hopefully, our players like teymourian, kaabi, nekounam, rezai and even madanchi (maybe if he impresses in next match) will get offers from good teams and leagues and develop their fitness and professionalism!

[Doctor DOOM]

no, yashar jan, I agree , the nat coach's duty is not physical fitness .

but it IS his duty to make sure his team gets the best training possible, ... and that means he shd either push for, or if it doesnt strike his retarded brain, he shd at least agree with inclusion of a specialist physical trainer.

but retardation and rot has totally eaten away at any semblance of sense in branko's brain, as he put his own insecurities before the good of the team.

my note to you was to remind you "WHO" was at fault over our poor physical conditioning.
"who" refused to make use of this most basic, yet most important aspect of sports.

[Paradigm]

Dr. Doom jaan just about whatever you had said here over these past 6 months came out to be true. I wish people decide to listen to you more often. As for Branko, it is really time to move forward and pick a good coach to build up our team. I will be truly delighted to see him leave Iran and let someone else take the helm. We had enough for 4-5 years. Asian Cup is just a year away and time goes fast. I like to see Yahya and Daie retire and then I like to see Mobali back in. If Mobali was with us in Germany, he would have defenitely filled up the vacuum from subbing out Karimi and also returned a shot or two on target (we know he is capable of it).

[Ali Chicago]

DD Jaan,

I was looking at your marking of Iranian players and I think you were very generous. Except one pass by Yahya to Khatibi, cross by Kia and header of Hashemian and the one the Andranik hit the post Iran didn't have anything else, period.

I don't see how a performance like that deserve whole bunch of 8-9-10s from for Iranian players.

I suggest you watch the game couple of times when the whole emtional thing setteles down and then re-evaluate Iran's players performance afterward.

Ghorbanat Ali

[Dr.shark]

i dont wanna start another debate here, i agree to some of ur points, many of them infact, except a few.

but i just wanna reply to the "note to yashar jan" ;)

i always said physical fitness is our problem, and thats why we cant maintain possession, or use them when we have them. we can attack with many players!
however, fitness isnt solely branko's job, but also develops in the clubs and the leagues the players play in.
HOWEVER, yes, the national team should also stress on physical fitness and i always said, we lack physical fitness. infact, i kept mentioning the example where mansourian said in an interview that before worldcup98, ivic would make our players run 20 times around the field, but now, they run twice and they start complaning. this is exactly mansourian's words.
Please note that im not sure if mansourian was referring to TM running just 2 rounds or just in general, but for sure, it wasnt as many as ivic's era!

hopefully, our players like teymourian, kaabi, nekounam, rezai and even madanchi (maybe if he impresses in next match) will get offers from good teams and leagues and develop their fitness and professionalism!
you are right when you say physical fitness starts at the club level BUT when it come to picking payers it is branko's job as the head coach and he is the one that picked them and he is the one that said this is the best.
I wonder how he think that a player that has been injured and even on mach day can't play is more fit then some one like mobale,olade,borhane.......
and how barnko can come out and say one day that these injured players are fit and come out the next day and say these players are not fit???????
it is because of the fact that branko is the one picking that we can blame him and only him. barazil start with 3000 players and cuts it down to 200 and then it cuts it to it's line up did we even look at 50 players before we came up with these names do you think sending a injured line up is far better then a line up healthy players???????

[Dr.shark]

DD Jaan,

I was looking at your marking of Iranian players and I think you were very generous. Except one pass by Yahya to Khatibi, cross by Kia and header of Hashemian and the one the Andranik hit the post Iran didn't have anything else, period.

I don't see how a performance like that deserve whole bunch of 8-9-10s from for Iranian players.

I suggest you watch the game couple of times when the whole emtional thing setteles down and then re-evaluate Iran's players performance afterward.

Ghorbanat Ali
Ali jaan you seem to miss doctor doom's point. he gave those 8-9-10 not because he think they are that good he gave those high numbers because when you think of how they played in that game and how they play in all their other games you can see they changed. I was very happy to see nosrate shut my mouth with the game he had I never thought that even in my dreams I would ever see him play so good yet he did it. sure he was no kabbe but he was not the same nosrate same goes for merzapoor against portugal he played like a man that wanted to win for Iran but in all other games he plays like a 4 year old child in net. so the marks doctor doom gave I think were right on the money.
I would only change golmo from the 3 to 1.

[Doctor DOOM]

Dr. Doom jaan just about whatever you had said here over these past 6 months came out to be true. I wish people decide to listen to you more often.

thank you for your kind vote of confidence, paradigm jan.

I only wish I was proven wrong.
I would have been the happiest fan around to see how much I was proven wrong and how badly I judged branko and his influence on the team's performances.

I know many branko critics also would have given an arm to be proven wrong.

but when you go back and look at the series of events and the trend in performances by TM and branko, LOGIC dictated that we wont have an easy and comfortable WC.

this fate was written all over branko's miserable laj baazi, frightened approach, horrible selections and pathetic system from 2 years ago.

the only thing is some ppl "chose" to not see it and ignore it.
some others were just too optimistic and beleived in extraordinary miracles
and some , just plain naive and immature who fell for anything farangi and khareji ... be it the scum and trash , as long as it is foreign !!


=============

ali jan, just as Drshark jan mentioned, I took in a lot of factors when I rated the players.

factors such as injured and recouperating players like kia, VH and karimi.
or how demoralized they would be after the defeat by mexico, and how they picked themsleves up
or how much was expected from them, and how much they delivered
and .... .

[yashar_fasihnia]

you are right when you say physical fitness starts at the club level BUT when it come to picking payers it is branko's job as the head coach and he is the one that picked them and he is the one that said this is the best.
I wonder how he think that a player that has been injured and even on mach day can't play is more fit then some one like mobale,olade,borhane.......
and how barnko can come out and say one day that these injured players are fit and come out the next day and say these players are not fit???????
it is because of the fact that branko is the one picking that we can blame him and only him. barazil start with 3000 players and cuts it down to 200 and then it cuts it to it's line up did we even look at 50 players before we came up with these names do you think sending a injured line up is far better then a line up healthy players???????

azize man, u didnt get my point.
our fittest players, liek who teymourian? he wanst injured at all right? he was perfectly healthy!
HE ISNT FIT ENOUGH FOR THE WORLDCUP STAGE!
OUR WHOLE TEAMS STAMINA & PHYISCAL FITNESS WASNT ENOUGH FOR TM AND THATS THE MAJOR REASON WE DIDNT ACHIECE MUCH IN THIS WORLDCUP!

our only fit players who got good stmaina and phtysical strenght were all injured, hashemian, karimi, kia & zandi. so even they werent fit enough for the worldcup. SO WAT DO U EXPECT?

look at the koreans and the aussies? they ran their asses of against france and brazil! but iran didnt! u know why? not because they wanted to defend(unlike wat many naive people believe) but because they werent fit enough physically and they didnt have the stamina to run so much, to take part in attacks, counter attacks, turn overs, tackles AS A TEAM! our players didnt have the stamina to run and create spaces and play short passes with each other! so they had to resort to long balls or individual runs which resulted in turnovers and ultimately the cup!

branko, daei, mirzapour, nosrati didnt play a role as big as our stamina and fitness did!