Iran - South Korea game discussion

[Babak agha]

^If that question was directed at me, then yes, there's a difference. The way we played was hoping to exploit an accident, but with some lil changes we could force a win with the same formation. Just like Man City does.

[dvader6]

shouldnt there be a difference between forcing a win and exploiting an accident?
or should we always wait for rivals' mistakes to happen only?

[Babak agha]

The problem with our team is that we are both weak in defense and offense.
If we had decent strikers, I would agree with a 3 dmf in the middle. They would help out our main weakness which is defending. Plus, in a good day, we could control the midfield as well, which could lead to some good attacks.
However the lack of scoring ability might cost us some games in the future. What I think that really should change is replacing Hajsafi and maybe even Shojaei for Khalatbari.
I wouldn't change the 3 dmf for now, as it may end up in a really solid midfield. Plus all of the 3 midfielders have the ability to go in to the opponents 16 and score a goal. With some fast (thinking) strikers/wingers, this formation might end up in a really good one for us. That's why I'd like to give the edge to Khalatbari over Shojaei, who isn't a winger.

The most important thing in this line-up, is maybe the striker. He should be able to keep the ball, hustle and have somewhat good scoring abilities.
Actually this line-up is the same as Man City's line-up, with Tevez as a lone striker and two fast wingers on his side. Hope Gholami or Oladi can bring for us what Tevez brings for City.

[Keano]

^^^^
He has already beaten:

Bosnia's A team
Armenia's A team
China's A team (Missing 1-3 of their main players, but so did we)
S. Korea's A team

All of the above matches were away, not to mention that we almost beat Lazio in a somewhat decent performance not too long ago!

[kami_kakashi]

One thing that I think should be said is the fact that Ghotbi knows South Korea. He knew by packing the midfield and a delayed passing game you can easily shutdown Korea. The problem for me is that I still don't know if he can watch any opponent and figure out how to beat them. We don't need a coach that knows how to beat one team.

I am not a Ghotbi fan yet but he might be able to make a beliver out of me.

[zzgloo]

^ bahram jan, you had me agreeing with most, until you came up with the " ....we had any organized attacks......" bit
:

That was a mistake in writing..I corrected it !!

[Doctor DOOM]

^ bahram jan, you had me agreeing with most, until you came up with the " ....we had any organized attacks......" bit

lobbing the ball doesnt look very "organized" to me. certainly not imaginative or creative.
if you ask me, our attacks were "DEIMI" and ali-asghari actually. except a couple of occasions where we saw some nice passing between our mids and strikers. but that's about it! just a couple of occasions and no more

************
another thing I forgot to mention is despite what we want to portray, ghotbi had the most defensive mided approach with 3 def mids and then putting nosrati at RB ( instead of the more adventurous heidari ) which points towards ghotbi pretty much thinking about blocking the korean wings than actually attacking from our right side.

at the same time, I think ghotbi is still very vindictive as he still bears the grudge against ashjari, who is 10 times more compatible and capable as LB than hajsafi, and yet ghotbi just wont play him there!


it seems we are destined to see the influence of personal issues in TM and coaches using it as a tool to "fix" their enemies or those out of their favor... no matter who the coach is, or how "gentlemanly" he behaves!!!!








and btw, holy f**k, ... spain is 3-0 behind argentina only after 45 minutes!!!
bugger it all man!!

[zzgloo]

First half:
Second half :[/U][/B]

After watching the 2nd half, I must first say I am happy (sort of) that our defense didn’t buckle under that last 15-17 minutes of pressure by the Koreans. Yes, rahmati was called into action as well as a few more instances where their shots went wayward, but overall, we didn’t concede and that is good news.

But until this period, which is from minute 46-72/73, the game was a very scrappy football with lots of middle of the park sk!rmishes. nothing to write home about … except the two opportunities we got at minute 46 and the other shojaei shot. Both chances would have been more dangerous if they had taken a stronger strike at the ball.

Shojaei, very much like ghotbi, is a very lucky chap too. He had a very regular and quite forgettable game (like majority of his other TM games) except his goal. except this one instance, he was slow and in the second half, lost the ball on many occasions. Maybe if he wasn’t used on the left flank, he’d have been more efficient.
I really don’t know why ansarifard was brought out. It just doesn’t make sense as he wasn’t injured. Nor was he playing bad. So a very peculiar decision by ghotbi, who brought oladi who didn’t do half of what ansarifard did anyway!!!

Ando was very active, just like pejman. But again, having 3 defensive mids made the team very poor in creativity dept. . no wonder the team didn’t look very exciting going forward. The few chances we had were mere SPARKS rather than off rehearsed, coordinated moves.
Jalal hosseini did well on many occasions and actually prevented a goal in 1st half (don’t know how aware he was in that shot, though). So was nosrati on the right side. But we already knew this about nosrati that his best games are when he plays in the center or if not, then on the right side. His weakest performances were ALWAYS on the left side. So no surprises here.

TM still shows extremely poor in shooting and long rangers. And there seems no remedy for this basic foundation of football. What’s sad is that we have plenty of shooters like nekounam, nouri, … who CAN take shots, but don’t (due to some peculiar reason!)


Anyway, we got a win in south korea after so many years and lets hope we can build on this in asia cup, if we face the Koreans in quarters.

It is a feel great time,at this moment in PFDC,and every one has put its supporting cap on......
And indeed,it is not an easy job,to beat a very good World Cup team,at thier own home..........

But,Does that mean, we are a better team than South Korea ?

I do n't think so.......nor does it sound like you do either.......

.................................................. .................................................. .

To see it possitively.......We defended good, and the attacking style of South Korea,had forced us to a defensive posture..and we bent but did not break !,and we beat them in thier own home.

To see it objectively, IMHO.......
They presented a more organized ,faster football....

If one look at the high lights....from both sides.......Iranian TV..and Korean TV........

IRANIAN TV :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FR9moaACnJU&feature=player_embedded

Korean TV :

http://www.kfatv.com/vod.php?board=k...=view&b_no=141

We can conclude , ( other than thiers was high defenition digital piture ),.....The very few chances we did have was due to thier defensive mistakes ( Bad intersepted passes, which Shojaee,Ando,Noori,and Ansarifard benefited ).....we had no organized attacks.......,nor did we have any organized defense.


I have always been supporter of Ghotbi......and I think he has done great with situation at hand........,
But, Koreans in my opinion, are playing better football, and I do not believe any one coach ,could have changed this fact at this moment....and we need more time,and different footballing organization to catch up.

[Doctor DOOM]

I put up my second half observations in the original post.
didnt want to post it twice.

not a bad game, neither was it something to stand out in one's memory

[Martin-Reza]

You wrote exactly what I had in Mind !!
1- Nosrati , Rahmati were great.
2- Ghotbi,appeared to have out coached his Korean Counterpart.
3-Nekonam,and park ji-Sung,were both nutralized by opposite side coaching plans.
4- Rezaie,Ando were very efficient.
5- Hajsafi, is not a TM material.
6-Ansarifard,our center forward,proved to be psycologicaly weak. ( hopefuly he has learned his lesson).
7-Central defense is TM's weakest point.
8-TM got too much disoriented in the last 20 minutes under pressure,it was time for counterattacks.
.................................................. ...........................................
A Great and timely win.
.

Good points, I wouldn't say Hajsafi is not TM material, but he again had a poor performance. And the failure to produce any counter attacks in the final 30 mins of the game is a bit disappointing, yet our so much critisized defense did a pretty solid job under pressure.

As for first half (or actually first 60 minutes), I wouldn't say we dominated, but South Korea also didn't dominate. And as I mentioned, if you have the chance to watch the game again, look how cautiously South Korea played, Iran could have easily kept possession in defense as they barely attacked us in our own half. I think we were too offensive minded always trying to play the ball forward and often making mistakes in the build-up against the compact Koreans then which resulted in counter attacks. We were the gutsy team today, the Koreans played like an away team and looked happier with a 0-0 than us - and they were punished, although usually the more defensive team relying on counters has a slight advantage in football, so good job from our boys actually.

[Paradigm]

I would have liked to see Zeneyedpour instead of Hajsafi.... Is Madanchi still available too? Note also Mobali was not used perhaps because of his recent lack of form, hopefully with Meydavoudi back to team melli in the near future we will even have more striking options up front since Meydavoudi works very well in combination with R. Rezaie and K. Ansarifard.

[zzgloo]

Human Afazeli was correct to say : Nosrati,is the only player in IRAN,capable of playing in all defensive positions !

.................................................. ................................................

South Korea's game plan was obviously an offensive game plan....since at no time,they tried to calm the game down, or pass the ball from side to side...thier passes were all forward..with no waist of time.they started fast play from the first minute,and they even could have scored very early ......
this by itself,changes the nature of the game, and TM defense should be given more credit because of that.
Thier head coach through pre-game interviews had talked about attacks, and new era of youth and energy......yet, our players proved to be in better physical shape.

[maij]

I don't think the word "Dominated" has any place in that match.Neither of the teams managed to control the game , except for the last 15 minutes when the Koreans put intense pressure to equalize and there were some nervous moments , but thanks God that the Koreans were not wearing their shooting boots.

I am puzzled to why Ansarifard was subbed out in the 2nd half since he was subbed in as a replacement for Gholami who was injured ! I would be really interested to know the thoughts behind it from Mr. Ghotbi.

Using HajSafy as a left back is not really a good option. The youngster lacks some fundamental experiences and he has lost many balls (turnovers) which could have changed the results. I am sure Ghotbi noticed that and already has a plan change.

I have hardly been convinced by Nosrati and I have not seen much to change my opinion of him from that match.

I miss Hossein Kaebi

BTW: The way Park ji Sung dribbled Hosseini inside the box was truly embarrassing...it shows the difference in class between the two. On the other hand , if Shojaei had a bit more support , his dribbles would have yielded in better result.

[Doctor DOOM]

from what I read here (still havent been able to watch the 2nd half) it seems we took control of the game. is that it?
(although some kid in general forum actually claims we "dominated the 1st half" ... which rendered the rest of his views pretty unreliable )

ansarifard was taken out? why? did he get injured?
hope not. coz the lad holds much promise. although gholamin seems to be giving him a run for his money. nevertheless, these two are pretty promising and I hope they evolve by the time we play in AC

- did our masterful coach do anything about the left flank that was almost non-existent in 1st ?

- did we pull back ?
if yes, how did we do in counters?

[radin119]

The most important thing was that after 15-20 min the koreans barely had any chances and all of their passes were stopped right before the penalty area