Iran - Bahrain (11 Oct 2011)

[KasraKhan]

True, he does have that magic spark that can turn a game around, but how often does it really come out? He has 2-3 bad games, and then 1 good game.

I think TM is really deep right now and we really don't need to waste a starting spot on such an inconsistent player. But again, I don't wanna question CQ

He only has two goals in TM with 42 caps. Nothing amazing at all.

[Hadi]

i disagree.

Khalatbari is extremely useful in TM. He is selfish and hot tempered but his magic in a moment or two can turn a game around.

Its up to the coach to make best use of him and train him to be as useful as possible.

[KasraKhan]

He had another awful game. Useless dribbles , ineffective passing and showtime acting. In fact he was disengaged from the team , that really did some good teamwork for a change , and this guy stuck like a sore thumb. I don't know how many more games we have to wait to see a half decent game by him. I would categorize him in the group of "Bi-Mokh" players that have adorned Team Melli through the years..

I agree and I came here to post the same thing about Khalatbari.

I think fans like him just because he can do a step-over dribble which pleases the eye. But if you look on a deeper level, he is somewhat of a black hole and is the only player on TM that I can label as selfish. Also, he is already 28 and getting up there in age. He will be 31 by the time WC2014 rolls around. I really want CQ to use Hajsafi at his natural post, but I'm in no position to doubt a professional's judgment on his craft.

I think Khalatbari's starting spot will be in jeopardy once Shojaei returns from injury.

[Hadi]

i would start both at manama. bring in Hadadifar for Jabari

[yashar_fasihnia]

the question is with the return of hadadifar, who will start, teymourian or hadadifar?

[Hadi]

I am pretty sure it was.

Just wait until the return leg and see how we play there. It is highly likely we end up with a draw at manama

[Paradigm]

I am not sure being a man down is necessarily the reason for Bahrain getting thrashed. I was just watching Brazil-Mexico game today and Brazil was a man down (Danny Alves was sent off) and a goal down, but still managed to beat Mexico 2-1 with two nice goals. (Brazil even saved a Mexico penalty kick.) Btw. do you think Shojaie will be useful to the current team?

[Adesor Vafaseya]

With no doubt Man of the Match was Ando, with one super goal, two assists and winning a red card against opponent. Still even without those moments, his presence in every corner and his performance give me enough reason to crown him.

indeed! same here!

Ando did a great job!!!

[Doctor DOOM]

1- I think with the return of karimi and hadadifar, we'd see more through passes from the middle, which would add an extra dimension to our attacks.
today, nekounam was supposed to do the distribution and frankly he wasnt up to the mark ... no matter how much we like him.

2- meydavoudi was subbed out becoz I think refs sometimes try to even things up if a red card is given. so I think more than milad's unprofessional push, it was the fact that he had a yellow and could have been the prime candidate for the second yellow.
so I think more than "teaching meydavoudi" , CQ subbed him out in order to prevent us losing a man sometime along the second half.


3- yes, khalatbari may have been selfish on a few occasions. He shd be straightened out and told to relax. maybe lay off high glucose drinks to calm himself down.
But I vehemently object to ppl who say he doesnt belong to the TM. he deserves it more than quite a few who get free rides to TM squads. the fact that we have someone who's nippy enough, pacey enough and skillful enough to ...(for lack of an equivalent english word) bepichooneh be ham (tie them in a knot?) the opponents' defenders with his quick feet is a great asset to any team. that is besides his great uses in counter-attacks.

4- I still say maybe if that red card was a yellow, maybe things wouldnt have been as rosey as now.
yes, we would have definitely won the game. but by this margin and with such ease? I doubt it.

[Hadi]

a pretty good match for us, although the whole flow of the match changed when the Bahraini player was red carded in the second minute. It was obvious that Bahrain had come to defend, and defend in numbers. And I am afraid they may have succeeded if their player had not made that stupid tackle.
Many have already pointed out the positives and I will not repeat them, so I will focus on the weaknesses that I saw:

it is easy to forget the weaknesses and negative points after a 6-0 win. Nevertheless, here they are (in my eyes):

-Our defensive line has made no improvement at all in play-making. Aghili and Hosseini still play from deep, their footwork is poor, they do not play close to midfield, they are slow, and they still like to play long direct balls into the opposing half. In today's modern football, the central defenders are the very first play makers, feeding the ball into space and/or quickly to the playmakers and midfielders. In our football, they keep ping-ponging the ball among themselves and then suddenly playing a long direct ball.

-I am sorry to say this, But Khosro Heydari just isnt TM material. He is OK when we play a weaker team but I wonder how he will survive both defensively and offensively when we play A class Asian sides. His only positive aspect is his crossing ability. He can't run with the ball well, he cant jump well, he cant finish well, he is not the fastest rocket in the world, and his defensive abilities are pretty weak.

-TM still lacks in offensive ideas. I admit, it is not easy to carve open a team who is defending with 10 men (or in this case 9), but we simply do not have the star quality to string quick passes, one twos, dribbles and off-ball runs and strike through the heart of the defense. We still get forced to the flanks and play long crosses from the sides, or as ever, we are superb on set pieces (corners, free kicks and throw-ins) and score from deadballs. Sure we scored 6 goals but more than half of them were from set pieces or long shots. We could never play good through passes, create one on ones or dribble their defense. Again I admit it is NOT EASY to do so when the other team is defending with layers upon layers but we need to be able to be more creative, quick and technical in the opposing box if we want to qualify to the World Cup.



Some sidenotes:

1) CQ won the hearts of fans indeed. He requested fans to turn up with white T-Shirt or white symbols and I think half of the fans did so. It was very smart of CQ to communicate directly with the fans and build a relationship. Now expect his name to be chanted in the stadium, just like how 'Branko Branko' was shouted during the 2006 campaign.

2)If I were CQ, I would have subbed Meydavoodi IMMEDIATELY after his stupid pushing incident. I can not believe how stupid and dumb this kid Meydavoodi is. Giving ref an excuse to retaliate with another red card while we had not even scored yet! I guess CQ did not want to destroy him and left the subbing until the half-time

3)This was the first time in a long time that our coach really had a hunger for goal. His subs were offensive and he kept encouraging players to go forward. A few instances when our players played slow and back-passes, you could obviously see on the TV camera that CQ was frustrated and fuming!

4)The pressure is now off of CQ and TM and I hope he tests more players and invites new and motivated faces and finds the prefect lineup for the later stages. Every foreign coach in Iran has found his talents. Ciro nurtured and introduced players like Nekonam, Rahman Rezaie, Mirzapor and Nikbakht. Branko gave life to players like Alavi, Badavi, Kameli, Kazemian, Kabi, Nosrati.
Now it is time to CQ to give us a few star players.

[Doctor DOOM]

Battering Bahrain, Iran finally exorcises a ghost

If the ghosts of the 2001 match in Manama were not exorcised by the 4-2 win in the Asian Cup 2004 or the 1-0 win that sealed Iran’s qualification for the 2006 world cup, then today’s 6-0 route certainly put it to a final rest.




In 2001 Iran lost to Bahrain under extremely suspicious and strange circumstances and ended up watching Bahrain players wave not their flag since they were already eliminated, but the flag of Saudi Arabia over their heads and rejoice as if it was them who had qualified with this win. That memory had remained with most Iranian fans and ever since this tie had carried a certain grudge match baggage that have seen plenty of rough and rash plays, scuffles and fights and generally bad blood between the two teams.

But today, Bahrain had nobody else to blame but their usual rough (and often unsportsmanlike) tactics for the disparity the faced for nearly the entire game. A rash two-footed lunge on the feet of Teymoorian saw the Bahraini defender see the (brave) Australian referee whip out the red card. From then on, it was smooth sailing for Iran and an up-hill battle for the Bahrainis.




An early goal within the first 20 minutes also made sure the Bahrain players would not resort to their usual time wasting tactics and they were forced to open up and come forward to get the equalizer. This played right into Iran’s hands as now they were allowed to play football in a more relaxed and open atmosphere. With some great performances from the likes of Jabbari, Teymoorian and Ghazi we exerted tremendous amount of pressure and eventually scored 3 goals and missed a few more by the halftime.



This was pretty much the same plot for the second half as Teymoorian scored the fourth goal soon. The goal that dropped the heads of the opponents and after this the Red team were only desperately waiting for the referee to blow the final whistle. But Iran was not done yet. With goals from substitutes Ansarifard and Rezaei they finished the match with half a dozen goals that made the 83,000-plus fans in the stadium jubilant and in festive mood.

Players that impressed were Mahini, who’s been blazing a trail in recent months in both club and national team. Teymoorian, who looked tireless and full of drive and energy. Jabbari, who made Karimi’s absence not felt and Ghazi, whose role as the big, strong center forward paid off very well. Ghazi’s duties resembled the old Daei who used his body strength and height to gain the upper hand in aerial balls, shield the ball well and feed the surging players from sides. This was a welcome addition to the usual Team Melli strategies as it brought in a British direct style of play into the team. Flanks and the wide players ruled the day as we had cross after cross raining in on the opponent box which caused much trouble for them.




Another positive was seeing the team attempt long rangers, most of which were either on target or whizzed by very close to the posts. Not to mention the best goal of the game, a thunderous 30+ yarder from Teymoorian.


But it is the final point that brings me joy. And that is to see Team Melli not retreat and retract as soon as it scores a goal or two. Until the dying seconds of the game our lads showed hungry and went looking for more and more goals. This is what has been missing in quite a few years in Team Melli as coach after coach, in continental and international games adopt an overly cautious side that often caused the team to suffer loss of precious points as they either exchanged wins with draws or in some cases, a defeat. But today I saw the hunger not only in the faces and movement of the players, but also in the face of the coach. And this gives me hope.




Scorers: jalal Hosseini, Mojtaba Jabbari, Hadi Aghili, Andranik Teymoorian, Karim Ansarifard and Gholamreza Rezaei.

[maij]

^ Again good points. Khalatbari is not in his prime.

Since you are resting and I am still restless to say:

I wanna kill this Mirzaei guy with his stupid comments on players. can you please stick to the SIMPLE REPORTING and shut up of being cool?

akheish, I am cooled off too.

Cheers,

Khoob...hala ke joftomoon Khalish kardim , pas...Shab Be Khair

[Hajagha]

^ Again good points. Khalatbari is not in his prime.

Since you are resting and I am still restless to say:

I wanna kill this Mirzaei guy with his stupid comments on players. can you please stick to the SIMPLE REPORTING and shut up of being cool?

akheish, I am cooled off too.

Cheers,

[maij]

^ Good observation Majid jan, let me add a few too.

CQ won the heart of the fans. They like him and listen to him.

Mahini goes far if he keeps the same trend.

Pooladi gets better and better.

Milad gets CQ attention even he is not 100% yet. Still, he gets benched to learn how to behave.

Cheers,

Thanks Reza Jan , and spot on with Milad's benching. Although , I cannot swear to it , but I strongly believe that Meydavoudy was subbed out because of that silly push that got him booked.

This type of acts by Milad and to certain extent , Ando's foul , dose not belong to a World Cup Qualifying game football match. Nor is it anywhere near professional. This is more like the stuff of children playgrounds , when kids shove each other and end up in a fight or something. Team Melli definitely does not need that.

I have been an admirer of this Bushehri player , Mahini , since he was in the U 23 or the Olympic team. Really a sharp player who is quite good defending and attacking. With a coach like CQ , he can only develop to a better player. He is also level headed and I can't recall him getting silly cards or getting in trouble.

I would not rest tonight unless I comment on Khalatbary.



He had another awful game. Useless dribbles , ineffective passing and showtime acting. In fact he was disengaged from the team , that really did some good teamwork for a change , and this guy stuck like a sore thumb. I don't know how many more games we have to wait to see a half decent game by him. I would categorize him in the group of "Bi-Mokh" players that have adorned Team Melli through the years.
There was quite a few of them too , the last famous one was Madanchi

I have always admired GR Rezaei though and so glad that he eventually scored. Bless him.

[Babak agha]

Good game by Iran and especially by Ando. Although he really got a stupid card. He's becoming more and more improtant and his set pieces are a very important factor of our game. Eventhough Jabbari had an Ok game, I think we still need Karimi as our CAM.
Meydavoudi shouldn't be placed on the wing, he's more a CF/ST, however it wasn't entirely his fault that his influence on the game was marginal, he mainly got hopeless balls from Neku and Jabbari.
Ghazi showed that he can help TM with his physical and aerial abilities. For his size he's suprisingly agile, although he wasn't lucky with his actions today, but I think he can improve.

Overall we did good and finally there's some structure in our game. Players don't seem clueless anymore and play with a plan. Good job by Qz so far and with the addition of players like Karimi, Shojaei and Dejaghah there might be some good times ahead of us.