Iran vs Qatar post game thread and players rating

[Ostad_Goosfand]

I have followed Team Melli since 1996 AC and when we played Australia in the playoff for the last wc spot for France 98 and had 90% antiklimax.

I just realised how RARE it is to feel real joy as a Team melli fan, 28 years and i can count the happy times on only one hand.

Ac 1996 = demolished Saudi 3-0 and South Korea 6-2 in the group and lost to Saudi in PK in the semis. Antiklimax

Wc 98= A brainfart Nakisa that cost us the Yugoslavia game that in the end cost us the r16 . Antiklimax ( the USA win was sweet tho).

Wcq 2002 campaign = Total heartbreak whit the best ever iranian team that chokes against Bahrain and loses 3-1 that sends us to playoff whit Ireland instead of directly to the Wc who knocks us out and we miss wc 2002 whit the best squad we ever had. Antiklimax

Asian cup 2004= Chokes in the semis against China after a amazing win over South Korea 4-3 in the quarterfinal. Antiklimax

Wc 2006= Total disaster whit on paper a competent team whit a bundesliga backbone. Antiklimax

Ac 2007= Choke against South Korea in PK in the quarterfinal. Antiklimax

Wcq 2010 campaign = Total disaster and ends up fourth in a group whit South Korea, North Korea, Saudi and UAE and missed Wc 2010. Antiklimax

Ac 2011= Choke against South Korea in quarterfinal in AET. Antiklimax

Wc 2014= Choke in the last minute and lose the game against Argentina and missed 3 golden chanses to score in the game and gets demolished by Bosnia in the do or die game . Antiklimax

Ac 2015= Chokes against Iraq on penalties in the quarterfinal. Antiklimax

Wc 2018= Taremi chokes and misses the golden chanse against portugal to send us to the r16. Antiklimax

Ac 2019 = Chokes against Japan and get demolished 3-0 in the semifinal.Antiklimax

Wc 2022= Gets demolished by England 6-2 and chokes against USA and loses 1-0 when we only needed a DRAW to go to the r16 för the first time ever. Antiklimax

Ac 2023= Chokes against Qatar in the semifinal 3-2 and pissed away the easiest semifinal and potential final in decades to lift the trophy after 48 years. ANTIKLIMAX!!

We need fundemental changes that only can come whit a new government that is willing to invest in things that will help us erase our poor unstable chokementality.

The other 10% joy is for example the japan win, morocco win , Australia win in playoff, very rare moments of joy.

I am again so emotionally drained , you think it will be easier whit time, but damn I was wrong 💔

my friend, you forgot 2000 Asian Cup. we had 1-0 lead, Daei mishit the clearance and korea equalized in stoppage time. then korea scored winner with golden goal in extra time

we are cursed and huge chokers. it is crazy how awful our history is

[Hosseini]

What do you guys do to get over the depression

Ive been nauseous and feeling sick all day

[Ostad_Goosfand]

What do you guys do to get over the depression

Ive been nauseous and feeling sick all day

i have been working, but even then. I just pretend the game didnt happen, even tho I am on on a forum posting about it. like USA game I just delete it from my mind until it fades. I've still neber seen highlights of the usa game, i simply refuse to watch it

in all honesty, i think its best to just accept we are cursed, and that is that. no looking forward to next AC (just makes me sick to think about it), or to think about next WC. Team melli will always lose in the end,sometimes maybe we have a nice win but it will always end with disappointment. after this AC, with this squad, I havejust accepted it

[Afat11]

my friend, you forgot 2000 Asian Cup. we had 1-0 lead, Daei mishit the clearance and korea equalized in stoppage time. then korea scored winner with golden goal in extra time

we are cursed and huge chokers. it is crazy how awful our history is

No curse, underfunding leads to problems at grassroots level, and no real leadership to grow the sport in the country. Our individual talent is apparent, we are among the top 2/3 most talented Asian teams individually, but we don't invest. If someone believed Pep Guardiola couldn't come to Iran for 1 year and win us an Asian Cup, I would very much disagree. Coaching and managing a team is a talent in itself, and the coach has a profound effect on the team's performance. I see a lot of people blaming Ramin, Hajsafi, Kanaani, etc., but today was not their fault. They were not set up to succeed, and the coach did not make any adjustments when Qatar started pushing back. A better coach would have adjusted and we would have won. Does anyone disagree with this? Iran has never really had a great coach, CQ was the closest, but I'd say he was good. Never was a world-beater, even when coaching bigger teams. With what we achieve with garbage coaching, I wonder what we'd be able to do with high quality coaching? It probably won't happen in my lifetime, but maybe my kids will see a prosperous and progressive Iran in all facets.

[Pouya]

First of all, I'm sorry for the loss. It really hurt. A couple of important observations from today's match without putting the blame on anyone:

1. Referee was more than fair. Our penalty should not have been given and Shoja's red card should've been a straight red from the moment he committed the foul. If it wasn't for VAR, referee wouldn't have given the red.
2. With all due respect to Omid Ebrahimi, this wasn't a match to bench Gholizadeh in full and leave Mohebbi who was our MVP last match.
3. Taremi choked but there were 2 clear chance he missed which can happen to anyone.. we hope that at his caliber it is only 1 chance out of 2 he would miss but let's give him a break.He can't be responsible for all of TM's failures.
4. Luck wasn't on our side. 1st and 3rd Qatari goals were given to them by some sort of a miracle. Without the penalty, we should've scored a couple of more goals.
5. Beiranvand has been very poor aside from saving penalties. He should have saved the first goal, and should have at least touched the ball on the 3rd goal given his long reach.
6. Ghalenoi's substitutions should have come earlier in the game and they were not reasonable. He was just inserting as many forwards as he could, not recognizing that we weren't playmaking at all (i.e. mohebbi, gholizadeh, etc.). The only other forward left to bring in was ansarifard but you can't play 3 - 2 - 4 and expect to score with a man down, when your 2 midfields are Ebrahimi and Omid...
7. Ghodos, poor guy, had a very poor game. His weak touches in first half weakened his confidence going into the second half.
8. This was the perfect opportunity and a ray of hope which was wasted.
9. I wish we won.... At this point, even if we tied the game the subs wouldn't have allowed us to win in extra time. We would have possibly gotten more goals conceded. Let's not duel on JB's post much...

Khaste nabashid to the boys. I was one of those people who lost passion for TM after last year's protests. Not blaming TM players but just lost my passion. My passion is back now and it hurts to support a team that is so inconsistent all the time. It's truly a roller coaster ride with this team and it hurts the fans the most.

[Rezzy]

this loss still hasn't hit me. still cant believe we threw this opportunity away

[Ostad_Goosfand]

First of all, I'm sorry for the loss. It really hurt. A couple of important observations from today's match without putting the blame on anyone:

1. Referee was more than fair. Our penalty should not have been given and Shoja's red card should've been a straight red from the moment he committed the foul. If it wasn't for VAR, referee wouldn't have given the red.
2. With all due respect to Omid Ebrahimi, this wasn't a match to bench Gholizadeh in full and leave Mohebbi who was our MVP last match.
3. Taremi choked but there were 2 clear chance he missed which can happen to anyone.. we hope that at his caliber it is only 1 chance out of 2 he would miss but let's give him a break.He can't be responsible for all of TM's failures.
4. Luck wasn't on our side. 1st and 3rd Qatari goals were given to them by some sort of a miracle. Without the penalty, we should've scored a couple of more goals.
5. Beiranvand has been very poor aside from saving penalties. He should have saved the first goal, and should have at least touched the ball on the 3rd goal given his long reach.
6. Ghalenoi's substitutions should have come earlier in the game and they were not reasonable. He was just inserting as many forwards as he could, not recognizing that we weren't playmaking at all (i.e. mohebbi, gholizadeh, etc.). The only other forward left to bring in was ansarifard but you can't play 3 - 2 - 4 and expect to score with a man down, when your 2 midfields are Ebrahimi and Omid...
7. Ghodos, poor guy, had a very poor game. His weak touches in first half weakened his confidence going into the second half.
8. This was the perfect opportunity and a ray of hope which was wasted.
9. I wish we won.... At this point, even if we tied the game the subs wouldn't have allowed us to win in extra time. We would have possibly gotten more goals conceded. Let's not duel on JB's post much...

Khaste nabashid to the boys. I was one of those people who lost passion for TM after last year's protests. Not blaming TM players but just lost my passion. My passion is back now and it hurts to support a team that is so inconsistent all the time. It's truly a roller coaster ride with this team and it hurts the fans the most.

i actually wonder if GN bring in Reza Asadi because if we score he can use him as CB in extra time. no idea. JB hitting post is going to haunt me forever

[ShiroKhorshid]

my friend, you forgot 2000 Asian Cup. we had 1-0 lead, Daei mishit the clearance and korea equalized in stoppage time. then korea scored winner with golden goal in extra time

we are cursed and huge chokers. it is crazy how awful our history is

Our 2000/2001 team was probably our most talented ever. Shame we didn't win the AC and even worse than that, failing to qualify for the 2002 WC, while tokhmy China and Saudi made it.

Just of the top of my head, remembering our 2002 qualifiers and how many legionaires we had, most of them either young or in their prime.

24 year old Mahdavikia at Hamburg, back then a top side featuring in the Champions League. 26/27 year old Minavand (ruhash shad) also regulary playing Champions League with Sturm. Hashemian 25 and regulary playing for Bochum. 26 year old Rezaei just transfered to Perugia, getting playing time in the worlds best league at that time.

Mansourian 29/30 at St. Pauli getting promoted to Bundesliga. 24 year old Yazdani a fixed player for Charleroi in Belgium. Bagheri still only 27 years old. Azizi around 29 but not always around due to childish behaviour. Daei around 32 and a little past his prime but still playing Bundesliga at Hertha.

Add to that young players like Karimi or Nekounam who would go on to become absoloute beasts few years later. Che teami bud, che morabbyi dashtim. Mirzakoor was a big liability though.

[FeLFeL]

Composure and consistency. We don't have that.

Let me put it it this way.

Qatar will play a similar level of football 4 times out 5. It may not be the best football, they may not have a player who can ever perform on a world elite level, but they know what they're comfortable with and what they can perform. They know their limits too and work to mitigate those. They don't surprise unless their opponent underperforms.

Iran on the other hand, has a very high capability. Iran is a team that as we're all very aware can put together a world class performance one game, and then lose any focus and completely s**t the bed the next game. That is what happened today.

Even with our players disappearing, wrong tactics, and elementary mistakes, we still were competitive. A TM that performed even at 50% capability today would have won. We didn't have that. Because Mitoma and Kubo were in our pockets last game, we think Afif can't do that.

So again, Lack of composure and consistency due to mental weakness.
Now I'm going to say something that is going to upset some here. Iran needs a new government. None of us here like the regime. Changing the regime and replacing it with a proper government (big ask, I know) would result in an improved economy, standard of life, personal freedoms,... but it won't change the football!

Why? Simply because our coping and problem solving skills (regardless of ideology) for most of us are way too hot and cold. Just look how we treat kids who make mistakes. Look how we sulk, or how we have the worst fights and then make up with gol o shirini the next day. That doesn't lead to people who can make good decisions under pressure consistently. It doesn't lead to stoicism in the face of adversity. It's a lot of hot air.
Even our players who have spent the vast majority of their careers in Europe can't really overcome these issues.


Until we fix that, we will have these failures at high pressure moments.

Good results in tough moments for us in football, as long as we're like this, will be nothing but exceptions to the rule.

GN: 5 - his starting line up was correct, however Qatar immediately changed their formation and GN didn't adjust. The tactics in the 2nd half (first 20 min) were absolutely correct. We then went to long ball football and that was wrong and rushed with so much time left.

Beiranvand - 4 - his positioning is off. I don't care about his distribution issues, that's part of the game when you build up, I can't stand that he is in the wrong place on weak shots so often.

Ramin - 5 - he was ok defensively but killed us on the offside, and his crosses were so poor. Unacceptable at this level. Would prefer he slowly be phased out thorugh qualifers.

Kanaani 5 - his legs are gone. He is too stationary and always backtracking when speedy players press.

Shoja - 7 - He was very good. Covering for Omid and Kanaani and others who were often out of position. Had no choice on the red.

Hajisaif - 5 - very poor. Wrong choice for a team that was going to run direct at him and use the wings. Another to be phased out through qualifiers.

Ebrahimi - 3 - Should not have been selected. Was very poor. Time to retire. Thank you Omid. Both goals were his fault.

Ezatollahi - 7 - had a couple of brain farts, but he was winning alot of balls, distributing well...

Saman - 5 - he was a 3 in the first half, and 7 in the 2nd half. So many chances wrecked in the first half because his touch disappeared.

Jahanbakhsh - 7.5. He was our MOTM. Composed. Would give him higher but his crosses were so bad. That shot that hit the post - that is the summary of Iranian football Still can help TM in the future.

Taremi - 3 - where were you man? So disappointing. However he should not have been subbed off. He has enough quality that one moment of brilliance would have gotten us an equalizer.

Azmoun - 6 - great goal, not serviced well.

Mohammadi - 7 - He was able to handle Afif better than his predecessor.
Mohebbi - 6.5 - wish he took his man on but he can't. At least he physically gave the Qataris a challenge.
Asadi/Moghanlou - no good. I get the plan was high balls, but these 2 were rendered useless because the quality of our crosses were so poor.


Look forward to the gradual rebuild. It is going to be a roller coaster probably. Be prepared for football similar to what we saw from 2008-2011.

TM broke our hearts again, but like an idiot, I'll continue to cheer for and support them.

Agreed on everything except "his starting line up was correct" - you said it yourself here Omid and Ehsan were not good selections so why should they be in the starting line up? You play your best 11 in a match like this, not necessarily your most experienced 11 which is what GN did.

We would have been better off with Milad and Mohebi on the left flank hustling from the get go just like the Japan game. GN didn't make any subs for 90+ mins against Japan with an "If it ain't broken, don't fix it" mentality" which worked, but then against Qatar, it's almost as if he thought Qatar were SO much slower than Japan that he didn't need to play his speedy players from the start.

In today's football, speed is one of the most (if not the most) important attributes in a player hence why the Alphonso Davies & Mbappe's of the world are so effective.

[Ahmad_DC]

Not sure what Biranvand did wrong to get a bad rating. The coach asked the team to pass the ball back to him so he can kick it long. Between that stupid concept and the long throws, I've seen enough of this coach. Talk about clueless. Anyone who has seen 5 minutes of the Qatar game knew that we need to tightly mark this Afif guy and double team him as soon as possible instead of dropping off and allowing to receive the ball. Faul him before he can do any damage. What was Hajsafi doing back in the lineup and why was he taking freekicks? He stood there frozen in place on the first goal and would not pressure Afif as he rolled the ball off for the shot.

[mf_doom]

The loss was devastating enough, but some of our players had to go and be sore losers. Starting shit with opposing fans. Embarrassing.

Learn to lose with dignity FFS.

As for match review:

Decent:
Sardar
AJ

OK:
Kanaani
Milad
GN (if we started with the 2nd half line up we would have won)

Bad:
Everyone else besides Beiro Taremi and Rezaeian


Absolute dog turd:
Taremi
Ramin
Beiro

COMPLETELY agree re Taremi. His interview had the tone of someone who just left the dentist not a guy who played garbage football in a huge match. He has never come across as well spoken but goddamit man give us something

For me this loss is worse than any of the WC, WCQ and AC defeats (except for maybe Bahrain). Why? Because we BELIEVED that this time would be different.

We won at penalties. We beat Japan. Taremi had extra rest. Qatar and jordan left. If you aren't gonna feel positive now, when should you?

Well, the answer is never. Never feel positive about TM. I will still follow this team but any important match from now on I will assume we will lose.

[Pishi_Rules]

What do you guys do to get over the depression

Ive been nauseous and feeling sick all day

I got the day off, been in bed crying with my cat, hardly slept. also have been writing my thoughts and reflecting, I will share later.. but as I was writing I was crying more and found it very healing ❤️🩹

[Pishi_Rules]

We can also atleast take some comfort in the fact that all the Asian powerhouses got eliminated early on too… we put on the best performance of them all. SK gave absolutely nothing.

[Nokhodi]

The loss was devastating enough, but some of our players had to go and be sore losers. Starting shit with opposing fans. Embarrassing.

Learn to lose with dignity FFS.

As for match review:

Decent:
Sardar
AJ

OK:
Kanaani
Milad
GN (if we started with the 2nd half line up we would have won)

Bad:
Everyone else besides Beiro Taremi and Rezaeian


Absolute dog turd:
Taremi
Ramin
Beiro

one Twitter account I follow said Qatari fans were attacking and insulting our fans all through the game.

[Pishi_Rules]

Ok The dreaded Curse continues. Our players simply do not have mentality to be a champion. They have not had it since before the DAMN revolution.

How could they dominate Japan and then play like absolute crap against a much weaker opponent.

I am sick and tired of this hearth ache.over and over and over..

Can I ask, what is it exactly that is making our mentality so weak so many years after the revolution at a team level; but not individually ?