Iran vs. UAE March 20th WCQ Match Thread

[mbaizai]

There are reports of floods next week in Many areas including tehran next week when we play Uzbekistan. I hope we dont end up same as 2012 game if you recall.

[Nokhodi]

do we need 1 win to qualify or have to get points against Uzbekistan?

My understanding is 2 wins will guarantee qualification.
1 win is not enough (at least immediately)

[oracle]

do we need 1 win to qualify or have to get points against Uzbekistan?

Thinking loud
4 matches 12pt left

We have 16pt
Uae 10 Qatar 7

If we beat uae 19pt to 10pt 3 matches left gd tie breaker.
If we beat or tie Uzbekistan then uae can not catch us.
minimum 4pt will eliminate uae .
..
max qatar can gain is 12pt make them 19pt
so
4pt vs uae and Uzbekistan will eliminate qatar as well.

SO
4 PT WILL QUALIFY US 100%

[oracle]

There are reports of floods next week in Many areas including tehran next week when we play Uzbekistan. I hope we dont end up same as 2012 game if you recall.

Good Ole rahmati match

[Ardalan]

I am saving salavat post for Uzbekistan match . for sardar score beat Uzbekistan and officially go to the wc
no salvation need it for uae match.

Midonam ke be tarze tanz o shookhi migi, amma in rasme tokhmie arabi raa bendazim dar asghaaldooni.
Salavaat kaare arabhaast va ma in rasme maskhaare raa azeshoon vaam gereftim.
Allah o kooft o zahre maare Arabestane Saudi.

[oracle]

Midonam ke be tarze tanz o shookhi migi, amma in rasme tokhmie arabi raa bendazim dar asghaaldooni.
Salavaat kaare arabhaast va ma in rasme maskhaare raa azeshoon vaam gereftim.
Allah o kooft o zahre maare Arabestane Saudi.

Ma migim salavat befrest eshget bood befrest, eshget bood kooft befrest.
ma migim hail mary befrest ,eshget bood befrest,
eshget bood nafrest.
Yeki az dalayeli k keshvaremoon b ein rooz oftadeh, ineh ke ooni k harf az azadi mizaneh ,mikhad azadi bayan % az mardoom roo begireh.
ta yad nagirim be azadi Bayan ham digeh ehteram bazarim az ein bad tar ham khahad shood.
hala too iran tavagooee nist , vali oni k kharj az iraneh hast.

charshanbe soori khobi dashteh bashi agha ardalan.

[perspolis#1]

Analysis for the Iran-UAE game.

I sat down and watched their games from the PERSIAN Gulf cup as a basis for my analysis.


To start, I know there is concern over the Brazilians that they have naturalized to play for them. These our players that have played in UAE leagues for years. They are not at the level of the foreign players our clubs have to play in the Asian Champions League. I watched a couple and they have their own pros/cons. I won't spend much time talking about them. Our players, especially our UAE based ones are very familar with them and it will be a negligible difference to them. Do they have extra options off the bench, yes. Do they have to face risk playing them for the first time against Iran? Yes.




Formation:

UAE played a 4-2-3-1 which is different than the formation they were playing against us before(4-1-4-1). They have a deep lying playmaker in Yahia Nader and they slot another midfielder besides them to win the ball (either Tahnoon al Zaabi or Mackenzie Hunt). They have two wide players that they trust for width and for advancing the ball, that is Yahya Al Ghassani and Harib Abdallah Suhail. These two are their main runners and ball carriers. In the tournament they played Fabio Lima in the CAM role and Bruno de Oliviera or Caio Canedo as the striker in all 3 games. Their defense is a flat back 4 with their LB(Marcus Meloni) being the more attacking of the two.


Strategy:


Defensively--> From what I saw, their main defensive strategy is clogging up the middle and having whoever is closest to the ball press. They won't do a high press because they are scared their older Brazilian players get tired out. Instead they will start the press at the halfway line. Their strategy is to win the ball back and break to the wings for Al Ghassani or Harib Abdallah to carry it up. They have a Ivorian CB named Kouame Autonne who is like a Temu version of Eric Bailly: Very aggressive tackling, physically fast and strong GHOLCHOMAGH defender, not that good on the ball + clumsy.

When it comes to defending, they do not defend zonally and rely on their individual players ie) Tahnoon Al Zaabi/Yahia Nader/Meloni to make tackles. This means that any individual brilliance from our wingers or strikers could punish them heavily in 1v1 situations.

What I saw in their game vs Qatar was that Qatar was pressing them up high and it gave their defense a lot of problems because their two Brazilians were too slow to win long balls and UAE's defense does not have the best vision for sending those long balls. Their strategy from the defense was passing to the wings or hitting up the wings for Al Ghassani or Abdallah to chase. They are the ones with speed.



Offensively--> They are a counterattacking team that uses turnovers to convert into quick chances. As mentioned above, they want to get Al Ghassani or Harib Abdallah in 1v1 situations with the other team RB and LB in order to beat them with a dribble and move onto the goal and they hit it over the top of the other team to make it so. Fabio Lima and Bruno then slowly start moving toward the box to help with buildup play or to make themselves a target for a pass/cross. Important to note that both Al Ghassani and Harib Abdallah are able to cut on their inside foot and shoot it and can make cutbacks to the forwards. Fabio Lima and their Brazilians are also capable of this. It will be of incredible importance that GN sees this danger and gets his selection of LB/RB right. If he can kill off the threat on the wings, there is much less of a threat to our goal.

Some other points to consider is that another of their dribblers is Marcus Meloni their LB. He is their main freekick and corner taker. He also takes shots from outside and has scored/assisted a few of their goals this campaign so far. The GOOD NEWS is that from what I see he is SUSPENDED for the game against Iran due to a yellow in the North Korea tie and a yellow in the last game against Qatar. Should make our RBs job much easier. Their backup options are nowhere near as good.

Their only other weapon offensively is set pieces with the Ivorian. He is not a specialist in heading but he is a physical presence our bigger players will have to watch.

UAE's buildup play otherwise is quite slow. If we stop their overhead balls to their wingers their threat is very diminished.




Key players:



1) Yahya Al Ghassani---> Their LM/LW. This guy is fast and probably the most technical player on UAE. He likes to carry the ball up himself and then looks to shoot himself or cross into Canedo. Who we pick for RB will be very important. Not sure if GN will use Mohammadi as a RB again like he did vs Akram Afif or try one of Hardani/Yousefi.

2) Kouame Autonne--> UAE naturalized an Ivorian CB who is big,strong, and fast. I call him Temu Eric Bailly because he T plays VERY kharaki. He got a red card in the Persian Gulf cup for two stupid yellows. He is very clumsy so Taremi and Azmoun can definitely get to him with a quick interchange. A few times he lost track of a man behind him vs Kuwait and Qatar.

3) Marcus Meloni--> suspended tanks God

4) Harib Abdallah Suhail--> similar to Al Ghassani but on the Right.

5) Fabio Lima--> had a monster game against Qatar in the Qualifiers(4 goals). He is not fast but has a higher IQ for plays compared to the rest of their team and can do quick interchanges well.

6) Khalid Eisa--> Like I said last time. Arab goalkeepers tend to have masterclasses against us. Watch for one of those days.


Lineup changes:

We need to do something about Ezatolahi missing in the midfield. As UAE does not pose much of a physical threat height or strengthwise we can use our more technical players to control tempo in the middle and tire out their Brazilians that have to run. We should have players that don't give errant passes to prevent any quick counters for their wingers.

For the wings, our players should either be capable of keeping the ball/playmaking or getting behind and dribbling. I think a mix would be the best for us. I am ok with Mohebbi and Ghaedi on wings to pin their RB/LB back and force their wingers to help on defense. I would not be opposed to Jahanbakhsh or Gholizadeh either as they can give some deadly passes and help on defense.

The other part of the puzzle is who do you match them with on defense? For example, If our left side is something like Mohammadi and Ghaedi we might have a tough time defending/building up play down that side. Questions for GN to consider.



My keys to win for Iran:

1) Exploiting the gaps in UAE's midfield--> Many times if Fabio Lima got passed out of position there were openings for other teams to spread the ball wide to wingers or to take on their DM. Exploiting his lack of recovery pace will be crucial. If we have a solid game plan for breaking the press and spreading the ball wide we should be able to make plenty of opportunities.

2) Defensive structure---> We know their team uses long balls up the wings. That means we need to sort out any communication issues between our wingbacks and our CBs. If Mohammadi or Hardani get caught up the field and UAE's wingers are running at Kanaani or Shoja we are in a lot of trouble and at risk for red cards. If we eliminate that possibility, we are golden.

3) Aerial advantage--> Despite the Ivorian CB and one of their RBs, the rest of the team is basically between 5'6 and 5'10. They did naturalize Lucas Pimenta who is 6'2 but between him and Autonne's clumsiness I doubt UAE use both in this game. We have a significant aerial advantage especially with likes of Mohebi on top of Taremi/Azmoun. Their team does not look very good at defending set pieces as a team, they just rely on their Ivorian CB.

4) Taremi and Azmoun. Azmoun looks leaner than ever. If UAE tries a high line, Azmoun can break it with any good service from Mehdi and vice versa. Any quick 1-2 should work against this UAE defense.

5) Keep your heads---> If we are leading 1-0 or 2-0 or 5-0 the game is not over until the referee whistles. Avoid stupid mistakes and do not let them back into the game for any reason. Our mentality after this game will be very important going into the Uzbekistan game.

[oracle]

Analysis for the Iran-UAE game.

I sat down and watched their games from the PERSIAN Gulf cup as a basis for my analysis.


To start, I know there is concern over the Brazilians that they have naturalized to play for them. These our players that have played in UAE leagues for years. They are not at the level of the foreign players our clubs have to play in the Asian Champions League. I watched a couple and they have their own pros/cons. I won't spend much time talking about them. Our players, especially our UAE based ones are very familar with them and it will be a negligible difference to them. Do they have extra options off the bench, yes. Do they have to face risk playing them for the first time against Iran? Yes.




Formation:

UAE played a 4-2-3-1 which is different than the formation they were playing against us before(4-1-4-1). They have a deep lying playmaker in Yahia Nader and they slot another midfielder besides them to win the ball (either Tahnoon al Zaabi or Mackenzie Hunt). They have two wide players that they trust for width and for advancing the ball, that is Yahya Al Ghassani and Harib Abdallah Suhail. These two are their main runners and ball carriers. In the tournament they played Fabio Lima in the CAM role and Bruno de Oliviera or Caio Canedo as the striker in all 3 games. Their defense is a flat back 4 with their LB(Marcus Meloni) being the more attacking of the two.


Strategy:


Defensively--> From what I saw, their main defensive strategy is clogging up the middle and having whoever is closest to the ball press. They won't do a high press because they are scared their older Brazilian players get tired out. Instead they will start the press at the halfway line. Their strategy is to win the ball back and break to the wings for Al Ghassani or Harib Abdallah to carry it up. They have a Ivorian CB named Kouame Autonne who is like a Temu version of Eric Bailly: Very aggressive tackling, physically fast and strong GHOLCHOMAGH defender, not that good on the ball + clumsy.

When it comes to defending, they do not defend zonally and rely on their individual players ie) Tahnoon Al Zaabi/Yahia Nader/Meloni to make tackles. This means that any individual brilliance from our wingers or strikers could punish them heavily in 1v1 situations.

What I saw in their game vs Qatar was that Qatar was pressing them up high and it gave their defense a lot of problems because their two Brazilians were too slow to win long balls and UAE's defense does not have the best vision for sending those long balls. Their strategy from the defense was passing to the wings or hitting up the wings for Al Ghassani or Abdallah to chase. They are the ones with speed.



Offensively--> They are a counterattacking team that uses turnovers to convert into quick chances. As mentioned above, they want to get Al Ghassani or Harib Abdallah in 1v1 situations with the other team RB and LB in order to beat them with a dribble and move onto the goal and they hit it over the top of the other team to make it so. Fabio Lima and Bruno then slowly start moving toward the box to help with buildup play or to make themselves a target for a pass/cross. Important to note that both Al Ghassani and Harib Abdallah are able to cut on their inside foot and shoot it and can make cutbacks to the forwards. Fabio Lima and their Brazilians are also capable of this. It will be of incredible importance that GN sees this danger and gets his selection of LB/RB right. If he can kill off the threat on the wings, there is much less of a threat to our goal.

Some other points to consider is that another of their dribblers is Marcus Meloni their LB. He is their main freekick and corner taker. He also takes shots from outside and has scored/assisted a few of their goals this campaign so far. The GOOD NEWS is that from what I see he is SUSPENDED for the game against Iran due to a yellow in the North Korea tie and a yellow in the last game against Qatar. Should make our RBs job much easier. Their backup options are nowhere near as good.

Their only other weapon offensively is set pieces with the Ivorian. He is not a specialist in heading but he is a physical presence our bigger players will have to watch.

UAE's buildup play otherwise is quite slow. If we stop their overhead balls to their wingers their threat is very diminished.




Key players:



1) Yahya Al Ghassani---> Their LM/LW. This guy is fast and probably the most technical player on UAE. He likes to carry the ball up himself and then looks to shoot himself or cross into Canedo. Who we pick for RB will be very important. Not sure if GN will use Mohammadi as a RB again like he did vs Akram Afif or try one of Hardani/Yousefi.

2) Kouame Autonne--> UAE naturalized an Ivorian CB who is big,strong, and fast. I call him Temu Eric Bailly because he T plays VERY kharaki. He got a red card in the Persian Gulf cup for two stupid yellows. He is very clumsy so Taremi and Azmoun can definitely get to him with a quick interchange. A few times he lost track of a man behind him vs Kuwait and Qatar.

3) Marcus Meloni--> suspended tanks God

4) Harib Abdallah Suhail--> similar to Al Ghassani but on the Right.

5) Fabio Lima--> had a monster game against Qatar in the Qualifiers(4 goals). He is not fast but has a higher IQ for plays compared to the rest of their team and can do quick interchanges well.

6) Khalid Eisa--> Like I said last time. Arab goalkeepers tend to have masterclasses against us. Watch for one of those days.


Lineup changes:

We need to do something about Ezatolahi missing in the midfield. As UAE does not pose much of a physical threat height or strengthwise we can use our more technical players to control tempo in the middle and tire out their Brazilians that have to run. We should have players that don't give errant passes to prevent any quick counters for their wingers.

For the wings, our players should either be capable of keeping the ball/playmaking or getting behind and dribbling. I think a mix would be the best for us. I am ok with Mohebbi and Ghaedi on wings to pin their RB/LB back and force their wingers to help on defense. I would not be opposed to Jahanbakhsh or Gholizadeh either as they can give some deadly passes and help on defense.

The other part of the puzzle is who do you match them with on defense? For example, If our left side is something like Mohammadi and Ghaedi we might have a tough time defending/building up play down that side. Questions for GN to consider.



My keys to win for Iran:

1) Exploiting the gaps in UAE's midfield--> Many times if Fabio Lima got passed out of position there were openings for other teams to spread the ball wide to wingers or to take on their DM. Exploiting his lack of recovery pace will be crucial. If we have a solid game plan for breaking the press and spreading the ball wide we should be able to make plenty of opportunities.

2) Defensive structure---> We know their team uses long balls up the wings. That means we need to sort out any communication issues between our wingbacks and our CBs. If Mohammadi or Hardani get caught up the field and UAE's wingers are running at Kanaani or Shoja we are in a lot of trouble and at risk for red cards. If we eliminate that possibility, we are golden.

3) Aerial advantage--> Despite the Ivorian CB and one of their RBs, the rest of the team is basically between 5'6 and 5'10. They did naturalize Lucas Pimenta who is 6'2 but between him and Autonne's clumsiness I doubt UAE use both in this game. We have a significant aerial advantage especially with likes of Mohebi on top of Taremi/Azmoun. Their team does not look very good at defending set pieces as a team, they just rely on their Ivorian CB.

4) Taremi and Azmoun. Azmoun looks leaner than ever. If UAE tries a high line, Azmoun can break it with any good service from Mehdi and vice versa. Any quick 1-2 should work against this UAE defense.

5) Keep your heads---> If we are leading 1-0 or 2-0 or 5-0 the game is not over until the referee whistles. Avoid stupid mistakes and do not let them back into the game for any reason. Our mentality after this game will be very important going into the Uzbekistan game.

A soltani with extra kobideh is all yours for this post. Just screen shot save my offer to remind me.

DODORIDOOODOOOOO

IRAN

[oracle]

Everything pointing towards saeed starting both matches
thank god.

Uae hopes for 4 pt next 2 matches and Uzbekistan getting 1 pt to take over 2nd place.

[perspolis#1]

Everything pointing towards saeed starting both matches
thank god.

Uae hopes for 4 pt next 2 matches and Uzbekistan getting 1 pt to take over 2nd place.

If we beat UAE and NK tie Qatar and UAE its over.

[oracle]

this is how things will get interesting in this group.
group. If next 2 matches

Uzbekistan get 2pt
iran get 2pt
uae get 4 pt
Qatar 6Pt
6then standing look like this

Iran 18
Uzbekistan 15
Uae 14
Qatar 13

Or u want super interesting
Uzbekistan 2pt
iran 1pt
Uae 6pt
Qatar 6pt

Standing will be

Iran 17
uae 16
Uzbekistan 15
Qatar 13

IF TM GET LESS THAN 3PT WE WONT SEE GENERAL FOR THE LAST 2 MATCHES, CROWED WILL PROSECUTE AND HANG HIM @AZADI VS UZBEKISTAN .



CQ DONT HAVE A JOB AND IS ITCHING FOR A JOB.

[Pluto2000]

Shoja is banned from UAE start due to accumulation of yellow cards I believe...can someone confirm?

[Pluto2000]

Throwback to when Beiranvand was 22 and was a Naft Tehran player, I remember everyone gave CQ flack for playing him, even until right before the World Cup where he had that abysmal performance vs Turkey in 2018. Nevertheless, CQ believed in him and the guy proved himself.

I hope Ghalenoei finds his spine and gives our young players at least 45 minutes to play to prove themselves. if they perform badly then so be it, but I can already tell if we give Hosseinejad at least 1-2 games to play then we will never see the likes of Karimi/Ghoddos again! I haven't seen two kids hungrier than Shakouri and Hosseinejad at ages, they play with crazy passion

[diz]

Game will be broadcast by Draft Kings App in US, as will all the other AFC WC matches that day. HD, but no commentary

[oracle]

If we beat UAE and NK tie Qatar and UAE its over.

100% on paper not
since gd determines the tie breaker.