Iran vs. UAE March 20th WCQ Match Thread

[perspolis#1]

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

I dont think so the only player who got a yellow for us vs Kyrgyzstan last game was Ezatolahi

Right now Mohammadi, Kanaani, Jahanbakhsh, Ghaedi, Mohebi, Azmoun, Yousefi, Ezatolahi are sitting on yellow cards. One more and they are suspended.

Ie) if they get a yellow vs UAE suspended vs Uzbekistan

[diz]

[Super Shojaei]

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

It’s a big blow to the UAE if Shoja is suspended - he’s their star man , makes opportunities happen out of nothing

[perspolis#1]

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

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.sportsmole.co.uk/football/iran/world-cup/preview/preview-iran-vs-uae-prediction-team-news-lineups_568231.html

He served his suspension vs Kyrgyzstan

[Essi]

Would you please update with Time and date? I have sticked the post.

[diz]

^Done.

Thursday March 20 9am PST

[arj42]

Hamle hamle
team e iran
gol bezan
gol bezan
yalla ghahreman

[oracle]

Hamle hamle
team e iran
gol bezan
gol bezan
yalla ghahreman

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

[arj42]

Guys so as usual the games are being streamed for free on YouTube if you have VPN for Sweden. HOWEVER, when I was testing this today YouTube said “VPN detected please turn off VPN to watch this”. Does anyone have any tips or tricks to get past this? Never seen this before. Khak too sareshoon. Sweden also streaming Iran Asian cup for beach soccer for those who need additional dopamine

[oracle]

General had special surprise for tm players.
he invited an ex tm and his hc to talk to players about uae matches and give them SOME "FANI" ADVISE ON THE MATCH.

GENTLEMEN THE GUEST WAS
NO ONE BUT
"NASSER FERGUSON "
NASSER IBRAHIMI THAT is rumor to have alzimer as well.

GENERAL MAHBOOOOB E MAAAAAA

14 HOURS TILL SAL TAHVIL

[oracle]

for fans who attend the match
THEY WILL GET all kind of foods.
eftari food will be served before the match , and nazri food will be served after the match.

[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.

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[oracle]

why is cheshmi invited?

In general system when a team has a narrow lead
A "CLOSER " PLAYER is subbed in. That closer player is usually is a dmf.
we saw him using gorbani is that role and it was a disaster.
if a match is close 1 or 2 goal lead ROOZBEH CHESHMI with stadium pa playing (we will rock you ,baseball closers favorite song) will get subbed in to win tm the match.

[Pluto2000]

why is cheshmi invited?

In general system when a team has a narrow lead
A "CLOSER " PLAYER is subbed in. That closer player is usually is a dmf.
we saw him using gorbani is that role and it was a disaster.
if a match is close 1 or 2 goal lead ROOZBEH CHESHMI with stadium pa playing (we will rock you ,baseball closers favorite song) will get subbed in to win tm the match.

GN usually loves big beefy men, his favorite tactic is when we're down by a goal or two, he loves removing all of our forwards and wingers and replacing them all with DMs. Recall Uzbekistan WCQ R2, Syria AC, Qatar AC, Kyrg both games, NK, etc.

PGPL tactics at play...probably why our league leaders are now losing to Saudi 8th place.

Somebody here said his assistant coaches have been scouting PGPL for months, that sounds like the biggest lie I ever heard. I watch PGPL part time, and I can name 5 players that are currently better than some of the ones called up.

[webmaster]

why is cheshmi invited?

In general system when a team has a narrow lead
A "CLOSER " PLAYER is subbed in. That closer player is usually is a dmf.
we saw him using gorbani is that role and it was a disaster.
if a match is close 1 or 2 goal lead ROOZBEH CHESHMI with stadium pa playing (we will rock you ,baseball closers favorite song) will get subbed in to win tm the match.

General Refigh bazeh, team melli keh nist, maraseme aaemeh va ahle beiteh :-)