Iran’s Journey to Russia Starts at the “Door to Hell”

[perspolis#1]

All former Soviet Union teams know how to defend well except Tajikistan and Azerbaijan teams. It is in their blood specially if their coach is Russian or grow up in Soviet style of football.

Kazakhstan? Kyrgyzstan? Armenia?

I think Turkmenistan will defend and defend and they will possibly be physically equal to us. Other than that our passing will be better as well as technique. We juat need to avoid stupid mistakes and it should be a win. Uzbekistan was by far a harder test.

[PersianLegion]

All former Soviet Union teams know how to defend well except Tajikistan and Azerbaijan teams. It is in their blood specially if their coach is Russian or grow up in Soviet style of football.

We don't need A team but we need good striker and finisher to score goals. Cracking a soviet style team is not necessary easy to experiment new players. We need a win from this match so I guess first half we should use our good MFs and strikers to score up to 4 goals and in second half change our first choice striker and MFs.

[teammelli91]

After reading this article for the second time, I've come to the conclusion that Turkmenistan will defend with their balls lol.

Having said that, I change my mind and think it would be best to start the A team next week.

[PersianLegion]

I hope this criticism does not cause any hard feeling. I just give my honest opinion.

Poor article trying to picture a simple match to war of nations. The wrong reference to Iran and Turkmenistan as successors to Iran and Turan is also another failure. Giving too much unnecessary hype over a stupid game.

Historical correction note: Turan as many turks make mistake was not land of Turks but Iranian speaking nomads and non Zoroastrians who lived on steppes of Central Asia and had battles with us in legendary times. Later Pan Turanian (early Hungarians and and some Turks from Turkey) and Pan Turks build up on the idea since Turks later occupied that region. Similarity of the word Turan and Turk gave them more excuses. Turan is simply refer to Tur who was older brother of Iraj who ruled over Iran. Tur, Salm and Iraj were sons of Fereydun the legendary king of Iran in Shahnameh. Even Firdusi in 11 century was somehow confused about word Turan and Turkic occupied Central Asia in some degree. Read the actual sources for Shahnameh and Zoroastrian sources for this.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turan

Anyway the former name of a club can be simply a coincidence because that stadium is the newly built Turkmen arena and it shows they want to take full host advantage by getting a draw from us. They know if the match was in Eshgh Abad, many Iranians could go there since it is not far from Iranian border. India did the same thing they only moved Iran and Oman match to Bangalore because of humidity and hoping for rain fill the pitch so we can not control the ball while they are used to this type of game.

I hope you do not think I consider myself a know it all type of person. It happened that I have a pretty strong background in Iranian history and Shahnameh (I read it all when I was 8). Once I was a super nationalist but not dumb I used to chew books for food! Football, Books, and experiment were my passion as kid.

[Farhad-7]

nice article. are you really 43?

[teammelli91]

Wow! Very nice article.

[TheBoss]

Hopefully we will smash them. Thanks for the article, Bi-honar

[diz]

Great writing, nice work. Never, heard of the "Door to Hell", but it's an amazing (and awe-inspiring) geological formation.

[perspolis#1]

Very well written. We are getting a Turkmenistan that will be demotivated after their loss against Guam. Possession and smarts could have us win handily. There are 18 games we play that will determine if we are in WC2018. Lets start strong.

[Bi-honar]

By the way, here's a picture of the Door to Hell and further reading on it if you find the whole thing interesting albeit freaky!

[Bi-honar]

Iran’s Journey to Russia Starts at the “Door to Hell”

Behrou G.
June 12th, 2015
PFDC Forums


Iranian fans have barely had time to recover from the bad officiating that led to their 1-0 loss to Argentina in the 2014 World Cup and a heartbreaking loss to Iraq in the 2015 Asian Cup quarterfinals.

Gruelling negotiations between the football federation of the country and the national team coach, Carlos Queiroz, kept the fans at the edge of their seats for months in between those two competitions and after the conclusion of the Asian Cup.

But if there’s one thing Team Melli (national team) fans have demonstrated time after time, is that no amount of flux or fatigue will overcome their resilience and passion as they get pumped for their first world cup qualifier against Turkmenistan on June 16th, on the road to Russia 2018.

Although Turkmenistan are ranked 173rd in the world, 132 spots below their Southern neighbours, history and records, even Iranian mythology suggest that Team Melli is set for a hard fought battle against a ferocious and formidable opponent.

Indeed, Turkmenistan are the only Asian side that Iran has played, but never beaten in an official FIFA match - despite 4 tries! The first two games between the countries after Turkmenistan joined FIFA in the mid 90’s ended in a 1-1 tie and the Turkmens won the last two duels with a single goal.

But the voracity of the Turkmens for a triumph goes far beyond the football pitch and a few 90 minutes. The land of Turan has been mentioned over 100 times in the Shahnameh (The Book of Kings) the work of the great Iranian poet Ferdowsi, with battles and wars between the two countries that lasted generations.

Regression into mythology may seem inappropriate for a football match but the symbolism may not have been lost on the Turkmen football federation who moved the game from their capital to Sport Toplumy Stadium - home of FC Daşoguz or best known by their former name Turan Daşoguz!

Interestingly, the symbolism of that change in venue does not stop there. Team Melli’s trip to Daşoguz, whether by air or land would have taken them through the “Door to Hell” – a fiery pit resembling the entrance to hell in the Turkmen desert near the town of Derweze (meaning gate in Persian).

Compliments of last minute arrangements, Team Melli were able to circumvent the “Door to Hell”, by making the trip to Daşoguz from the North after a friendly match against Uzbekistan – a match that had no shortage of symbolism itself when Iran scored an injury time goal again after a relatively poor 90 minutes, reviving memories of the 2014 world cup qualifier between the two teams.

Of course, no reference to mythological battles is complete without a few shots being fired. The war between Iran and Turan eventually ended with a single arrow by the legendary Arash Kamngir (Arash the Archer) – an arrow that demarcated the borders of Iran and Turan then.

Interestingly enough, the Iranian striking duo of Sardar Azmoun and Reza Ghochannejad where both born in provinces that border the current demarcation line between Iran and Turkmenistan and expectations are high that more than a single Iranian shot will decide the outcome of the iconic battle between the two countries this time around.

With the Iranians highly specialized in set plays, Team Melli will be looking for trajectories of a different kind to translate mythological triumphs to one that will be registered in the history books – a first win against Turkmenistan in an official FIFA match.

Without a doubt, Turkmens have more to worry about in this game than just trajectories… Torabi, Amiri and Ghafouri’s unstoppable runs on the flanks in the Uzbekistan match, wearing jerseys that fashioned the Asiatic Cheetah, made it difficult not to draw parallels to the mythical and powerful Rostam who went to battle the Turanians like a leopard when he saw the hunt!

But Rostam’s greatest story and one that all Team Melli fans heard as a child, is the story of his triumph after traversing “the 7 doors”. With Team Melli having already travelled beyond the “Door to Hell” and Derweze (also meaning football net in Persian) we cannot help but wonder if they will only be making history in this game with a win, or take their place amongst the greatest Iranian mythological legends by scoring 5 goals.