1994 World Cup Qualifying Campaign

[Rooyintan]

Iran always had great keepers.

Saeed Azizian was very good back in 1989 and 1990. But he got injured after that, he would have been Iran's no 1 keeper along with Abedzadeh.

In the same period Vahid Ghelich, Babazadeh were also great keepers. Were they still in top form in 1993? or had retired?

But in 1996 and onwards there were better keepers like Ahmadreza Abedzadeh, Nima Nakisa, Mehdi Vaezi, Parviz Boroumand, Hadi Tabatabaei. I am still surprised Gholampour was picked for 1998 Asian Games!

[Martin-Reza]

Thanks, very interesting stuff. Started to follow Iran by the end of the 1996 Asian Cup. Good point to join in, I suppose [emoji16].

I just remember Gholampour coming on in the Asian Games 1998, and I was truly shocked, as he continued as he had stopped in 1994. Horrible mistakes. Can't imagine there was no other option than him back then.

[Nokhodi]

Gholampour was picked because he had actually been doing well in the first round and the league. He was just a disaster in the 2nd round.

[KC McElroy]

I still to this day blame Gholampour of our failure in Doha.
It may have been, as some people have speculated, that he was asked to under perform so the team does not qualify for USA 94. Still shocked that when the two backup goal keepers were asked to replace Gholampour, they both refused.

Iran v Saudi Arabia - full game:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ix9VAYGjLlA

I'm not sure the other keepers refused. I was reading an interview with Parvin regarding this campaign and after calling it the low point of his coaching career he then addressed the goalkeeping situation and said that while Gholampour was performing poorly but he stuck with him because he was the best we had.

[eerooni]

The 1994 qualification campaign was so anti-climactic and amateur. 1990 was even worse.
People have no idea how much football has changed since then.

Keep in mind, Iran was still in the throngs of the 1979 revolution and Football was initially decimated and then neglected. Only when the Akhunds lined their pockets well did they begin to look at football as another source of income and wealth accumulation to give it any attention .

[Ararat Tehran]

This was the first pay per view experience for Iranians in SoCal.
We got to watch all the matches for Iran with Manook commentary.
And as a bonus the cable company showed porn before each match LOL!!!!
I still have the tapes.

Are you able to upload Iran's games online?

[Ararat Tehran]

I still to this day blame Gholampour of our failure in Doha.
It may have been, as some people have speculated, that he was asked to under perform so the team does not qualify for USA 94. Still shocked that when the two backup goal keepers were asked to replace Gholampour, they both refused.

Iran v Saudi Arabia - full game:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ix9VAYGjLlA

[KC McElroy]

Few additional information.
1. For those interested, Team Melli played a friendly game versus Bosnia XI [which was FK Sarajevo] in Tehran on 12 September 1993 just before the second round of WCQ. This is the match details:

http://www.teammelli.com/matchdata/details/matchdetails.php?id=2491

Also some articles about it in Persian:

https://www.radiofarda.com/a/f7-iran-bosnia-first-match/25401579.html

http://rasekhoon.net/article/show/204030

http://sokhanonline.ir/fa/news/2156/20-%D8%B3%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%87-%D8%AE%D8%A7%D8%B7%D8%B1%D9%87-%D8%A7%DB%8C%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%A7%D8%B2%D8%A8%D9%88%D8%B3%D9%86%DB%8C-%D9%87%D8%B1%D8%B2%DA%AF%D9%88%DB%8C%D9%86

2. Sadly 1993 was still the period when foreign based players were either not allowed to play for Team Melli or were not favored compared to local based players. Veteran players such as Ebrahim Ghasempour and Abdolreza Barzegari were playing in Egyptian League at the time. Karim Bavi was playing in Kuwait. Others such as Saeed Janfada, Nader Mirahmadian, Amir Hashemi-Moghaddam were playing in Europe.
Did I miss anyone else?
3. Strangely many other talents such as Khodadad Azizi [who played for national team the year before ie 1992], Saeed Sayyami, Abbas Sorkhab, Farzad Ahakpour and few others were not invited to Team Melli!!!

I don't think it was anything about not wanting foreign based players. Ghasempour and Barzegari were both in their mid 30s and had not been part of TM in a long time while Bavi had been phased out while playing domestically as soon as Parvin took over. I do find Azizi's omission puzzling. Janfada had sought political assylum and it was understandable for him not to be called up. Sarkhab and Ahakpour had been given chances but simply had not impressed given the other forwards (Modirroosta, Garousi, Marfavi).

To me our inexperience and specifically the suspensions/injury are what killed us. We scored 8 goals in 5 games so offensively we were ok without Pious although his presence would not have hurt. Defensively we let in 11 goals in those 5 games, many of them a direct result of mistakes by us and Gholampour specifically. I don't believe Abedzadeh would have committed such mistakes or with Moharrami in the lineup opponents would have gotten such chances. That Japanese goal from the endline was just simply embarrassing.

[Rooyintan]

Few additional information.

1. For those interested, Team Melli played a friendly game versus Bosnia XI [which was FK Sarajevo] in Tehran on 12 September 1993 just before the second round of WCQ. This is the match details:

http://www.teammelli.com/matchdata/details/matchdetails.php?id=2491

Also some articles about it in Persian:

https://www.radiofarda.com/a/f7-iran-bosnia-first-match/25401579.html

http://rasekhoon.net/article/show/204030

http://sokhanonline.ir/fa/news/2156/20-%D8%B3%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%87-%D8%AE%D8%A7%D8%B7%D8%B1%D9%87-%D8%A7%DB%8C%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%A7%D8%B2%D8%A8%D9%88%D8%B3%D9%86%DB%8C-%D9%87%D8%B1%D8%B2%DA%AF%D9%88%DB%8C%D9%86

2. Sadly 1993 was still the period when foreign based players were either not allowed to play for Team Melli or were not favored compared to local based players. Veteran players such as Ebrahim Ghasempour and Abdolreza Barzegari were playing in Egyptian League at the time. Karim Bavi was playing in Kuwait. Others such as Saeed Janfada, Nader Mirahmadian, Amir Hashemi-Moghaddam were playing in Europe.
Did I miss anyone else?

3. Strangely many other talents such as Khodadad Azizi [who played for national team the year before ie 1992], Saeed Sayyami, Abbas Sorkhab, Farzad Ahakpour and few others were not invited to Team Melli!!!

[KC McElroy]

looks like Gholampour was Mirzapour Version 1.0

were players suspended due to a fight?

The players were suspended due to this and an arab ref.

[Sam van Dam]

looks like Gholampour was Mirzapour Version 1.0

were players suspended due to a fight?

[KC McElroy]

There was a lot of unjustified hype surrounding this team but the results were truly disappointing. Our team had been gutted; Pious, Kermani Moghaddam and Moharrami due to suspensions, Abedzadeh due to injuries, Ghayeghran due to TM retirement and Bayani and Ansarifard were simply cast aside. New players were thrown into unfamiliar roles, the worst being Karim Bagheri as an outside back. Given how close the first round of qualifiers were where we only topped the group on goal difference, it wasn't unreasonable to think we wouldn't be making it.

[Bagg10]

This was the first pay per view experience for Iranians in SoCal.
We got to watch all the matches for Iran with Manook commentary.
And as a bonus the cable company showed porn before each match LOL!!!!
I still have the tapes.

Including the pre match porn?

[KC McElroy]

What was Irans very first campaign?
What Year?

1974 World Cup.

[persiangodfather]

What was Irans very first campaign?
What Year?