{"id":32228,"date":"2018-06-06T12:11:15","date_gmt":"2018-06-06T19:11:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/?p=32228"},"modified":"2018-06-06T12:11:15","modified_gmt":"2018-06-06T19:11:15","slug":"iran-have-the-right-type-of-squad-to-shock-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2018\/06\/06\/iran-have-the-right-type-of-squad-to-shock-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran have the right type of squad to shock the world"},"content":{"rendered":"

Deadspin – NEW YORK, Iran almost had it in the previous tournament versus Messi’s Argentina.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In their second match of the 2014 World Cup, the Iranians played a near-perfect game against Lionel Messi\u2019s Argentina. They ceded 70 percent of the possession, allowed five more shots on goal than they took themselves, yet their defense stymied the vaunted Argentinian attack and they probably got robbed of a 55th-minute penalty that would have given them a 1-0 lead and all the confidence in the world to hold for the next three quarters of an hour. Even a goalless draw would have been a fine result against the future runners-up. Instead, Messi put 90 minutes of frustration behind him with a perfect lightning bolt that broke Iranian hearts and reminded everyone why he\u2019s the G.O.A.T.<\/p>\n

The 2014 World Cup obviously had the infamous 7-1 game, Argentina getting crushed by Mario Goetze\u2019s goal in the final, and Chris Wondolowski missing a layup, but for me, Iran losing what would have been an iconic draw and maybe even a win against the sport\u2019s greatest player in a World Cup game is as crushing as anything that happened in Brazil.<\/p>\n

The squad going to Russia has a better chance at pulling off an equally historic upset. Carlos Queiroz\u2019s team allowed just five goals in 18 World Cup qualification matches and never lost\u2014an obviously impressive feat made even more notable since qualifying out of Asia is a slog that requires tons of travel and harshly punishes any early mistakes. Iran made none, and they\u2019ll have to continue to do so to make the unlikely climb out of Group B. Spain and Portugal are obvious heavy hitters and even Morocco look feisty, so nothing will come easy for the Iranians.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, Iran have Morocco first on the schedule. If they win that match, they\u2019ll head into the dangerous end of the group buoyed with confidence. A draw against either of the big boys could send them through if they\u2019re lucky, though Iran\u2019s goal in Russia should be to spring a major upset and topple either the reigning European champions or the 2010 World Cup champs. They won\u2019t be favored or even given much of a shot, but their defensive stability is real, and the team is stocked with young dudes who could break out and move to bigger European leagues. In the middle, there is the reliable vice captain and longtime Bundesliga veteran Ashkan Dejagah pulling the strings. Ahead of him stand a host of capable goal scorers (who we\u2019ll get to shortly), including Reza Ghoochannejhad, who rules and will almost certainly pop up off the bench in the 60th minute of some game and come up big.<\/p>\n

The forward line is the biggest difference between this Iran squad and the 2014 team that managed just a single goal all tournament, which they scored with just ten minutes left in their final game. However, putting one past Spain or Portugal is an order of magnitude more difficult than scoring on Sierra Leone or Syria. It\u2019s a daunting task, to be sure, but not an impossible one.<\/p>\n

Players To Watch
\nSardar Azmoun, Striker<\/strong>
\nIf Iran are to spring an upset and get to the knockout rounds, it will be because young Sardar Azmoun takes them there. Simply put, the 23-year-old striker gets buckets. He has a eye-popping 23 goals in just 32 caps, which makes him the fifth highest goalscorer in Iran\u2019s history already. Azmoun was dubbed the \u201cIranian Messi\u201d at an early age, and thus far he\u2019s lived up to those lofty expectations, even if the specifics of the Messi comp don\u2019t really fit. The World Cup is, of course, a different beast, and his fans will expect him to produce against the very best in the world. Thankfully, he\u2019s already shown confidence and composure in on big stages, as evinced by his cool-headed goal against Bayern Munich in the Champions League a few years ago\u2014<\/p>\n

This doesn\u2019t look like a guy who\u2019ll shrink from the moment.<\/p>\n

Azmoun plays his club ball with Russian outfit Rubin Kazan, and he\u2019ll have the luxury of taking on Spain in his home arena. Stylistically speaking, the comparison to Messi holds no water, though he\u2019s said he\u2019s more fond of the \u201cIranian Zlatan\u201d moniker. At 6-foot-1, Azmoun is a big target man who harasses defenders and dominates them in the sky. He\u2019s surprisingly comfortable dribbling the ball given his height, and he should lead the line for Team Melli with aplomb. Look for him to spring ahead and run straight at opposing defenders on the counterattack all tournament long. He\u2019s been linked to Lazio, Arsenal, and assorted other big clubs, and a productive World Cup could see him graduate from Russia and into the big leagues.<\/p>\n

Alireza Jahanbakhsh, Winger<\/strong>
\nWhen Alireza Jahanbakhsh scored a hat trick against Zwolle on the final matchday of the Eredivisie season, he became the first ever Asian player to lead a major European league in scoring. The Eredivisie ain\u2019t La Liga or anything, but 21 goals is nothing to dismiss, and the hotshot winger is for real. Jahanbakhsh will anchor the right side of Iran\u2019s attack, and he\u2019ll use his tremendous speed to rip down the flank and serve up crosses for Azmoun and attack the goal with abandon. Look how much of a problem he is for backlines.<\/p>\n

Like Azmoun, the 24-year-old Jahanbakhsh has been linked to major European clubs like Napoli, and his country has high expectations for him. Azmoun might be the better player, but Jahanbakhsh is probably more fun to watch. There are few types of player more exciting than the fearless winger who can play on the ball a bit and link up with runners in attack. Jahanbakhsh excels at zipping past left backs and creating dangerous attacking angles, and it\u2019s the fact that he\u2019s not only a goalscorer that makes him so dangerous. His passing numbers show that he\u2019s more a Kevin de Bruyne type of player, though obviously not as prolific, and he will not hesitate to try to pull off big plays. If just a couple of them come off, Iran can be a real danger.<\/p>\n

How The Team Plays<\/strong>
\nIn a word: compact. Iran didn\u2019t concede a goal in qualification until they had already booked their place in Russia, and if they\u2019re going to win a game, they will almost certainly do so by a score of 1-0. Quieroz will line them up in a 4-2-3-1 with Saeid Ezatolahi and Eshan Hajsafi shielding the backline. I don\u2019t see Iran caring too much about holding onto the ball, since they\u2019re going to play Spain and Portugal and they\u2019re not built as a possession team anyway. Their gameplan is simple, and they share it with most underdogs: play organized team defense and try to score off the break. They have the right sorts of players to do it, and an upset is a real possibility.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Deadspin – NEW YORK, Iran almost had it in the previous tournament versus Messi’s Argentina….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26307,"featured_media":32229,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[84,92,91,86,110],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c47-featured-news","category-c21-international-football-news","category-c20-other-news","category-c13-team-melli-news","category-world-cup"],"views":1456,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26307"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32228"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32230,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32228\/revisions\/32230"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}