{"id":32528,"date":"2018-06-26T16:23:58","date_gmt":"2018-06-26T23:23:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/?p=32528"},"modified":"2018-06-26T16:23:58","modified_gmt":"2018-06-26T23:23:58","slug":"world-cup-2018-springboard-for-progress-iran-should-be-proud-of-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2018\/06\/26\/world-cup-2018-springboard-for-progress-iran-should-be-proud-of-campaign\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup 2018: Springboard for progress, Iran should be proud of campaign"},"content":{"rendered":"

Real Sports 101 – SARANSK, Team Melli crash out at the group stage, but it isn’t all doom and gloom and they’ve performed admirably.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Think of Iran at the World Cup, and you think of 1998.<\/p>\n

You think of the firecracker fixture against the United States in Lyon. You think of the awkward exchange between Thomas Dooley and Amadreza Abedzadeh, the strained platitudes between two very different captains. You think of Mehdi Mahdavikia, streaking away from a hapless defence to rifle in a winner that had the whole of Tehran shaking.<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t think of much else though.<\/p>\n

Team Melli\u2019s participation in 2006 was overshadowed by the politicking of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whilst results in 1978 and 2014 were far from ideal.<\/p>\n

A first-round exit in Russia should add to that misery. Instead, however, the campaign is shot through with optimism and pride.<\/p>\n

Rampaging<\/strong>
\nAs well it should be. Iran rampaged through Asian qualifying, going twelve games unbeaten to secure their place in Group B. Against Morocco, they had the ideal start, even if the quality was somewhat lacking in their play.<\/p>\n

A last minute own goal from Aziz Bouhaddouz decided the result, but the real delight was the army of Persian supporters in the stands.<\/p>\n

For once, the country\u2019s female fans were able to watch their team in action. They might still be banned from attending games at home, but in Russia they took their rightful place to roar on a talented, tight-knit team.<\/p>\n

A step in the right direction, moreover, was taken when women were allowed to watch the Spain game inside Tehran\u2019s Azadi Stadium, prohibited for the opener against Morocco.<\/p>\n

Spain triumphed over Carlos Queiroz\u2019s side in the second fixture, but the former World Champions were made to sweat.<\/p>\n

Diego Costa, the eventual game-winner, was sidelined by a fantastic performance from Morteza Pouraliganji, only scoring with a lucky finish.<\/p>\n

The same can be said against Portugal, as Mehdi Taremi came within inches of sending Iran through to the knockout rounds following yet another impressive defensive display.<\/p>\n

Impressive <\/strong>
\n\ufeffAl-Sadd defender Pouraliganji wasn\u2019t the only one to impress, though. Goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand didn\u2019t put a foot wrong throughout \u2013 including saving a Cristiano Ronaldo penalty \u2013 with the Persepolis man sure to depart for a bigger league once the tournament concludes.<\/p>\n

Saeid Ezatolahi, Vahid Amiri and Karim Ansarifard were equally impressive. Alireza Jahanbakhsh endured a difficult time, but his profile continues to rise after leading the scoring charts in the Eredivisie last year. Iran, far from the whipping boys that their record suggests, are a modern and competitive outfit.<\/p>\n

Carlos Queiroz deserves immense credit. The Portuguese enjoys a turbulent relationship with the Iranian FA, threatening to resign ahead of the showpiece.<\/p>\n

With the Asian Cup looming next year, it\u2019s unlikely that he will continue. His legacy is untouchable regardless.<\/p>\n

A springboard<\/strong>
\nThe transformation has been stark. Team Melli fans can only hope that the authorities use the performance in Russia as a springboard, even if Queiroz departs.<\/p>\n

The footballing infrastructure in Tehran is scarce at best, with legendary figures such as Mehdi Mahdavikia having to plough their personal fortunes into youth academies like Kia FC.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo-one really pays attention to the youth teams,\u201d the former Hamburg start told Gol Bezan in a recent interview, \u201cno-one is interested in investing in grassroots football.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iran might not have qualified from the group stage, but it doesn\u2019t mean their World Cup has been a failure.<\/p>\n

Carlos Queiroz\u2019s side demonstrated their potential in all three fixtures and despite the Russian campaign finishing, football in Persia may just begin to blossom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Real Sports 101 – SARANSK, Team Melli crash out at the group stage, but it…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26307,"featured_media":32529,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[84,92,86,110],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c47-featured-news","category-c21-international-football-news","category-c13-team-melli-news","category-world-cup"],"views":1460,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32528","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=32528"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32530,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32528\/revisions\/32530"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}