{"id":37490,"date":"2019-09-12T17:51:47","date_gmt":"2019-09-13T00:51:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/?p=37490"},"modified":"2019-09-12T17:51:47","modified_gmt":"2019-09-13T00:51:47","slug":"mick-mcdermott-reveals-how-he-celebrated-irans-world-cup-win-in-sochi-restaurant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2019\/09\/12\/mick-mcdermott-reveals-how-he-celebrated-irans-world-cup-win-in-sochi-restaurant\/","title":{"rendered":"Mick McDermott reveals how he celebrated Iran’s World Cup win in Sochi restaurant"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Belfast Live – BELFAST, The Glentoran head coach was part of Carlos Queiroz’s backroom team at last year’s World Cup finals.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mick McDermott has revealed how he celebrated Iran’s 2018 World Cup victory over Morocco by running around a Russian restaurant before ending up on his knees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Glentoran head coach was assistant to Iran manager Carlos Queiroz at last summer’s finals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aziz Bouhaddouz scored a 95th-minute own goal to hand a dramatic victory to Queiroz’s side in their opening group game in St Petersburg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was Iran’s first win at a World Cup since a 2-1 success over the United States in 1998, but McDermott was watching the drama unfold 1200 miles away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s because he was sent to Sochi to scout Spain’s game against Portugal – the two other teams in Iran’s group – later that evening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“During the Morocco game I was getting messages from family and friends asking what it was like,” McDermott told this week’s\u00a0That’s What I Call Football podcast\u00a0.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“But I was in Sochi for the Spain vs Portugal game later that evening, that’s what I had to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I watched the Morocco match on TV because it was the early game, and then it was Spain-Portugal later that night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I watched the game in a restaurant with a couple of Russian families, and I couldn’t take my eyes off it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We scored the winner in minute 90, and I did a lap of the restaurant waving my arms around! And these families were looking at me, like, ‘who is that?’.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I ended up on my knees, celebrating like Jose Mourinho did that time on the pitch.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McDermott also revealed the “intense” working ethos of Queiroz, who was previously Sir Alex Ferguson’s number two at Manchester United.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I was assigned to scout the Spanish team. So for six months before the World Cup I had been watching Spain and building the analysis,” McDermott said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Your focus for the tournament is on the first game against Morocco. If you lose that game you are basically out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We didn’t mention Spain for months, but I was working in the background gathering information on them. So I was in Sochi to watch Spain v Portugal, and Carlos asked me to deliver my report by 11am the next day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I had my whole report for Spain’s last 15 matches, but I had to add the Portugal game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It was a late kick-off, 10pm in Sochi. I didn’t get back to the hotel until about 1am, because I got lost. The flight was at 3am and I had to be at the airport, type up my report and cut up all the video.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I arrived at our base camp at 9am and walked in and Carlos was sitting alone, eating breakfast. He says, ‘where you come from?’. I said I was just back from Sochi, and he says ‘are you ready to deliver that report at 11am?’.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“That’s how he is. I did a two or three-hour presentation to the staff, and he then decides what to cut it down to, and then we present that to the team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“That’s how intense it can be.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

McDermott added: “As an experience, it was the most intense 130-140 days ever. And I wish other coaches could experience it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I got home to Dubai after the World Cup and I just slept. I went to bed at about 7pm and didn’t wake up to lunchtime. And it happened the next day, and the next. For about a week.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the intense working relationship, McDermott admits Queiroz was the biggest influence on his career to date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Carlos was brilliant. I have worked with 15 or 16 managers now, and all are different. Some good, some bad. But they all have their own way,” the Glens head coach said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“But Carlos is probably the biggest influence. I worked with him twice over an extended time in different roles, fitness coach and assistant coach. I was at two tournaments with him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“When you see how he goes about his work, daily. He is about 65 now and he could outwork most 25-year-olds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I kept a record of our days in the build-up to the World Cup finals, and we were working 20-hour days. I would take a photo of my watch every night. Start work at 9am and get to bed at 4 or 5am.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“And that was how it was every day. No days off.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McDermott added: “He was an intense man to work for, very demanding. But away from that environment he is a brilliant man, in a social aspect. Very charming, and a lovely man to be around<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“So he has probably had the biggest influence on the ideas I have now. Not just the football stuff, but paying attention to details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The way he sums it up, everyone can see the big boulders but it’s the small pebbles that can trip you up.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Belfast Live – BELFAST, The Glentoran head coach was part of Carlos Queiroz’s backroom team…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26307,"featured_media":37491,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90,84,92,142,91,86,110],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c17-asian-competitions","category-c47-featured-news","category-c21-international-football-news","category-memory-lane","category-c20-other-news","category-c13-team-melli-news","category-world-cup"],"views":1112,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37490","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=37490"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37493,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37490\/revisions\/37493"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}