Team Melli can all but settle its claim for a spot at the 2014 World Cup, with a win against Uzbekistan in the FIFA World Cup 2014 – Asian Zone Qualifier on Wednesday.

When Group A joint leaders Iran hosts third-placed Uzbekistan, a win would take them to 10 points through five games – within one point of Carlos Queiroz’s men officially sewing up their spot in Brazil.

Conversely, the Uzbeks will be out to at least avoid defeat to ensure they remain in with a chance for a top-two spot, and automatic qualification to the finals when the two nations do battle at Azadi Stadium in Tehran.

Also in Group A, Qatar and Lebanon (both on four points) will go head to head in Doha, with both sides still well and truly in the race for a finals spot despite being the bottom two in the group.

Should Uzbekistan hold Iran, both the Lebanese and Qataris will be still alive heading into the final group game regardless of their result. Korea Rep, will have an off day on Wednesday.

The first clash in the qualifying round in Tashkent between Uzbekistan and Iran was one unusual event. Even before the match started, the Uzbeks were in dilemma having 5 of their regular players suspended for the match.

Having qualified for the next rounds with two games to spare in the previous round, Uzbek players near yellow-card suspensions thought the fifth game would be a good time for them to receive a second yellow so they could serve the suspension in the meaningless game and start the final round with a clean sheet. The AFC was wise to this scheme by the Uzbek and barred them all from the Iran game.

Ironically, those 5 absentees did not lessen the resolve of the brave Uzbek. The host dominated the game against Team Melli and had several scoring opportunities , one of which saw Jalal Hosseini clear the ball from inside his goal. A clear legitimate goal that was not seen by the referee or the linesman. Right at the end of the match, a counter attack took Karim Ansarifard on the right flank. The Perspolis striker spotted the run of Khalatbary in the middle and sent him a great ball across and Khalatbary made no mistake. It was a definite heart breaker for the Mirdjalal Kasimov players who were the better team throughout the match yet ended up losing all the three points.

Iran went on to continue the disappointing and below par performance as they played a goal-less draw with Qatar in front of capacity 100,000 fans in Azadi. To add salt to injury, Team Melli lost to Lebanon 1-0 in Beirut in the third round. That was the first ever loss to Lebanon in the history of the meetings between the two teams it was also the first ever goal scored by Lebanon.

Meanwhile Uzbekistan , still suffering from the disappointment of the loss to Iran , went on and played a 1-1 draw with Lebanon in Beirut , before bouncing back quite strongly against Korea republic in Tashkent with a 2-2 draw. Uzbekistan was once again the better team yet failed to get the result it was after.

The fourth round of this competition was defining for both Iran and Uzbekistan. Team Melli had the toughest task of the two teams when they had to face the group leaders Korea Rep. at Azadi , while Uzbekistan was in a desperate position and needed all the three points from their away game in Qatar.

With 100,000 vocal supporters, Iran took all the three points from the Koreans with a Nekounam goal, while Uzbekistan kept their hopes alive by beating Qatar in Doha.

 The match in Azadi is too close to call. Iran , always a very tough opponent in Azadi , has s alight edge , while Uzbekistan will be fighting to the end and would not be too disappointed with at least a point.

Interestingly , this is the first time that Uzbekistan plays in Azadi stadium.

The majority of Team Melli players agree that this match is even more important than the last one against Korea Rep. and a win is absloutely vital for them to take them on the threshold of qualification. Carlos Queiroz also repeated the same sentiments and invited all the fans to Azadi asking them to carry the tric colr Iranian flags with them.

The match in Azadi will start at 19:00 Tehran time.

Head to Head meetings:

Ali Kaffashain the head of the Iranian Football Federation , in a short TV interview on Monday , announced that the failures of both Futsal team and the U-19 teams will lead to changes in the technical cadre.

Iran Futsal team , endured a shock exit from the FIFA Futsal World Cup Thailand 2012 , when they narrowly went down 2-1 to the debutant team Colombia, while U-19 youth team was humiliated by Korea Rep. in the AFC Championship and thus failing to make the semi final and a place in the FIFA Youth World Cup.

Ali Kaffashian , who is a target of much criticism by the media and the football community for his poor administration of Iranian football, is clearly targeting the technical staff of these two teams in order to curtail the wrath of the fans and the media.

In a recent report published in the Iranian the press, under Ali Kaffashian administration , Iran’s football failure rate in Asian football is an astounding 81%. The figure is the result based on achieving qualification to higher rounds of any competition for every Iranian team which has taken part in Continental tournament at all age levels.

Despite such dismal record, Kaffashian has recently been voted in office by default and unchallenged, for a second consecutive term.

Report on the failings of youth football / main culprits are hiding!
By Mehr News Agency – Department of Sport:

Iran’s U-19 football team suffered a harsh defeat against South Korea and failed to qualify for the FIFA World Cup U 20 tournament. The failure in this age group continues, this time the loss could be attributed to the coach Akbar Mohammadi , but the real culprits behind this defeat are in hiding.

The Iran youth team failures are becoming routine occurrences at this important age group level of football, this time the team was coached by Akbar Mohammadi failed at the very crucial stage. This young coach who failed to achieve anything of significance at the U-16 level two years ago, but with support from the Federation and the authorities, Carlos Queiroz has appointed him as the U-19 team coach !

These bitter failures are becoming a source of frustrations and real heart breaking for the fans and goes way back as far as 1976, the year that Iran won its last Asian Youth title. The team led by Heshmat Mohajerani , jointly won the championship  with North Korea. A year later,  the tournament was held at home in Tehran , and Iran ended up as runners-up  after being beaten in final against Iraq. That team was led by the Yugoslav “Yagvidic” . In 2000, Tehran hosted the tournament again and this time the team was coached by Mehdi Monajati , where we lost the third place match but managed to make it to the finals stages of FIFA Youth World Cup.

Iran’s youth have always produced quality players in the past 30 years, however, the results achieved have been unimaginable and inconsistent with the quality of the players. In the years 1982, 1988, 1989, 1994, 1998 and 2002 we even failed to qualify for the final tournament after failing in the qualifying rounds.  In recent years, the team was led by the likes of Majid Jalali, Brazilian De Oliviera , , The Croat Nenad Nikolić  , and Ali Doustimehr , all of whom failed not only to accomplish any titles, but they also contributed to some bitter disappointments to the Iranian youth football.

In the thirty-seventh edition of Asian Youth Championship, the AFC U-19 championship UAE 2012 , the case was different. Akbar Mohammadi and his boys completed some solid victories in the qualifying rounds and the group matches in the finals. Those victories have made us all very hopeful for the good days to come, but in one bad day the dream was destroyed and the team faltered.

This heavy and humiliating defeat against the Koreans was avoidable and in fact, Iran could have and should have been the victors. In spite of the good performance by the Korean players that has surprised the technical staff of our team, our players should have been able to score but they lacked the accuracy that is needed at this big stage.

Nevertheless, Akbar Mohammadi  failed again. He was highly motivated, he needed to be successful with the U-19 team to erase the bitter memories of his failure two years back with the U-16 team , but it was not to be. This repeated failure will surely trigger many critical voices about his competency and suitability to lead youth football teams at international stages. However , the real question must be directed at those who have appointed Mohammadi .

The people who try to remedy their error of judgment and poor selection process by giving the failed person, another key responsibility at the head of another youth team hoping for the guy to attempt and compensate for previous poor showing!

The victim here is Mohammadi , while the real culprits are those sectors who always seems to get away from blemish by hiding behind the scenes.

If after the failure of the U-16 team , no similar responsibility  were given  to the likes of Mohammadi, if those administrators who failed to execute their duty were fired as the result of their errors which cost our team qualification , if the disastrous  elimination of our Olympic team was properly handled through a transparent investigation and the culprits identified and disciplined , instead of giving them alternative posts, if and if…..

“If” …there are lots of Ifs in our football. Those who are truly responsible for our failure , are still around and their failure will no doubt be repeated in the future as long as they maintain their positions.

Mohammadi is accountable for this loss by Iran’s U-19 in his capacity as a coach, but unless we identify those people who take decision like appointment of a repeat failures , and if those people still manage and manipulate our football administration and , we will never rid ourselves from these bitter disappointments and failures.

 The fear now is the psychological effect on these youngsters who might have a long healing process some of who might find it hard to recover.

Tehran

The Portuguese coach of Team Melli Iran , stormed out of the press conference held this morning  (Sunday) after being upset with the chaotic and disruptive reporters.

The press conference was part of the routine communication channel that has been established with the media in order to public to be aware of Team Melli’s progress and news. The Sunday press conference was supposed to discuss the Wednesday match against Uzbekistan in the Qualifying rounds of FIFA World Cup Brazil 2014.

Queiroz curt the conference short after he was repeatedly interrupted by one of the TV reporters fiddling with his microphone. Queiroz asked to reporter to go back to his seat so that he continues with the conference, but the disruptive reporter did not heed to the advice and continued unabated. Queiroz , visibly upset , then walked off and  cut the conference short.

Scenes of chaotic movement , pushing and shoving, unruly behavior and indiscipline  is quite normal in press conferences in Iran. Proper facilities for Press Conferences in Iran did not exist in earnest until AFC demanded such facilities as a precondition for Iran’s participation in Asian competitions.

Many coaches have previously complained about the unruly behavior of the media including during the press conferences.  A few local and foreign coached have boycotted or withdrawn from these events, however , it is the first time that a Team Melli coach has had ot with the media and cut short a press conference.

the-afc.com reports

Ras Al Khaimah: It was the proverbial ‘bad day at the office’ for Iran as one of the AFC U-19 Championship favourites were sent packing by a rampant Korea Republic, who eased to a stunning 4-1 win in Sunday’s quarter-final.

The Iranians were in impressive form during the group stage but they were a shadow of the side that had scored nine and conceded just one ahead of their last-eight fixture but the Koreans were superior in every department as the East Asians ran out comfortable winners.

“This was the worst day for us…just a bad day,” Argi lamented in the posy-match press conference,

“I don’t think that the result was because of the difference in the quality of the two sides I think it was largely due to our poor luck. We ran out of luck.”

Iran had to chase the match in both the halves with Moon Chang-jin’s second minute goal putting the Koreans on top before Alireza Jahan Bakhsh pulled one back for the four-time champions.

The Iranians fell behind for the second time four minutes into the second half when Lee Gwang-hun made it 2-1 and as Iran chased the game they were caught by two late goals on the counterattack through Kim Seung-jun (81st) and Kwon Chang-hoon (90+5) as Korea Republic sealed their place in the semi-finals and their ticket to the 2013 FIFA U-20 World Cup.

“We conceded two early goals in both halves and if you ask me, they were both avoidable goals,” continued Argi.

“My defenders did not have a great time due to the physical approach of the Koreans. They are just 18-year old kids so sometimes you cannot control them.

“On the top of that, we could have scored more than a couple of goals in the first half and we failed to do that too.”

Lee Kwang-jong, the head coach of Korea Republic, hailed his side’s attitude and congratulated his young team for making it to the World Cup.

“I must congratulate them for playing superb football today,” he said.

“We knew Iran is a team with physical strength and good tactics so we were concentrating more on the defensive game in the first half.

“Our main strength over the Iranians was our speed so once the Iranian defenders started getting tired we relied on our pace and made it relatively easier though it was not an easy match at all.

“The good sign from the match is that in the group stages we were struggling to get goals despite creating a number of chances in all our matches but today it was a different story, the boys scoring goals at will.”

Colombia defeated Iran in the FIFA Futsal World Cup round of 16 match to register a major surprise. The match ended 2-1 in favor of the South American debutant team.

Iran dominated the match in its entirety and every piece of statistics showed the superiority of the Iranian team , however and crucially , Iran failed to convert their chances and were shocked when a rare counter attack and weak goalkeeping by Nazari allowed the Colombians to take the lead in the second half.

A defining moment came when Taybi was red carded after a blatant play acting by the Colombian when he faked injury.after a slight clash between him and the Iranian player. The goalkeeper rolled as if he was hit by a bullet as the Russian referee brandished a red card for Taybi who vehemently protested his innocence. The Replay showed the slightest of contacts when the goalkeeper went to grab the ball and there definitely was no intent to harm by the Iranian player.

With one player down , Colombia grabbed this opportunity and managed to score the 2nd goal. Iran pulled one back through Rahnama , but the Colombians excellent tight defense sealed a famous win for the South Americans team and ended the hope of Iran.

After the exit of Iran’s U-19 team and the defeat against Korea Rep, this was a black day for Iranian football fans with two bitter failures virtually minutes away from each other.

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In what looked like total collapse, Team Melli U-19 went down 4-1 against their nemesis Korea Rep, in the quarter finals of the AFC U-19 championship 2012 in Ras Al Khaima.

In what was expected to be a tough and close encounter , the Koreans scored early to put psychological pressure on Iran making them chase the game. Iran eventually scored the equalizer through their best player of the tournament , Alireza Jakan Baksh, to end the half all square for both teams. However , there was a lot to be desired from Iran’s tactical game.

In the second half , the Koreans came out much more determined and organized than the first half. It was no surprise when they scored the second goal while Iranian lost their way with for too much errors in passing and being caught out on the counter offensive moves.

The biggest surprise was the way the defense of Team Melli U-19 has collapsed against an organized and pacy Koreans. The South Asians torn Iran’s defense apart and scored further two goals , but they also missed as many. Only fate saves the Iranians a serious embarrassment and a big score line defeat,

The match ended 4-1 and it was yet another failure for Iran at this level. There was so much hope and so much promise from this team, but it all collapsed in a day of futile and feeble performance and against a powerhouse which was quite astute ,  organized and disciplined in all fronts

Korea Rep. booked its place in the semi-final to meet Uzbekistan and more importantly booked a place to the FIFA World Cup U- 20 championship in Turkey next year. For Iran , it is back to the drawing board. Iran U-19 team has to start from scratch, although quite a few of this talented team can readily make it to the next age level team.

Ras Al Khaimah: Korea Republic coach Lee Kwang-jong has vowed to maintain his offensive tactics in Sunday’s quarter-final against Iran, the team he rates as the best in the tournament so far.

The 11-team champions advanced to the last eight as runners-up in Group B following a goalless draw with table-toppers Iraq and victories over Thailand (2-1) and China (1-0) while Group A winners Iran have been in imperious form defeating title contenders Japan 2-0 and Kuwait 6-0 either side of a 1-1 draw with tournament hosts UAE.

“So far, Iran have emerged as the team to beat in this competition,” Lee stated at the pre-match press conference.

“What I have seen of them so far is that they are very good in attack but our philosophy will be the same and that is attack first then defend so let’s hope this will be a good match for the audience.”

While Lee would be delighted to extend Korea’s tournament win record to 12, he also has one eye on the future with The 2014 Olympic Games in Brazil featuring in the mind of the Korean coach.

“This team will develop as our Olympic team so we are trying our best to ensure they got lots of international exposure by winning this quarter-final and qualifying for the FIFA U-20 World Cup.

“It was very disappointing that our under 16s failed to make it to the World Cup following their defeat in the quarter-finals of the AFC U-16 Championship and we don’t want a repeat of that disappointment here.”

Having successfully negotiated the group stage Iran coach Akbar Argi is ready to embrace the knockout phase of the competition, starting with Sunday’s showdown between two sides he sees as amongst the continent’s best.

“To be honest our journey in the competition starts tomorrow,” said Argi, who will be missing the services of suspended striker Sardar Azmoun, who scored in the 6-0 win over Kuwait.

“I was always confident we would get through the group stage given the strength of the opponents and now all eight teams in the knockout stage are capable of winning this competition.

“The Koreans are one of the big names in Asian football and they are the record 11-time champions of this competition so we will be showing them the utmost respect.

“Having said that, I believe in my players and their qualities. It will be a highly-charged match with both sides going all out for the win so I guess the spectators can look forward to enjoying a match between two of the top Asian footballing nations.”

Team Melli continued the preparation for the match on Wednesday. On friday , the training was conducted in Azadi stadium. Ali Karimi was declared unfit for the match vs the Uzbek as the result of the MRI showed that the midfielder could be out for more than 4 weeks because of torn muscles.

Meanwhile , Ando Teymourian who was injured and substituted during his club’s match in Qatar and feared that he might miss the Uzbekistan match , commenced his training and is quite hopeful to make it by Wednesday. The medical staff will have to test him to ensure his match fitness.

The other absentee from training is Ashkan Dejagah who is still in London and could feature in his club match against Arsenal. The Fulham midfielder would be flying to Tehran after the match on Saturday. He should be in the camp by Monday at the latest.

Notable absentees from the match will include Masoud Shojae who was dismissed from the match reciving a red card against Korea Rep., Ehsan Hajsafy and Hadi Aghili both were not selected by Queiroz , Mohammad Ghazi on injury list.

Uzbekistan team began preparations for the match against Iran on November 8th.
Head coach Mirjalol Kasymov summoned 27 players to the training camp.The squad will assemble on November 12 in Tashkent, after two days of training , the Uzbek squad will fly to Tehran, on the 14th of November two days ahead of the the 6th round match of qualifying round of 2014 World Cup against Iran. The final team roster will include 23 players only.

Uzbekistan squad

Goalkeepers
1 Ignatiy Nesterov     “Bunyodkor”
2 Murodjon Zukhurov     “Nasaf”
3 Sardor Kabuldzhanov     “Bukhara”

Defenders
4  Shohruh Gadoev     “Nasaf”
5  Vitaliy Denisov     “Dnepr”, Ukraine
6  Yegor Krimets     “Pakhtakor”
7  Shaukat Mulladzhanov     “Al Nasr”, Saudi Arabia
8  Akmal Shorahmedov     “Bunyodkor”
9  Islom Tuhtahodzhaev     “Locomotive”
10 Artem Filiposyan     “Bunyodkor”
11 Islom Inomov     “Locomotive”

Midfielders
12 Odil Akhmedov     “Anji”, Russia
13 Vadim Afonin     “Shurtan”
14 Server Djeparov     “Al-Shabab” Saudi Arabia
15 Fozil Musayev     “Nasaf”
16 Aziz Haydarov     “Al-Shabab”, UAE
17 Timur Kapadze     “Aktobe”, Kazakhstan
18 Oleg Zoteev     “Olmalik”
19 Stanislav Andreev     “Pakhtakor”
20 Jasur Hasanov     “Bunyodkor”
21 Sanjar Tursunov     “Alania”, Russia

Forwards
22 Ivan Nagaev     “Dinamo”
23 Marat Bikmaev     “Aktobe”, Kazakhstan
24 Vladimir Shishelov     “Nasaf”
25 Alexander Geynrikh     “Aktobe”, Kazakhstan
26 Igor Taran     “Shўrtan”
27 Ulugbek Bakaev     “Irtysh”, Kazakhstan