Tag: Guinea

Iran U-17 Stuns Germany 4-0

Iran stunned Germany 4-0 in the biggest upset of the tournament so far to qualify for the knock-out round of the FIFA U-17 World Cup on Tuesday.

Iran, who controlled the proceedings throughout the Group C match, scored through Younes Delfi (6th and 42th), Allahyar Sayyad (49th) and Vahid Namdari (75th) at the Nehru Stadium in Margao.

Nothing went right for the Germans who were disorganised in the midfield and they could not trouble the rival defence. Their defence also kept a lot of space which the Iranians exploited with repeated forays.

Iran's Younes Delfi celebrates with team mates after scoring his team's first goal against Germany in their Group C fixture. Getty

Iran’s Younes Delfi celebrates with team mates after scoring his team’s first goal against Germany in their Group C fixture. Getty

Iran, who beat Guinea in their opening match, now sit on top of the group with six points and thus qualified for the round of 16.

Germany, who beat Costa Rica 2-1 in their opening match, now need to win against Guinea in their final group match in order to qualify for the knock-out round. Guinea and Costa who played out a 2-2 draw today have one point each.

Iran play their last match in Margao against Costa Rica on 13 October while Germany travel to Kochi to play against Guinea.

Iran, who adopted a defensive approach in their last match, today preferred to play an attacking game and the move paid off as they took the lead in the sixth minute when Younes Delfi took a shot which deflected from rival defender Jan Boller’s leg and found the net.

The early goal put the Germans in complete shambles. The Iranians attacked the German citadel regularly and could have increased the lead but keeper Luca twice denied Mohammed Ghobeishavi from scoring.

Luca Plogmann once again had to dive to bring a save from llahyar Sayyad in the 25th minute.

The pressure on the Germans was so much that they conceded another goal in the 42nd minute as Younes Delfi once again scored with a glancing header from a free kick taken by Mohammed Sharifi. The Iranians were 2-0 up at half time.

The Iranian defence gave a good account of themselves and did not allow the Germans any space to operate inside the danger zone.

The Germans had only one chance to score in the dying minutes of the first half when John Yeboah’s try went over the bar from close.

After the change of ends, Younes Delfi could have scored a hat-trick but German keeper Luca once again came off to his side’s rescue and denied him in the 48th minute when he blocked his shot.

But a minute latter, Delfi made a good move on the right and send a cross into the box which Allahyar Sayyed headed the ball into the net to kill the contest in favour of Iran.

Substitute Saeid Karimi then played a one-to-one pass with Vahid Namdari who shot home from close to complete the rout.

Undercooked Iran face challenge to score goals and points

(Reuters) – Iran head to Brazil as Asia’s top-ranked nation but their hopes of reaching the knockout stages of a World Cup for the first time have been hampered by a lack of top class friendly opposition and a wave of negativity surrounding the team.

Since booking their spot in the finals by winning their Asian qualifying group last June, Iran, ranked No.1 in Asia and 37th in the world by FIFA, have only played one international friendly match against Guinea in Tehran, which they lost 2-1.

By contrast, Asian champions Japan have faced World Cup finalists Uruguay, Netherlands, Belgium and Ghana in friendlies, aiming to give their squad an experience of the task they will face In Brazil.

Iran’s Portuguese boss Carlos Queiroz bemoaned the situation, believed to be down to politics and finances, after the loss to Guinea, which drew withering criticism from a local media fed up with the sluggish performances of an aging team.

“We try our best, we have limited resources, we have some issues in our preparations but the federation make a lot of efforts to give the best to the players and the team,” Queiroz said at the Asian Cup draw in March.

“In the last three years despite all the difficulties, Iran has showed the number one most important thing in the soccer world – passion.

“If you have passion for the game, that is always a good starting point. with the passion of the players and the fans, we were able to qualify for the World Cup.”

The former Real Madrid and Portugal boss, who is expected to step down after the World Cup, tapped his contacts to help fix a training camp and warm-up matches in South Africa, whom he used to coach, and his homeland of Mozambique last month and the team will continue preparations in Austria in May.

There they will face Belarus, Montenegro and Angola before taking on Trinidad and Tobago in Sao Paulo eight days before their Group F opener against Nigeria in Curitiba on June 16.

Queiroz will hope the games can provide him with a chance to find a solution to their struggle for goals, which has led to him scouring the Iranian diaspora to help boost his defence-oriented side.

Team Melli managed only three goals in the first five games of their final Asian qualifying group before striker Reza “Gucci” Ghoochannejhad, who was born in Tehran but emigrated to Netherlands as a child, was found and fired the team to a fourth World Cup.

Although grouped with one of the tournament favorites Argentina, hopes were raised that they could advance to the last 16 for the first time after they were also drawn against Bosnia and Nigeria in an expected three-way battle for second place.

However, the task of adding to their sole World Cup finals victory over political foes the United States in 1998 looks beyond them.

“(We must) take this World Cup as a learning process, and that doesn’t mean that we go there for tourism. We go to Brazil to create a legacy and the legacy is to put the team in a good position to be stronger after the World Cup but better prepared and more experienced,” Queiroz said.

“No doubt since I arrived, there is great progress in the players, great progress in the team. There is a great potential in Iran, it is just a matter of putting things in the right place.

“Three years ago Iran was fourth or fifth in Asia and today is the number one country.”

Expect a cagey, counter-attacking approach in a brief Brazil appearance.

 

Jalali “There is no software to accurately measure players’ running in Iran.”

In the aftermath of the debate between Queiroz and some of his critics, regarding the measurement of Nekounam’s running in the friendly match against Guinea, it turned out that both side of the argument are speculative about their figures.

Carlos Queroz refuted Iran Varzeshi’s claim that the distance that Nekounam ran was 5-6 Km in the match and provided an accurate measurement of 11.379 km.

Majeed Jalali known to be a football software expert in addition to his job as a football coach, was interviewed regarding the tools for accurate measurement of a players performance. Jalali said “To accurately measure the performance of a player including the distance he covers in a match , an analysis software tools is required. Such tools are not available in Iran. A software company that markets this tool , charges 30 million Toman per match to provide the data and the hardware tools to be installed before the match requires a payment of 80 Million Toman.”

“The only time that such software was used in Iran was during the Hazfi Cup final between Zob Ahan and Rah Ahan a few years back.”

Hosseini , Nekounam and Shojaei among Thail players

Jalali also emphasized the performance analysis and measurement of a football player is not just restricted by the distance run by a player but includes his stationary time, acceleration, burst acceleration and light running. Jalali also acknowledged that the student of Sharif University , the highest technology university in Iran , have developed a software to aid coaches in analyzing players’ performance. He added that “unfortunately, the hardware required for the distance run measurement was under Western sanction and could not be purchased leaving the distance run part as dysfunctional”

Commenting on the case of Nekounam , Jalali said “defending his Captain , is completely natural and logical move by Queiroz . A sub-standard performance in a friendly match should not be taken against Nekounam who was one of our best players in the qualifiers. I believe that Javad will be one of the key players in the World Cup.”

Majid Jalali resigned his post as Tractorsazi’s coach on January 2014 after a series of poor results and fans discontent.