The triangle of Iranian football failures has been completed with Team Melli defeat in Azadi against Uzbekistan. Futsal early elimination , the U-19 defeat afainst Korea and now the Uzbekistan defeat, all within a week. In a match which was a must win for Team Melli in order to cement its position for qualification to the World Cup finals, the team failed to get even a single point at home. This defeat is exaggerated considering that it was against a direct competitor for one of the two places in World Cup 2014. Uzbekistan is now leading the group with 8 points and has an easier task than Iran to collect the necessary points. Two matches at home against Lebanon and Qatar and one away match to Korea Rep.

It seems that Iran is facing much bigger problems than going through the customary if this and if that in order to qualify. The usual mathematical calculation and the possibilities of how many points are required in order to have a chance is marginalized by the real issues. It is apparent that football in Iran is suffering on many fronts and failing to deliver. It is apparent that success in international arenas’ and repeat of past glories require fundamental changes. It is very clear that unless these changes are implemented, the failures will be typical rather than exceptional. Changes have to be implemented starting right at the top of the pyramid beginning with the Football Federation.

Ali Kaffashian , could be a charming , jolly and ever smiling character, but the bucks stop there. He has displayed a real lack of leadership and knowledge, while his management skills leave a lot to be desired. His support team have not fared much better either.  Under his administration, Iran football has suffered many failures on the field and some embarrassing distressing letdowns outside of it. The heart breaking elimination of Iranian teams from FIFA or AFC competitions because of administration negligence are good examples of this admiration incompetency. Shy demands for his resignation have been echoed in the press, but for some odd reason, this person seems to have some peculiar immunity from prosecution.

In Kaffashian’s first term in office, Iran has failed to qualify for the World Cup, failed to go beyond the quarter finals of the Asian Cup and Iranian teams failed in almost all the continental competitions they entered, bar one single victory by the U-16 team. Many of these failures were attributed to the federation’s lack of leadership and support or appointments of technical cadres and coaches who were not up to the required qualification and abilities.   In a democratic process, where election rules, it is normal that failures do not win a re-election campaign and are either voted out of office or if the person has some dignity , he or she will realize self-shortcomings and refrain from seeking another term. Obviously not in Iran and not in the case of Ali Kaffashian. While his term in the office was ending, Kaffashian filed for re-election after some deliberation and refusal to publicly declare his intentions. He had two strong rivals to content with. Slowly but surely, each one of his candidates dropped out for no valid or convincing reason for Kaffashian to be re-elected unopposed as head of the Iranian football federation for another term!

The dubious conditions in which Kaffashian was re-elected, failed to raise eyebrows in Iran and even the normally critical media in Iran, remained subdued and retrained. This raised many question about who is really running football affairs in Iran. Ali Kaffashian is not a football pedigree neither on nor off the field. He was the Secretary General of Iran’s National Olympic Committee when he suddenly popped up in the football federation election list and surprisingly won what is considered as a tough and demanding position in Iran’s sport.

Time and again, the football administration has displayed lack of tact and skill in dealing with the various affairs of this highly popular sport in Iran. Football is extremely rich picking but peculiarly run in Iran. Clubs earn nearly all their income from government handouts and subsidies. Clubs are also owned by the government, which means that all appointments are sanctioned and approved by the Ministry of Sport. Millions of hard earned dollars are funneled into football. In Iran, wealthy footballers earn several folds more than any other athletes in the country without having anything to show for it. While the basketball team wins Asian championship and makes the Olympics, the Iran’s volleyball wins the continental title and qualifies for the elite of World Volleyball league, while the athletes in the London Olympics win medals and finish this tournament as the most successful ever Olympic participation in Iran’s history, football is registering one failure after another, with no end in sight.

Antonio Simoez , Iran’s assistance coach:

“A team that loses 5 points at home , has a mountain to climb. Football is a cruel game. It can only take a moment for you to win or lose a match and possibly  the whole thing. Although our team stared quite well in the first half ,  the further the match was ongoing the more we were making mistakes.”

When asked by a reporter why certain player was not in the lineup, Simoez said “It is the same old story, isn’t it? When we win a match , nobody questions the players’ selection or line-up , but when we lose , it was because of the players that was not included in the match!”

Andranik Teymourian Iran’s midfielder :

” We were unlucky today , we created enough opportunities but we were not lucky to score. It was a bitter defeat and I must apologized to the fans who dared and came to see us under this rainy condition. Nothing is lost , if we beat Qatar , we will be challenging again.“. Asked by a reporter if his playing in Qatar League has affected his standard , Ando Teymourian said “That is your opinion , and I respect that , but today I was the best player in the match and my substitution was due to the coach’s decision (…)”

 

Omid Namazi Iran’s assistance coach:

” Our mission is really difficult now , but not impossible by any means.  We have to defeat Lebanon at home and defeat Qatar away , then fight for our lives against Korea away. We have to be realistic , it is going to be a difficult task ahead to qualify for the World Cup , but we have the resolve to do it”

Mirdjalal Kasimov Uzbekistan’s head coach:

“ Victory against powerful Iran in Azadi stadium is quite sweet. This was an interesting game in the sense that both teams were going for a win. I was 100% sure that we could win even in front of a full capacity stadium. I appreciate the small number of our supporters who stood behind us during the match,”

Reza Ghoochanejad Team Melli forward

“Uzbekistan had one serious attack and that was on a dead ball, and they scored while we missed several scoring chances. I missed some chances myself. I admit that a team with a record of 2 goals in five matches is not very encouraging , but we have to create chances and have to take our chances. The mission is very difficult but we should not lose hope and more importantly , the fans should keep backing the team all the way to the end of the campaign”

:

Group A

#	Team	MP	W	D	L	F	A	D	P
1	Uzbekistan	5	2	2	1	5	4	+1	8
2	Korea Republic	4	2	1	1	9	4	+5	7
3	Iran	5	2	1	2	2	2	0	7
4	Qatar	5	2	1	2	3	5	-2	7
5	Lebanon	5	1	1	3	2	6	-4	4

Uzbekistan exacted revenge against Team Melli , when they won the 5^th round encounter 1 -0 in Azadi stadium. The rainy weather reduced the number of the fans to less than half the capacity (43,700 fans)

Team Melli, without the suspended Carlos Queiroz on the bench,  started the match with lightning offensive moves in a quest for an early goal to put the pressure on the guests.  Through the right flank , the combination of Heydari, Teymourian and  Dejagah created many chances for the forwards one such  opportunity resulted in a goal scored by Mohammed Nouri, but disallowed by the referee. It was a debatable call as Nouri receiving a diagonal ball from Andranik Teymourian from the right , shot and scored from just outside the box , however the  linesman raised flag for offside on Khalatbary, who was in an offside position , but had no effect on the ball.

After 20 minutes of sustained Iranian attacks, that yielded no goal, the Uzbek slowly started coming back into the game and managed to settled down creating some chances of their own.

The rest of the first half was mainly uneventful.

The second half started with Iran playing with ten men as Kari Ansarifard who was supposed to come in for Khalatbary , was unable to start due to administrative delay with his substitution card.

The second half was unlike the first as Team Melli looked slightly jaded.  The active right flank which created so many threats in the beginning of the match , was all  but disappeared in the 2nd half. The Uzbek were gaining in confidence and although not very open or adventurous, they did create a few chances , mainly through long range shots. Rahmati , however ., was not seriously threatened.

By the midway of this half, the match became quite a scruffy affair; with too many lose balls and wild passes. The slippery surface due to the all night rain, was not helping, although the host, Iran , was more vulnerable exposed with several of the players slipping or missing easy passes.

Almost all the offensive moves of Team Melli was based on sending crosses  from the flanks in hope of creating scoring opportunities. However , few , if any of the crosses reached Ansarifard or Ghoocahnejad in the presence of the towering Uzbek defenders.

In the 72^nd minute , a foul on the right hand side resulted in a free kick in which Servar Djabarov sent an immaculate cross  which was met by Bakatev’s  who cleverly dispensed of his marker , Teymourian , to simply flick the ball past the half idle Rahmati.

Iran still had ample time to get a result with some 20 minutes left , but the insistence on the same futile tactics of sending crosses into the opposition box and no other tactical variation , left Team Melli in in a precarious situation.

There was an exciting end with Ansarifard even sending the ball into the Uzbek goal to be ruled offside again., while Dejagah , who was visibly fatigued by the game’s end , also missing a chance to beat the on rushing Uzbek keeper.

At the end , the poor tactics of Team Melli and an offensive record which is the weakest ever in an official competition ( 2 goals in 5 games)  by Team Melli , meant that Iran , once again , have to endure some anxious moments in the next round against Qatar. Uzbekistan , meanwhile is comfortably topping the group with 8 points after a slow start to this campaign.

Full match details HERE

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:

H / A / N	Matches	W	D	L	Goals	+ / –
H	0	0	0	0	0 – 0	+0
A	2	1	1	0	1 – 0	+1
N	2	2	0	0	6 – 1	+5
Total	4	3	1	0	7 – 1	+6

Date	Comp.		Final score	Stadium	Attendance
03.06.2012	WC Qualifier	A	1 – 0	JAR Stadium -Tashkent	9000
05.09.2009	Friendly	A	0 – 0	Tashkent / Pakhtakor	9500
11.07.2007	Asian Cup / Group C	N	2 – 1	National Stadium Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur	3000
14.12.1998	Asian Games / AG	N	4 – 0	Suphachalasai	3200

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.