Author: admin

Kranjcar sacked.

The Iranian football federation parted company with Team Omid head coach, Zlatko Kranjcar.

After just over a year in charge of Iran's U-23 team with the objective of qualifying for the Tokyo Summer Olympics in 2020 , Kranjcar barely made the final 16 of the AFC AFC U-23 Championships tournament. After hosting the qualifying group, Iran finished second behind Iraq on goal difference and had to wait for qualification as one of the 4 best second placed teams in the rest of the Asian qualifying groups. 3 teams from Asia will qualify for the Olympics next year.

Despite the total support by the federation, Kranjcar's team failed to impress. The style and game plan of Omid team in the qualifying group lacked a lot of quality and was more often back to the basic and route 1 football.  The team lacked discipline and leadership on and off the field. In general , Kranjcar could not impress and the critics doubted if this team can make the Olympics in Tokyo.

The search is on for a replacement with Yahya Mohammadi being named as a favorite.

It is already 5 months since Team Melli parted company with Queiroz and there is no one in sight to take over as Head Coach of Team Melli. It is hoped that Omid Team does not suffer the same fate.

Recently, the FFIRI spoke person denied any quotes attributed to its Presiodent  Mehdi Taj in regards to the future Team m coach.

There is extra significance for the AFC U-23 Championships, which will take place from January 8 to 26, 2020 in Thailand, as the top three teams qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in July, although should Japan emerge as one of them, the fourth-placed side will advance.

"Pathetic direction and administration of football" Massoud Eghbali

The Iranian national U23 football team (Omid), barely managed to qualify for the final rounds of AFC U23 Championship which is also the qualifiers for the 2020 Olympic Games. Despite having the advantage of being the host, Iraq won the group on goal difference, while Iran had to wait until late to find out if they have qualified as one of the 4 best second ranked team.

The cesarean qualification has led to many discussions and different views on the status of the team and mainly on whether Krancjar should continue with the team after such modest performance. Some experts believe Krancjar should remain at the helm while others are opposed to the Croat continuing to work with Omid team.

In the midst of such arguments , the views of Massoud Eghbali, the official Asian Football Confederation coaching master is quite interesting. Eqhbali spoke to Mehrnews sports reporter.

“The main problems of our football has always been the deep-rooted management and administration of football at its highest level. Football does not have a healthy atmosphere and strong foundation in general. Our organization and conditions suffer from numerous problems, and like cancer it keeps spreading. One of the biggest and most important problems in this football is the management problem. Mismanagement in Iran’s football is a long-standing problem that has existed in these 30-40 years. Management problems have never been eliminated, in fact it has been spreading and getting worst. With each management personnel changes, the problems that existed is passed on to the new managers who are incompetent or unable to improve them.”

“It is uunfortunate that these pperennial pproblems have not only not disappeared, they have in fact have increased and become more severe and deliberate. All national teams have suffered from these identical problems. The difficulties in groundwork, resources, programs, logistics and training facilities are facing all national teams in all age groups. “

“Look at our senior Team Melli. It is without a coach since January, and there is no solution in sight, just the official propaganda of the FFIRI repeating the same old statements or on the other hand a bunch of speculations and rumors. There are no coaches in other national teams too. The criterion for choosing coaches by the football federation is not right at all. Coaches are appointed, mostly based on nepotism rather than competency or suitability. At age group teams where it is very vital to have quality coaches, there are appointmentS based on anything but merit, subsequently they fail and then leave quietly. There is no appraisal process, no investigation, no inquiry to why the team failed!

There is no board member in the football federation assigned to justify these failures, no one who can explain why these coaches come and go without being investigated. No one is ready to explain the whole process of selections and appointment of coaches. The Omid team of Iran is one of those teams that is immersed in these problems.

Political influences in choosing a coach In the Omid team,

At Omid team we finally choose a perfectly competent coach like Zlatko Krancjar, but we do not facilitate his job and deprive him of the resources. One of the most important tools of any boss is a very strong technical staff with background and experience, involvement in high level competition at club or national team levels. What is happening in reality in our Omid Team is that people with connections to the federation management get the job to sit on the bench with Krancjar. They choose young assistants or inexperienced coaches while ensuring to equally divide the bench appointments between Esteghlal and Persepolis!!

While we were hosting the qualifiers, we failed to win the group but qualified to the final by luck, and if we are realistic, we have to say that there is little hope for Omid Team to make it to the Olympics as one of the 3 top teams of Asia. The team, called Omid Iran in Asia, does not have the quality to be among the top three Asian teams that qualify for the Olympic Games. Most players in this team do not have what it takes to make the grade to the Senior Team Melli. The problem is not Krancjar, he is a quality coach with experience and has coached national teams. Now there are whispers that they are supposed to dismiss him.

Krancjar is a professional coach, tried and tested .If we are to sack him and replace him with the world's leading coach, with the same problems at hand such as lack of facilities and this lack of cooperation with by the clubs in releasing their players, the same thing will be repeated again and again.

Clubs dilemmas

Among the major problems in Iran’s football is the unwillingness or disinterest of the clubs in grassroots football. For one reason or another, there is no strong urge or commitment to build and form strong academy level teams. Success and ranking in the league table is the utmost priority of almost all the clubs especially those at he top like Persepolis and Esteghlal, which makes it hard for them to focus or have serious interest in promoting the youth

This policy has become a cycle and it turned into a defective cycle, the effect of it is felt at Team Melli level and also in the ranks of the clubs themselves who have to go into the international transfer market and import cheap players, not necessarily good players.

There is a long-term damage in following such policy, and the results are so obvious. Iran has hardly won anything of worth in the last forty years. The Asian cup have eluded them, no Iranian club has won the AFC Champions League so far, Last time Iran was in the Olympic football competition was in 1976 (qualified for 1980 Olympics but subsequently boycotted it) and at youth level, success has been rare.

That is the reality of our football. More serious damage in imminent the future if this pathetic direction and administration of football in Iran continues.”

Omid Team is in search of a replacement for Kranjcar.

The issue of Omid team performance and the coaching standards of the team has been raised in the technical committee of Iranian football federation.

Hossein Kalani, a member of the Football Federation's Technical Committee said that in the past two weeks, there has been several discussions on the dismissal of the Omid team head coach, the Croat Zlatko Kranjcar.

in an interview with ISNA, Kalani commented on the rumors circulating around Krancjar's fate and his imminent dismissed from coaching Iran’s Olympic Team (Omid) : "I have heard this as well like the rest. However, as I was sick and resting at home because of the illness, I was unable to attend several meetings of the technical committee."

“but earlier, there was talk of such intention because Krancjar did not meet the required expectations. We were quite lucky to qualify for the next round. The players did their best, but that draw against Iraq which had better goal difference, put us in the second place in the group. If one of other teams scored a goal or two extra in the final matches of the Asian groups, we would have been eliminated."

He continued, "There was some lack of cooperation and coordination between Krancjar and his own assistants. There was a clear disconnect in the coaching team. I think there was some negotiation with Krancjar to release him. This decision was probably taken at a technical committee meeting that I did not attend.”

Kalani denied any knowledge of Javad Nekounam being considered as Kranjcar replacement.”"I do not have any knowledge of this subject.”

As an ex Team Melli player and one of the legends of Iranian football, Kalani is a prominent member of the federation's technical committee, yet he is unaware of crucial and important decisions made by that committee. He can only guess what has been decided in the meetings that he did not attend !!!

Commenting further "in Iran, there are foreign coaches like Branko who are successful and Persepolis feels proud of him, There are other foreign coaches as will that have succeed in other teams," he said.

“However, we have virtually never received positive feedback and results from the presence of foreign coaches. I have always said that if we provide the same working conditions, perks and facilitates afforded to foreign coaches, to our local coaches, we will get 100% better results. Most of the honors in our football history have been achieved by our own Iranian coaches, some of whom never even had coaching certificates nor attended coaching classes. “

“The familiarity of the Iranian coach with the culture and language and hence, the ability to communicate instruction, plans and objectives to the players is one of the most important issues that must be considered. The Iranian coach recognizes the emotions of his players. The national team has always consisted with the best players, and they do not need to teach them basic football issues and high tactics. The most important thing is psychological issues.”

Kalani is one of very few prominent people in Iran that is clean shaven and wears a tie in public or official meetings in a country that one can be easily considered as outcast , labeled as westernized and accused of being anti-Islamic for that. He is western educated and a successful businessman in his own right.

Team Melli to play a friendly against Korea Rep.

Team Melli , without a coach and any program for the forseen future, is apparently scheduled to play a friendly international match against the Republic of Korea in June.

According to reports in the South Korean media , the Korean FA has invited Iran to play a friendly game during the FIFA day which is on the 7th of Jun. There has been no confirmation of the said match in Iran, but that is quite normal for the Iranian football federation. The head of the FFIRI has promised to name Team Melli coach soon but that was over a month ago. The only hint given by Mehdi Taj is that the future coach will not be Iranian. Many pundits believe that Ivanko Brankovic is the main candidate to coach team Melli for the third time in his career. The current Persepolis coach has refused to confirm or deny such news.

What after Omid Team qualification?

Zlatko Krancjar, Iran's Olympic Team (Omid) coach spoke after the confirmation of the qualification of the U23 team to the finals of the AFC Championship U23 in Thailand.

He stated: "We were in a group which did not have weak team and it was not really easy to qualify." , "Observing the other groups, we saw some of the matches ended in large margins as evidence of a huge gap between the teams, but the status of our group was different. In any case, our objective from day one was to lead the group and qualify directly as the top team. Of course, we deserved 9 points and to win in the last game, but we lost a lot of scoring chances, and the referee definitely denied us a penalty (….)”

Krancjar added: "Despite all the problems that have cropped up, we managed to qualify and now we have to think about a powerful presence in the final round of the competition in Thailand." The head coach of the Omid team added: "I believe in these players and I know that they have many skills and abilities. We were well prepared for this stage, we had good preparation games and training camps, the credit must go to the Federation officials, the Ministry of Sports and the Olympic Committee, and all the support they have provided that contributed to this success.”

Zlatko is entitled to give himself a pat on the back for qualification, and diplomatically praise others. However, his general statements and especially about the last match and the referee denying Iran a penalty is far from reality. Those who followed the three matches played in empty stands of Azadi or through TV , do not necessarily share his satisfaction and enthusiasm for the prospect of the team.

Tactically inept, poorly coached and surprisingly disjointed, is what best describes the performances of Omid Team. While U23 Team is the closest group of players to the full senior team in any country’s footballing system, in style and tactics, Iran’s Omid Team is nothing even remotely  close to what Carlos Queiroz has built.

Players under the 23 years could also be members of the senior national teams. The bigger and long term problem will remain the transition of the current Omid players to Team Melli.

Granted that Queiroz was a defensive minded coach and he built a strong line of defenders in Team Melli. Perhaps it was not pretty style but it was well organized, effective and disciplined. Team Melli played a modern style of football and excelled in it. On the other hand, Omid Team under Kranjcar is using 50’s style of what is in Iran called “Ali Asgahri” football or route one (Direct) football in Europe.  There is no such thing as midfield players role in Kranjcar’s strategy as offensive moves start with defenders or goalkeeper kicking long balls straight to forwards and then hoping for the best.

Such style is archaic and ineffective except in front of weaker teams. Team Melli will have to face the likes of Japan, Korea and Australia who play in an organized and well-laid down game plans. Most of other Asian counterparts also play modern football with inter passing and midfields that control game rhythms.

The solution for Omid is not so simple. Most probably, Kranjcar has very little more to offer and what we have seen from him, does not augur well for Iran qualification to the Tokyo Olympics. Bar a miracle, Omid will be lucky to make it to the next round of the group stages.

The positive part is that Omid Team has many good and skilled individual players; one can only hope that a competent coach can use these talents to form a team and based on teamwork. Lack of leadership and hence discipline is also quite evident in the squad. Once again the team requires strong leadership on and off the pitch.

Omid Team qualifies for the AFC Championship U23 2020

Iran U-23 Team (Omid) has qualified for the AFC Championship U23 as one of the top 4 best 2nd ranked teams of the qualifiers. Iran will join 14 Asian teams plus host Thailand for the final rounds This AFC U-23 Championship will act as the AFC qualifiers for the Olympic football tournament. The top three teams of the tournament will qualify for the 2020 Summer Olympics men's football tournament in Japan as the AFC representatives. As Japan had already qualified as the host team of the 2020 Summer Olympics, if they reach the semi-finals, the other semi-finalists are guaranteed qualification even before the phase commenced. Uzbekistan are the defending champions of the competition last held in 2018.   The qualified teams for the 2020 AFC U23 Championships are :   1              A             Qatar 2              B             Bahrain 3              C             Iraq 4              D             UAE 5              E              Jordan 6              F              Uzbekistan 7              G             Korea DPR 8              H             Korea rep 9              I               Japan 10           J              China 11           K             Vietnam 12           host       Thailand 13                           Australia 14                           Saudi Arabia 15                           Iran 16                           Malaysia    
  • Note: Article written minutes before the last qualifiers match between UAE v. Saudi Arabia

Omid team draws with Iraq, qualification is still on hold!

Iran Omid Team drew its final group C game against Iraq, which means that the Iraqi team has qualified as top of the group with 7 points, same as Iran , but better goal difference. The match ended goal-less.

The Iranian needed to win to be assured of a place in the Final rounds of AFC Asian U23 Championship in Thailand. Iran must wait for the results of other matches in the qualifiers. The four best 2nd placed teams will also qualify from the 11 groups to  the finals.

Iran's supremacy in the first half was quite evident against a well-organized Iraq, especially in the first 10 minutes when Iran had two goal scoring opportunities. Although in the remaining time of the first half , the match was more balanced, but in the final minutes, Omid team intensified its pressure to score. However, the Iraqi goalkeeper Ali Kadhim was at his best and prevented Iranian players from threatening the goal. The Iraqi players, were satisfied with a draw which assured them qualification, started wasting time, but the referee from Singapore was not very alert to such tactics and failed to warn them

 Iran's coach Zlatko Kranchar introduced Vahid Namdari and Mohammad Reza Azadi in the second half to give fresh force to the forward line. Like the first half, Iran only managed a few real scoring chances in this half. As the final minutes of the game approached, the pressure on Iran's forwards to score also increased. Perhaps the best chance for Iran to score was wasted by Vahid Namdari on the 87th minute, from Muslimpour's cross which missed the cross by inches.

At the final whistle , Iraqi players celebrated their qualification while the Iranian were left to drift and ask questions where it all went wrong.

The standard and style of Iran Omid Team does not induce much confidence. Direct football with aerial balls was the name of the game for Omid Team in all the 3 matches. Zlatko Kranjcar has not introduced anything of value in this team. It is certainly no eye candy. The way this Omid Team is playing truly does not require a coach. If by miracle, Iran does qualify, the first question that must be addressed is the coaching and leadership of this team. There is a long road and plenty of work for this Omid team to succeed as the way this team is playing is no where near championship pedigree..

Iran Omid Team Line up vs Iraq

Meraj Esmaili ; Omid Noorafkan, Alireza Artah, Mohammad Moslemipour, Hossein Saki, Sina Zamehran, Mehdi Mehdi Khani (Abolfazl Razzaghpour), Reza Shekari (Vahid Namdari ), Mehdi Ghaedi, Reza Jabereih and Amir Roustai (Mohammad Reza Azadi).

Iran Omid 3-0 Yemen

Iran U-23 National Team (Omid) defeated Yemen 3-0 on Sunday in Azadi Stadium to maintain its challenge for qualification to the final rounds of the AFC Asian U23 Championship Thailand 2020 and the Tokyo Olympic Games men football competition.

All the three goals were scored in the second half and all were from Headers. Reza Shekari headed the first goal from a corner, Reza Jabeireh added the second from a rebound also with a header, while the pick of the lot was Mehdikhani's incredible back header from a free kick.

All of Iran's 6 goals scored so far have been from set play as no goals were scored in the two matches from love play. This is very worrying trend as it seemed from the beginning of the match that Iran's Omid team is offensively ineffective and depend on the old school of crosses from the wings to forwards in the box for scoring.  Yemen, gallantly put up a good fight and could have scored from the few chances they had.

This match was a continuation from the same old shortfalls of the match against Turkmenistan. Poor team work . old style and basic football, lack of penetration from the middle , general lack of positional awareness, and disconnect of midfield players with forwards marred today's performance against Yemen.

The match against the powerful Iraqi teams will be decider for Iran. Anything short of a win, will risk the Team elimination from the competition and a loss of another opportunity to make the Olympics, a 39 years wait for Iran. Despite two wins in a row, the goal difference for the second position is not very healthy for Iran as other teams in the Asian groups have some sizable advantage.  So, Iran really needs to win against Iraq to be assured of a place in the finals.

Omid Team 

Meraj Esmaeili, Omid Noorafkan, Alireza Arta, Abolfazl Jalali, Mohammad Aghajanpour, Abolfazl Razzaghpour, Mohammad Khodabandehloo, Mehdi Mehdikhani, Mehdi Ghaedi, Reza Jabeireh , Mohammad Reza Azadi

Substitution 2ND HALF

Rwza Shakari & Hossein Saki (46 min)

GOALS

Reza Shekari (55)

Reza Jabeireh (66)

Mehdi Mehdikhani (75)

Omid starts with a win - Iran U23 3 -1 Turkmenistan U23

Iranian U-23 Omid Team commenced its long road to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics football competition with a victory against Turkmenistan at Azadi Stadium on Friday.

Iran won 3-1 with goals scored by an own goal, Omid Noorafkan and Reza Jabierah

Although Omid won with a two goal margin, it was far from an easy game and the result was too flattering for the host with Turkmenistan , a persistent and strong team giving the host a run for their money. All the goals of the match were scored from set pieces.

At the Azadi Stadium, about 1,000 fans watched this game with the majority obviously opting to spend the Nowrooz holidays away from football.

Iran Omid Team,  already aware of the result of the earlier game between Iraq and Yemen, with the former comprehensively winning 5-0,  seems to be in urgency to open the scoring early. However, poor organization & finishing, smart defending by Turkmenistan and generally uncertain game plan, they could not reach the opponent’s goalkeeper except for a few times. While the Iranian players failed to score, it was a friendly fire which did the job for them. In the 35th minute a ball cleared from the goal line hit a Turkmen defender and it deflected back into his own goal, 1-0 to Iran.

This was result by the end of a scruffy first half in which the Omid team was far from impressive or organized.

In the second half, Iran appeared to be more calculated and calmer perhaps as the result of the pip talk by the coach. There were no more ideas of an easy win against a stubborn and physically stronger Turkmen team.

However, against the run of play , Iran was awarded a free kick in a perfect area just behind the box in the 53rd minute. The resulting free kick was beautifully dispatched by Captain Omid Noorafkan, whose shot penetrated the defensive wall and hit the far left corner of the goalkeeper

While Iran was happy to play out the game with a 2 goal lead, Turkmenistan hit out.

In the 74th minute, Turkmenistan got a corner kick, which was met by the towering Giordonov who headed the ball beautifully to the left of Meraj Esmaeili in Iran’s goal reducing the margin to a minimum. Suddenly, it was game on and Iranians started panicking.

In the remaining 15 minutes, Omid team played a defensive game thus inviting more pressure from the opponents, who were the more likely team to score the equalizer.

Iranian players were more concerned with maintaining the result than attacking and despite venturing forward on limited occasions, one such attacks ended up with a free kick

It was late in the game  when lady luck saved Iran. The Turkmen goalkeeper failed to hold a ball from the resultant free kick and the ball dropped in front of the Reza Jebeirah who headed from close range to score Iran’s third and seal the game.

While the result of the match was quite satisfactory for Omid Team , the performance was far from it. This team looks incoherent at best and has no natural leader in the field. Perhaps the relatively young age of the majority is one factor. There is distinct lack of maturity in their football with silly and uncalled for showboating such as scissor kicks in impossible situations, back heel passes that did not work or excessive dribbling by Ghaedi who looks like typical back-alley footballer.

One noticeable observation on the Iran bench was the number of people sending instruction to players. At one stage, it looked like Hamid Estili was the head coach with his touchline instructions, then it was the turn of Reza Sharoudi and even Chalangar, who is Kranjcar’s interpreter got on the act !!!

The team is definitely a work in progress which needs a lot of improvement. On Sunday, there will be an easy game against Yemen which they expect to win, but the last match against Iraq is far from easy

Iran U-23 Line up:

Meraj Ismaili; Alireza Arta, Mohammad Aghajanpour, Sina Zadmehran, Mohammad Moslempour, Mehdi Mahdikhani, Omid Noorafkan, Vahid Namdari (78 AbolFazl Razaghpour), Mehdi Ghaedi, Amir Roustaei (63 Reza Jabierah) and Mohammad Reza Azadi

Iran Omid team U-23 Squad list

Zlatko Krancjar announced the final list of the Iran U-23 Omid Team for the qualification rounds of AFC U23 Championship 2020  
No. Player D.O.B Age Club Born
GOALKEEPRS
1 Meraaj Esmaeili 13-Jan-00 19 Zob Ahan Andimeshk
2 Nima Mirzad 27-Feb-97 22 Nassaji Mazandaran Anzali
3 Shahab Adeli 19-Jan-97 21  Sepahan tehran
DEFENDERS
4 Abolfazl Jalali 26-Jun-98 20 Saipa Alborz Amol
5 Abolfazl Razzaghpour 17-Sep-97 20  Paykan Ghaemshahr
6 Alireza Arta 04-Feb-97 21  Mes Kerman Kerman
7 Hossein Saki 10-May-97 22 Sanat Naft Dasht-e Azadegan
8 Mohammad Aghajanpour 20-Apr-97 21  Padideh Babol
9 Mohammad Moslemipour 25-May-97 21  Sepahan Tabriz
10 Omid Darreh 08-Aug-99 19 Saipa Alborz Tehran
MIDFIELD
11 Hamid Reza Taherkhani 26-Mar-99 19 Sapidrood Rasht Takestan
12 Mohammad Khodabandelou 07-Sep-99 18  Paykan Tehran
13 Mohammad Khorram Al Hosseini 07-Apr-97 21 Gostaresh Foolad Qazvin
14 Omid Noorafkan 09-Apr-97 21 Esteghlal Robat Karim
15 Reza Shekari 31-May-98 20 Rubin Kazan Tehran
16 Vahid Namdari 26-Jun-00 19 Esteghlal Khuzestan Ahvaz
FORWARDS
17 Ali Shojaei 27-Jan-97 22 Nassaji Mazandaran Tehran
18 Amir Roostaei 05-Aug-97 21  Paykan Tehran
19 Mehdi Ghaedi 05-Dec-98 19  Esteghlal Bushehr
20 Mohammad Mehdi Mehdikhani 26-Jul-97 21  Padideh Gilangharb
21 Mohammad Reza Azadi 07-Dec-99 18  Tractor Sazi Tabriz
22 Reza Jabireh 07-Jul-97 21  Sanat Naft Abadan Abadan
23 Sina Zamehran 10-Mar-97 21  Padideh Mashad