Tag: Korea Rep.

Iranian Females in Azadi

Fans are still awaiting on the verdict on Azadi.

The President of FFIRI Shahabuddin Azizi Khadem declared that the verdict in the case of Marc Wilmots against his federation in the Supreme Court of Sports is still pending: “We are currently waiting. We have time until the 29th of October. We hope that what is in the interest of national football will come to fruition. No Iranian is willing to waste even a penny from the pockets of these people in a contract in which this federation was not involved!!”

The remark is quite controversial coming from the head of the federation that is supposed to have signed a contract for the coach of Team Melli. All football federations of the world select, employ, and sign contracts with coaches to manage their national teams. What transpires from Azizi Khadem is that the FFIRI had no say in the contract of the Belgian coach. That raises many questions including who forced this unsuited coach on Team Melli ? and worst, why did the previous head of the FFIRI, namely one Mehdi Taj accept this failure of a coach?

Azizi Khadem continued “We hope the final verdict is not damaging to Iranian football rights.”

Regarding the introduction of video referee assistance (VAR) technology to Iran, he said  “The information that I have is that the managers of the relevant company will arrive in Tehran tonight for study and planning. They will be in Iran for about 12 days and we have agreed on trials of VAR in four Team Melli games. Necessary instructions have also been given to the league organization to list the stadiums. This is a very important and historic step for the national football, club, and refereeing community to benefit from VAR technology in the near future “

The President of the Football Federation was asked about the chances of allowing female spectators into the stadium for the match against South Korea, He said “Our colleagues are studying all the relevant details and health protocols. I hope the verdict on the presence of the fans in the game against South Korea is positive,  which is an important issue for us. Mr. Kamrani Far had a meeting today regarding the subject and the maximum number of fans allowed, which will be announced by himself.”

Azizi Khadem dodged the original question and refused to commit to allowing females into Azadi stadium. Of course, in Iran, such decisions are beyond the football federation or the Ministry of Youth and Sports authority and jurisdiction.

Iran will be hosting South Korea on the 12th of October in Matchday 4 of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 qualifiers.

List for UAE And Korea Rep matches announced.

Dragan Skocic announced the list of Team Melli players to play against the UAE and South Korea in the final qualifying rounds of FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. Majid Hosseini, Ehsan Haj Safi, and Kaveh Rezaei are the three changes from the last squad in an otherwise unchanged squad.

With a perfect winning record and players who have delivered, Skocic rightly stuck to the same skeleton of Team Melli players. With two tough matches ahead, Team Melli can set very comfortably at the top of the table with a high chance of qualifying to Qatar with all the six points of the October matches.

Despite the lack of preparation and minimal training before the first match against UAE, the team seems to have a good understanding and performed quite well in the last two matches.

Team Melli is currently at the top of Group A of the 2022 World Cup final qualifiers in Asia with 6 points, two ahead of nearest rivals South Korea whom they meet in Azadi.

Goalkeepers

Alireza Biranvand, Amir Abedzadeh, Payam Niazmand.

Defenders

Shoja Khalilzadeh, Mohammad Hossein Kananizadegan, Majid Hosseini, Milad Mohammadi , Omid Nourafkan, Sadegh Moharremi,  Saleh Hardani, Siavash Yazdani,  Ehsan Hajsafy

Midfield

Ahmad Noorollahi, Milad Sarlak, Yasin Salmani, Alireza Jahanbakhsh, Saeed Ezatollahi, Vahid Amiri, Saman Ghoddos, Mehdi Torabi , Ali Gholizadeh.

Forwards

Karim Ansarifard, Mehdi Ghaedi, Kaveh Rezaei, Sardar Azmoun and Mehdi Taremi.

 

 

Analysis of the matches vs UAE and Korea Rep.

 In an interview on the prospects of Team Melli, the former lecturer and football analyst Amir Haj Rezaei spoke of Team Melli chances for the upcoming games against the UAE and South Korea in the group stage of the final qualifying round of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar,

“The unity and empathy of the players can be clearly seen in the games of this team. The most important factor in shaping a team’s success is their sense of engagement, duty and technical responsibility”. Haj Rezaei continued: “The victory of the Iranian national team against Syria and Iraq was very important and we were able to defeat teams that were always a problem for us during the period of Carlos Queiroz, but now we see that they have nothing to say against Team Melli.”

Referring to Dragan Skocic’s excellent statistics on the Team Melli bench, Hajrezaei added: “He was not a leading coach and not a front runner for the post of coaching Team Melli, but now he has proven himself to everyone. Although Skocic, was not a household name, his success on and off the field are speaking volumes about him and his reputation is growing bigger and bigger.”

“There is no call to ignore his performance and credit the victories to other issues such as the legionnaire players and the management of the federation. The fact is that the current pillars are harmonized and we see successive successes in the senior team because of many factors, not just one.” HajRezaei who was a former assistant coach of Team Melli commented on differences and comparisons between Skocic and Carlos Queiroz ” I really do not understand why there is a need to compare these two people, who have nothing to do with each other. Each has done his own thing. The only point I like to point out is that during Queiroz, there was no stability and high tension as a result of the Portuguese coach’s demeanor.”

“but talking about the past does not help the current situation. We need to enjoy the results over time and learn from them when we fail to achieve our goals.”

He noted: “Team Melli will have a lot to say against the UAE and South Korea, and I think it is not necessary to create giants and hype the opposition like they are doing to  Al-Hilal, which really did not perform well against Esteghlal.” Hajrezaei added: “The fact is that we have neglected our resources and do not enjoy it, then we talk about the small assets of other teams.”

“Let us stop criticizing the team on every point and remember to be supporters aiming for the success of Team Melli. Let’s leave the technical issues for the coaching staff,  and focus our energy on being supporters of Team Melli which currently has at least three good players in each position.”

Iraq football federation to protest FIFA’s decision.

The Iraqi Football Federation intends to sue the world football governing body FIFA for denying it hosting its matches at home citing security reasons.

FIFA’s decision to deprive the country of hosting the World Cup Qatar 2022 qualifiers. In a letter to the Iraqi Football Federation yesterday, FIFA stated that the country could not host its World Cup qualifiers due to its security situation, and therefore should nominate a third country to host the home matches. FIFA’s decision has been met with objections from the Iraqi Football Federation, to the extent that they intend to sue the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

The Iraqi website also wrote that in the second step, the Iraqi Football Federation intends to ask FIFA and the AFC to hold a return match between Iran and Iraq at the Basra Stadium, which is scheduled to take place in Iraq. However, the Iraqi Sports website wrote that the federation has introduced Qatar as its host to FIFA for the first time, but will try to persuade FIFA to reverse this decision.

The chances of Iraq hosting its home games are slim as the CAS hearing normally takes a long time and chances are that the qualifiers will be over by the time a ruling is issued.

Iraq is in Group A of the World Cup Qatar 2022 third-round qualifiers along with Iran, Korea Rep., Syria, Lebanon, and UAE

Nizar Mahrous appointed as Head Coach of Syria

The former Syrian National team star and current coach Nizar Mahrous has been officially appointed as the head coach of Syria.

The Syrian Football Association decided to appoint Nizar Mahrous to succeed the Tunisian Nabil Maaloul who reigned after the federation failed to pay his wages. The Federation said in an official statement, published today, Wednesday: “After the meeting of the Board of Directors of the Syrian Arab Football Association, three days ago, and after studying and discussing the names proposed by the Technical Department, the Coaches Committee, and the National Teams Committee, and after communicating with the proposed names, it was decided to appoint Nizar Mahrous as Technical Director (Head Coach) .

Mahrous (58 years) was approached by the federation immediately after the departure of Maaloul, however, after the negotiations reached advanced stages, the former national Team player agreed. It is expected that Mahroos’s assistant technical and administrative staff will be announced at the end of next week.

This is the second stint of Mahrous with The Syrian National Football Team. In May 2011, Mahrous was appointed manager of Syria. On 24th August 2011, he quit after FIFA disqualified Syria from the 2014 World Cup qualifiers for fielding an ineligible player.

Mahroos, who has previously trained several local and Arab teams and achieved good results with them, has a very difficult task ahead, as he will lead the Syrian team in the third qualifying round for the Qatar 2022 World Cup. The Syrian team’s group included Iran, South Korea, the Emirates, Iraq, and Lebanon.

There was no mention of the contract details

Reports: Iraq & Syria may lose hosting rights.

According to the UAE Al-Ittihad newspaper, two Group A teams Iraq and Syria may well lose the chance of playing their home matches in their own country.

Ittihad quoted informed sources in the Asian Football Confederation headquarters, the AFC has asked Iraq and Syria to nominate alternative venues for their home matches in the third qualifying round of the FIFA  World Cup Qatar 2022 in a neutral country.  According to the newspaper, security issues and the coronavirus situation of the two countries are factors that influenced the denying of the hosting and requirement to nominate other countries for holding their home matches.

The final decision has to be resolved by the end of July (less than another month), as the third round qualifiers start on 2nd September. However, FIFA has stated that countries in each group cannot nominate their group rivals venues to host home matches. Al-Ittihad also stated that the president of the Syrian Football Federation has begun negotiations to select an Arab country to host on neutral ground. Reflecting on the news, Iraqi journalist Ali Nouri also protested against the decision by FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation and called on the Minister of Sports, Adnan Darjal, and the Iraqi Federation’s normalization committee to pursue the issue of hosting Iraq on its own soil. Iran, South Korea, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and the UAE are in the Group of the third round FIFA World Cup qualifiers. This report does not mention the name of Iran and the issue of its hosting.

GROUP A: Iran rivals historical data review

With the draw of the third round concluded in Kuala Lumpur AFC headquarters, Iran has been grouped with Korea Rep., Syria, Iraq, UAE, and Lebanon.

While navigating this group of teams is not as easy as it looks on paper, the historic data supports Iran and draws a clear picture of superiority against its rival, the exception being South Korea which the teams are neck to neck on records.

Iran has played a total of 114 matches against these 5 teams with a percentage of wins set at 57%. Only 15% of the matches ended in a loss against these rivals.

The latest team that defeated Iran in any match was Iraq back in the 2nd round. UAE never won against Iran in official competition matches.

 

Korea Rep.
H / A / N Matches W D L Goals + / –
H 7 5 2 0 10 – 03 7
A 11 3 6 2 08 – 08 0
N 13 5 1 7 15 – 22 -7
Total 31 13 9 9 33 – 33 0
Syria
H / A / N Matches W D L Goals + / –
H 13 6 6 1 29 – 10 19
A 8 5 3 0 10 – 03 7
N 7 4 3 0 08 – 03 5
Total 28 15 12 1 47 – 16 31

Lebanon
H / A / N Matches W D L Goals + / –
H 4 4 0 0 14 – 0 14
A 5 3 1 1 11 – 02 9
N 1 1 0 0 2 – 0 2
Total 10 8 1 1 27 – 02 25

Iraq
H / A / N Matches W D L Goals + / –
H 12 9 1 2 19 – 08 11
A 3 2 1 0 04 – 01 3
N 14 6 5 3 17 – 12 5
Total 29 17 7 5 40 – 21 19

UAE
H / A / N Matches W D L Goals + / –
H 5 4 1 0 4 – 0 4
A 7 5 1 1 13 – 04 9
N 4 3 1 0 7 – 0 7
Total 16 12 3 1 24 – 04 20

OVERALL RESULTS
P W D L GF GA
114 65 32 17 171 76
57% 28% 15%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last meetings

Iraq 15-06-21 WC Qualifier N 1 – 0 16 Days
Syria 03-03-21 Friendly H 3 – 0 3 Months
Korea Rep 11-06-19 Friendly A 1 -1 2 years
UAE 19-01-15 Asian Cup H 1 – 0 6 years
Lebanon 19-11-13 Asian Cup Qlfy H 4 – 1 7 Years

 

Loss records

In the same FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, Team Melli has suffered its last loss. Surprisingly Lebanon was the latest team that has defeated Team Melli again in the World Cup qualifiers but that was 8 years ago. The third-ranked defeat came from Kore Rep in the quarter-finals of the AFC Asian Cup 2011 in Qatar and that was 11 years ago.

The record of the last defeat goes to Syria which managed its only win against Iran in the Qualifiers some 48 years ago.

 

TEAM MATCH DATE YEARS Result Competition
IRAQ 14-11-2019 1.5 1 – 2 World Cup QLFY
LEBANON 11-09-2012 8 0 – 1 World Cup QLFY
KOREA REP 22-01-2011 10 0 – 1 ASIAN CUP
UAE 02-09-1997 23 1 – 3 FRIENDLY
SYRIA 15-05-1973 48 0 – 1 World Cup QLFY

 

 

An exciting draw for Iran.

If there was an easier draw in the final round of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, then Iran has possibly the better group of the two.

Not only the opponents are well known for Team Melli but the logistics will be that much easier with 4 neighbors per se with the only long-distance travel being Korea. The most familiar team is Iraq which Iran recently defeated in the second round to qualify for the final round.

Korea will remain the most serious of the group contenders. The star-studded team of the Koreans have qualified for the World Cup 10 times and is well-positioned to make it number 11 along with Iran.

the four Arab countries in the group stand an equal chance of qualifying. Although Syria was the best performer of the four teams in the second round, it will be difficult for the Syrians to repeat this performance in the third round, especially since they lost their head coach the Tunisian Nabil Maaloul.

Iraq will always remain a strong team despite the difficult circumstances surrounding the team. In the draw ceremonies, the Slovenian coach of Iraq national Team Katanec was absent while doing the after-draw interviews. That does not augur well for the coach who is on shaky ground. It is not clear if he will be continuing with the team.

UAE was trailing Vietnam in the group until the last day. However, a great awakening in the last match, pushed UAE to a win against Vietnam to head the group and qualify directly to round three. UAE is a well know opposition to Iran but has never defeated Team Melli. UAE also remains a favorite away venue to Iran.

Lebanon was perhaps the luckiest team of the group but by no mean the punching bag. Their performance in the group with Korea was quite admirable. Although their chance of qualifying is minimal, they do represent a challenge for the others especially the lower ranked group teams. The economic situation of Lebanon would be the biggest off-field challange to their preparations for the third round.

Reza Ghoochannejhad scores a hat trick for PEC Zwolle in the Eredivisie.

The former Team Melli and current PEC Zwolle forward Reza Ghoochannejhad (33 years) scored a hat-trick in the match against Willem II to lead his team to a 3-1 victory in the Dutch Eredivisie League.

 Ghoochannejhad was substituted in at the start of the second half and scored his opener in the 58th minute to level the match after the first half ended with host Willem II leading by a goal to nil. He scored again four minutes later to put his team ahead 2-1.

On the 70th minute,  PEC Zwolle was awarded a penalty which Reza Ghoochannejhad took and score to complete his hat-trick.

It was a major performance for the Iranian forward whose appearance has been limited for his team. He has scored 5 goals so far and this hat trick should improve his chances for more minutes in the future. PEC Zwolle is ranked 11th in the table. Ghoochannejhad joined PEC Zwolle in September 2019 and has played 26 matches scoring 9 goals in two seasons.

Ghoochannejhad played his last game for Team Melli in a friendly international in Azadi against Uzbekistan. The match ended 1 – 0 for Iran.

Ghoochannejhad played a total of 43 games for Iran scoring 17 goals in a career from October 2012. 

Déjà vu. Omid Team eliminated!

Omid Team has been eliminated from the group stages of the AFC Asian U23 Championship and with it the eternal dream of qualification to the Tokyo Olympics 2020.

In the final do and die match against winless China, Omid Team struggled badly and wasted chance after chance to score goals until the 85th minute when a dubious penalty call by the referee allowed Noorafkan to score from the spot-kick. It was one goal too little and too late despite Uzbekistan losing their match against South Korea 2-1.

Uzbekistan qualified as the second of the group with 4 points, same as Iran but with a better goal difference of one goal.

In a match of wasted chances, especially the one that profligate Mehdi Ghaedi wasted while the goal and the net was at his mercy, wide open with the Chinese keeper stranded and nowhere near covering his goal. Ghaedi got the loose ball and with all the time and options available to him, he decides to head the ball into the empty net but he missed by a big margin!

How cruel and how heartbreaking!

This was the final nail in the coffin as the likes of Sayyadmanish, Shojaei, Mehdikhani kept shooting blanks and wasting chance after chance against a Chinese team that had nothing to play for but pride.

At the end of the day, this Omid Team did not deserve to qualify with these players and coaches.  The passive, back-foot approach, the helter-skelter style employed by Hamid Estili once again looked out of date against opponents who embody many of the principles associated with modern football. Estili, never an accomplished coach in the first place had a disadvantage with a bunch of individual players, who did not truly understand the concept teamwork and tactical (not that there was much of that in evidence) discipline, hence that combination turned into what the experts expected, failure of Team Omid.

It was Déjà vu.

That eerie feeling that the fans and media personnel have lived through the situation on numerous spells. The same lame excuses, the same justifications, the same “We were unlucky” and the same “We will do better next time, inshallah!”

44 years since the last Olympics, and by the next cycle, it will be 48 years wait. At this rate, we will be passing the half-century of years since Iran has made the Olympics Games football competition, a feat that nations who are supposedly below Iran in World Football Ranking have achieved many times.

Ultimately, in this current messy organizational structure and management deficiencies in Iran’s football at all levels, fans have to get used to failures after failures. You reap what you sow, nothing more nothing less. Deep-rooted changes have to be implemented and cleansing is done by competent professionals rather than devout loyalists. Success is achieved only by skillful, learned, experienced professional who base their work on systems and processes of modern football management.