Tag: Sardar Azamoun

Another Defeat for Team Melli, qualification in peril.

Team Melli lost its second consecutive game in the FIFA World Cup 2022 qualification rounds when it lost to Iraq 2-1 in the match played on Thursday 14th November in Amman Jordan.

The First half ended 1-1, Iraq starting the scoring through Muhannad Ali in the 11th Minute, While Ahmad Noorallahei equalized in the 28th. As the match was at the dying minutes of the added time, Iraq was awarded a corner which it turned into a goal to the bewilderment of Team Melli players.

The starting line-up for Team Melli was much more reasonable than the previous one against Bahrain. Wilmots finally realized the ineffectiveness of a 3 man forward game plan, leaving the midfield area in tatters and seriously deficient.  The idea of using some experience in the midfield was a good one to start with, hence the selection of Masoud Shojaei. However, the veteran 35 years old Tractor player is hardly up to the task. His inclusion in the lineup not only did not add any value for the team, on the contrary, his constant errors, but poor passing and couple of fouls committed resulted in his dismal 10 minutes before time leaving the team in a risky position. Iraq scored when Iran was one man short.

The Team Captain’s action after being given the second yellow card and the subsequent red card were distasteful and unworthy of Team Melli Captain.

Shojaei, who was booed several times in Azadi more than 10 years ago, because of his poor performances, has hardly had a good game for Team Melli and this one is another for the archives. This could probably see the end of his career with Iran’s Team Melli.

The highly tense match started with Iraq pushing forward and pressing the Iranian players on the ball. In this first quarter that pressing worked as they scored the opener.

As the match went on, Iran finally got a grip on the game and started playing, however, and surprisingly, there were too many long balls from the back to the forward line which was all dealt with quite easily by the Iraqi solid defence. There was no solid control of the midfield that Iraq had 5 players. Sardar hardly saw a decent ball from the midfield while Mehdi Taremi was nowhere to be seen in the match.

The equalizer scored by Iran was not a result of some nicely played passing game but due to the persistent and the brilliance of Mohammed Mohebbi who chased what looked like the Iraqi defender ball just near the corner. He robbed the ball, dribbled past a couple of his markers and sent it back to Noorollahei who wiggled his way past two defenders and shot a venomous ball into the far side of the goal.

It was a goal created and scored by two individual brilliant plays.

The match went on to be a scrappy affair with far too many interruptions with both side players trying to cheat and deceive the referee to gains advantage. There is far too many of this happening in the Asian Football. The Sri Lankan referee was cool enough to deal with them but he could and should have given at least two yellow cards to Iraqi players for play-acting. The referee’s decisions, however, were non-factors in the result.

This result puts Iran qualification to the World Cup in a real precarious position. Neither the result nor the performance was good enough to give the fans confidence in the team. It is a far cry from Queiroz’ days at the same stage of the qualification for World Cup 2018. It is obvious that Wilmots’ way is still not being understood or implemented.  He is still learning how to deal with this new challenge. His absence from Iran and limited time to train and coach the team does not help either and it is starting to show.

Team Melli falls short in Bahrain

Bahrain once again inflicted injury to Iranian pride by beating Team Melli 1-0 today in the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 qualifiers in the match played at the National Stadium in Riffa.

The solitary goal scored by Bahrain’s Mohammed Al-Hardan in the 65th minute from a penalty kick as a result of a foul committed by Majid Hosseini on the Bahraini player in the box.

It was the first defeat for Wilmots since he took over from Carlos Queiroz. The defeat came right after  14-0 win against Cambodia in Azadi. Team Melli performance was lethargic and lacked creativity. A few of the regular shortfalls were observed once again in this match including some disciplinary issues, surprisingly this time by the Captain of the team Ehsan Hajsafi who was guilty of being temperamental and unnecessary vocal after being awarded a yellow card. Not a good example for a person who should lead by example.

 Azmoun, by now well-known for his hot temperament and poor discipline, was seconds away from receiving two consecutive yellow cards and subsequent dismissal after a vehement protest against the Uzbek referee for not calling a penalty. The Uzbek referee V. Kovalenko seemed to be right on both calls.

The match played in sweltering heat and high humidity, was slow to take shape. Both teams seemed to conserve energy for better endurance. By the 15th minute, both teams players’ jerseys were wet as if were taken fresh out of water. Naturally, the hosts who are used to this sort of weather ¾ of the year managed to acclimatize better under the circumstances.

Marc Wilmots, elected to start with 3 forwards upfront, a plan that did not yield well. Karim Ansarifard, the 4 goal hero of last Thursday, was virtually just a bystander figure who did not seem to have turned up for the game. He was substituted in the 70th minute while Wilmots could have done much better if that substitution was done earlier.

There was very little to differentiate between the two teams as their defences did not have many problems against the opposition forwards. However, the trio Azmoun, Taremi and Ansarifard were quite disappointing. Whatever balls that reached the veteran Bahrain goalkeeper Seyed Mohammaed Jaffar was dealt with by him.

Omid Ebrahimi was the dynamo of the team and most of the offensive moves were started by his excellent distributions. However, Ebrahimi lacked support in the midfield as neither Hajsafi or Mohebi could add value to the schemer in the centre of the field. Wilmots would have been better off adding another specialized midfielder like Noorollahi using four players for better control of the midfield. The flanks did not operate well either as Milad Mohammadi and Ramin Rezaeian were limited in their action.

The defence line was fine but Majid Hosseini committed two critical errors, one of which cost Iran the game. In the first instance, the young central defender left a lot of space for Bahrain forward, but for his poor finishing, the host could have taken the lead much earlier. In the second, his poor position again and lunging at the Bahraini forward, cost the penalty.

The result takes Bahrain to the top of the group along with Iraq with 7 points while Iran with 6 points drops to 3rd. It was more than a disappointing result with several tactical errors observed. Wilmots need to seriously look at his lineup that lacked balanced. This mentality of an all-out offensive game plan must not obscure his vision and should be revisited.  Cracks began to appear early in the match as teams such as Bahrain and Iraq can exploit them.  the Belgian need to go back to the drawing board.

 

Iran’s next game is in one month’s time away to Iraq.

 

Barazay “Kranjcar is the perfect coach for Omid Team”

The Captain of Team Melli U-23 , known as the Omid Team , has spoken to ISNA about the aspirations and the prospects of the team.

Behnam Barazay , the current Rah Ahan player and the Captain of the U23 team , believes in strong preparation games ” unless we play against quality teams for our friendly games to get the big experience , I am afraid we will not be able to qualify for the Olympic Games.”

The young striker , is also confident that the Croat coach Zlatko Kranjcar is the best candidate for the Omid team ” He has coached at different levels, his record is quite good , he coached in Iran and his approach is professional. I believe he is the perfect coach for Omid Team.”

“Although many players prefer to work with Iranian coaches, and I am one of those players , as communication is easier , however a coach in the class of Kranjcar can make a big difference.” Barazay added.

Regarding the recent failures specifically in the Asian Games in Incheon, Barazay said ” The players were under tremendous stress after the Asian Games. In the Qatar camp , quite a lot of work was done on the psychological aspect but fear of losing still causes a lot of stress.”

About his own future career and whether he will follow his teammates Alireza Jahanbaksh and Sardar Azamoun in to Europe,  Barazay Did not want to think about that for the time being although he received an offer from an Arab team. ” All my concentration right now is on the form of my team Rah Ahan. I have  not succeeded in gaining the full confidence of Hamid Estili yet. My goal is to do that. I need to get it right here in Iran before thinking about abroad and becoming a legionnaires”

The situation with the appointment of Kranjcar took another weird twist when it was decided that a committee within the football federation will have to examine the Croat coach resume and give its seal of approval before the coach can be appointed. This development cam up aright after Ali Kaffashian and Habib Kashani confirmed the appointment of the ex-Sepahan Esfahan coach as the head coach of the Omid Team. Many observers are suspecting some interference by the Ministry of Sport who always claims that they have no role in appointing coaches for National Team , but in reality they exert pressure on the FFIRI and Kaffashian to pass their own candidates.

 

Behnam Barazay

Behnam Barazay