Pick your 11 for Portugal

Afshin Afshar | 6 Comments

Now that we know Ali Daei will not play, tell me who do you think should be in our starting eleven against Portugal should be. Make sure to add a note as to why.

Here is what I would do and why:

Mirzapour – I have not seen Taleblou play, so I just go with the goalkeeper I know

Kaebi – He had a good game.
Golmohammadi – He did alright
Rezaei – Besides that mistake he did a fine job.
Madanchi - He played that position for his club side and did a fine job.

Mahdavikia – He did fine until Ivankovic switched him to the lef side
Nkounam – Had a sub par fame, but we have no one else.
Teymourian – He had a fine game.

Karimi – In front of the midfield and behind the forwards.

Hashemian – I play him at the center.
Khatibi or Borhani - Play wide.

Category: Group D

Tags: Iran, Team Melli, Tag Index

Let’s not flip!

Afshin Afshar | 2 Comments

Okay, our friend Payam who contributes to this blog from Iran suggested that we should stop beating ourselves over the loss to Mexico and start talking about Portugal.

He is absolutely right. No reason to flip!

We are stuck with Branko and his system for two more games. Let’s hope that we put up a good show against Portugal for two full halves.

I will not post any more stuff about the last game. Let’s try to enjoy this World Cup for two more games with our team in it, and then after we are out, adopt another team as our own and have a blast

Category: Group D

Tags: Iran, Team Melli, Tag Index

Iran-Mexico short analysis

Afshin Afshar | 15 Comments

Here is a short video clip analyzing the Iran Mexico game. Thank you Abbas.

Note what he says about “playing defensive” in the second half.

Click here to see the video.

Category: Group D

Tags: Tag Index

Branko promises “No more gifts” to opponents

Afshin Afshar | 14 Comments

Team Melli crashed in three short minutes against Mexico. Everyone is focusing on Mirzapour’s mistake, but the problems are much deeper than that.

All day Mexico ran balls down the left side of Iran’s field. That is Nosrati’s side.

A number of times (I have watched the game two times now) Kaebi and Rezaei had to come all the way to the left side to cover for him.

I don’t know why Nosrati keeps going AWOL. If it is his mistake, change him for goodness sake. And if it is a coaching decision to send him up the field, call him back then. This tactic is clearly NOT working!!!!!

Branko Ivankovic told reporters that “No more gifts to opponents!” But I tell you, there will be more gifts unless something is done about our goalkeeper and left back positions.

Category: Group D

Tags: Iran, Team Melli, Tag Index

Daei out of the World Cup

Afshin Afshar | 14 Comments

Ali Daei is “injured” and will not be available for the next two games. That is the official news out of the Team Melli camp.

Unofficial news is that he is NOT injured and he either chose to not play or was told he wouldn’t.

In either case, this comes about 4 years too late. He should have resigned the day after we lost the playoff to Ireland. Iran won the return leg in Tehran 1:0. He could have done what Bagheri did and retired from international football.

We have so much young talent in Iran that it is ridicules for any coach to not tap into it and instead stick to older players that are way past their prime.

Watch Iran play a lot better against Portugal. We will probably lose but it will not be because we did not try.

Category: Group D

Tags: Iran, Team Melli, Ali Daei, Tag Index

Post-Match quotes by coaches and players

Afshin Afshar | 29 Comments

Thanks to Reza here we have quotes and comments by Iran and Mexico’s coaches and players.

Click here for coaches’ comments
Click here for players’ comments

Category: Group D

Tags: Iran, Team Melli, Mexico, Tag Index

Ivankovic should learn from Beenhakker

Afshin Afshar | No Comments

Ivankovic is a very cautious coach. We all know that. We have known that for four years. I wish he was half as brave as 68 year-old Leo Beenhakker, the coach of Trinidad and Tobago.

In their game against Sweden, with one man down, he refused to go into a defensive shell and play for the draw. He subbed a tired forward with another forward and kept Sweden’s defense honest.

We should have pressed on in the second half. He should have subbed an ineffective Ali Daei at the half and brought in Arash Borhani, move him to the left, and Hashemian to the center.

Furthermore, if Karimi was hurt, he should have been subbed at the half by Madanchi, who is also an attack minded midfielder.

Category: Group D

Tags: Iran, Team Melli, Iranian Football Federation, IRIFF, Tag Index

What was wrong with Ali Karimi

Afshin Afshar | 1 Comment

I am not sure why Ali Karimi was subbed in the second half. I though maybe his ankle was hurting, but in his post match interview Ivankovic did not say anything specific about that, except that he “was not fully fit”.

So let’s see what unveils in the next few days.

Category: Group D

Tags: Iran, Team Melli, Iranian Football Federation, IRIFF, Tag Index

Let’s get over it and enjoy the rest of the WC

Afshin Afshar | 22 Comments

I know we are all upset. But let’s pause for a few seconds and think why we lost this game. I can sum up the answer into three short bullet points:

1) Mirzapour and Rezaei’s mistake
2) Ineffective offensive line
3) Coaching decisions and tactics

Let us say that the first one can happen to any player in any given game, but the last two are coaching related. I wrote about this after my nerves settled a little bit, but I was still upset, so take it with a grain of salt

Anyway, let’s put this game behind us. Let’s show our Mexican friends that we are good sportsmen by congratulating them for the win and then hope that we do better in the next two games.

Remember, this is supposed to be a big festival of fun for football fans from all around the world. Unfortunately, there has to be winners and losers and today we were at the losing end.

Category: Group D

Tags: Iran, Team Melli, Iranian Football Federation, IRIFF, Tag Index

Iran lose to Mexico

Afshin Afshar | 60 Comments

Okay, so we lost.

Let’s congratulate Mexico. They were the better team today, and they deserved the win.

Tam Melli fans, watch this space for more on the game.

Category: Group D

Tags: Iran, Team Melli, Iranian Football Federation, IRIFF, Mexico, Tag Index