WC 2018 Group B: Spain Portugal Iran Morocco

When I was doing the comparisons between Morocco's most expensive player on the transfer market, namely Ajax's Hakim Ziyesh, and Iran's 2nd most expensive player on the transfer market, namely AZ Alkaamar's Alireza Jahanbakhsh, I discovered something that was rather intriguing. Namely, how similar the differences between Ajax's squad and AZ's squad on the transfer market were to the differences between Morocco's squad and Iran's squad. The similarities were, in fact, remarkable.

Put differently, even when talking about clubs within the same league, and not engaging in the apples and oranges comparisons that totally skew the picture in comparing figures between Morocco and Iran, a comparison between Ajax and AZ clearly shows how differences on a squad's transfer market value can totally exaggerate the qualitative differences between two sides. In the case of comparing Iran to Morocco, of course, those figures can be entirely misleading for reasons I have already discussed at length.
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p.s.
Here are the figures underlying what I wrote above in small font:

Ajax Amsterdam -
Total Market Value: 158,20 Mill. €
Current Standing in the Eredivisie: 2nd place
Highest Valued Player: Hakim Ziyesh 20,00 Mill. €

AZ Alkmaar -
Total Market Value: 49,38 Mill. €
Current Standing in the Eredivisie: 3rd place
Highest Valued Player: Alireza Jahanbakhsh 8,00 Mill. €
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Morocco National Team -
Total Market Value:123,05 Mill. €
Highest Valued Player: Hakim Ziyesh 20,00 Mill. €

Iran National Team -
Total Market Value: 43,90 Mill. €
2nd Highest Valued Player: Alireza Jahanbakhsh 8,00 Mill. €
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Basically, the difference in transfer market value between Ajax (158,20 Mill. €) and AZ (49,38 Mill. €), while actually more substantial than the difference between Morocco (123,05 Mill. €) and Iran.(43,90 Mill. €), are proportionally quite similar. Ajax's squad is worth a little more than 3 (3.2) times AZ's squad on the transfer market. Morocco's squad is worth a little less than 3 (2.8) times Iran's squad on the transfer market. The overall figures are very similar too: Ajax's squad (158,20 Mil.€) is around 35 Mil. € more expensive than Morocco's (123,05 Mil.€) but basically of similar proportion (128%) relative to how AZ's squad (49,38 Mil.€) compares to Iran's (43.90 Mil.€), i.e. ( 112%).

 

I was happy with the friendly matches we played before the draw, but our remaining schedule is rather pathetic. I understand the games against the North African contingent (in particular, Tunisia and Algeria), and while playing Turkey is also something I look forward to, I am not sure I understand why we need to play Greece and, even less so, why Lithuania? Lithuania makes less sense to me than playing Syria and Uzbekistan on non-FIFA match days. With the latter, even though I am not thrilled, I can at least see the logic of testing bench and roster choices against the kind of opposition our first team played in the qualifiers, but for the life of me I don't understand how Lithuania will help with anything? Even Greece isn't exactly an obvious choice to me, given that I don't expect anyone in our group to play a style remotely similar to how Greece plays.

 

This calls for a comparison of girlfriends and wives, and Iran would probably beat Morocco easily in this category. I think the odds are that Spain and Portugal are still the favourites though, but we still have a very talanted squad pictured below, from Iran all the way to Albania.

 

Finally some thought-provoking analysis of Iranian football. Cheers Mani!

 

These are the ones that I could find quickly

Rosely Prieto (Chamakhs wife)


Ayisha Diaz (Boussoufa's girlfriend)



Hind Dirar (Dirars wife and ex Miss Belgium)

Lazaar's girlfriend is supposedly also a model but couldn't find her name

 

It think it’s safe to say that the Lebanese and Moroccan girls are the most beautiful elegant ladies in the Arab world.

 

I knew Group B has more quality than Group A but it just hit me that our matches will probably be the quality football opener to the tournament.

Russia-Saudi will be a snoozefest in my opinion. Uruguay-Egypt will have more quality but be cagey.

I am thinking since Morocco-Iran both need a win and then Portugal playing Spain is the first heavyweight matchup it can set the tone for an exciting tournament.

 

Or the teams in Group A know they can lose the first match so they go all in!

 

I looked through all the teams from Africa and I have to say that in terms of players Morocco is up there with Senegal as to player quality. They may not have a standout like Sadio Mane, albeit Harit and Ziyech seem like players that just need a chance to show how good they are at a big club.

 

Tunisia, which Iran will be playing in March, just got a boost with Ellyes Skhiri (who plays for Montpelier in France) agreeing to play for them. He is expected to be called up for his first match against Iran.

 

He's had an excellent season in France.

 

I guess that makes the Tunisia match even more interesting for me, although I was already looking forward to see us play again. It has been a while since our last match against Venezuela and I like to see how things look now.

 

I am reading reports that suggest the venue of Iran's friendly against Libya is going to be Vienna and the match will be played when Iran is in camp in Europe. Initially, the reports I had read mentioned a closed door friendly (changed to an open door friendly) in Tehran against the Libyans using domestic based players but now it seems the match will involve Iran's first team. If so, I will get to see something resembling Iran's first team against Libya before we play Tunisia and then Algeria.

 

I don't think so. CQ is notorious for mixing players in friendlies. I don't think we have ever played the same XI in two friendlies in a row under his tenure. We've had at least 3-4 changes per starting XI each match. I don't even mind the results of the friendlies if he can answer a few questions..

1) Will Hajsafi be as competent a DM against North African teams as he was vs Uzbekistan/Korea/Qatar

2) Rezaian/Ghafouri to be the RB against Portugal/Spain?

3) Ali Alipour is ripping it up in IPL and ACL. Can he do it against Morocco level opposition?

4) Who is our starting goalie?

5) Is Hosseini going to be our John Terry or will we have a younger duo of CBs? (I hope Pouraliganji/Montazeri is solidified and Cheshmi can be brought on as a freelance destroyer to kill the game).

6) Who will our CAM be? Shojaei? Ghoddos?

7) Tactically, is he going to stick to this erratic Gegenpress like haste he tried in the Venezuela/Panama games in a 4-3-3 or are we going with the "Great Wall" and counter down the wings model.

The rest of the team picks itself really.

 

Never thought of seeing Bebe Rexha in a BigSoccer forum LOL

 

I think your schedule is still much better than last time in 2014. The main difference is in the quantity of the games. You guys will have enough opportunities to test different strategies, formations and players. You've got some decent opponents with Tunisia, Algeria, Greece and Turkey. Another plus is with these friendlies you keep your team under the radar and you can hide your weaknesses as I can't see any of these sides are able to completely expose you.

 

Our schedule last time was totally pathetic in its entirety So in that sense, I agree. And you may have a point about keeping the team under the radar.

To be sure, I view our opponents in this schedule -- Tunisia, Algeria, Turkey and Greece -- all essentially at our level. The fact that we play Turkey and also Tunisia at their home turf will certainly make these games challenging enough. My own sense is that the Turks in particular will be tough at home in more ways than one. Indeed, if I had to guess, I would think Iran will play a more open game against Tunisia and Algeria (or even Greece) than it will against Turkey. The game against Turkey is a bit more complicated than games against many others and both sides will probably take a loss against the other harder than would be typically the case in a friendly.

I guess, however, that as a fan I would have still preferred to see us against a side that is ranked near the top 10 or thereabouts. While, of course, we wouldn't want to show our cards, and while thankfully we have the match against Argentina in World Cup 2014 to fall back on tactically and in terms of confidence issues, it just does seem a bit odd that we wouldn't want to first test the waters against some side that would replicate the likes of Spain or even Portugal. But it almost worked last time against Argentina not getting prepared playing anyone close to their level, so maybe Queiroz knows what he is doing.

 

World Cup friendlies are meant to experiment with lineup and roster choices so, of course, I wouldn't expect the same XI in each game. But I was under the impression that the Libya match, like the ones against Uzbekistan and Syria, would be to test domestic based players only. I read a report about Kaveh Rezaei being invited to the national team for the friendlies against Libya as well as Tunisia and Algeria, and while Rezaei has only 5 caps (all in friendlies), the fact that he plays in Europe made me think that we would have the European and other foreign based players available against the Libyans too.

 

Hello, I think Spain and Portugal are the climbers of this group

 

Really angry at Sergio Busquets yesterday.

Hes honestly going to be an issue for us in a whole new way if he flops with every contact. Our team relies a lot on 50/50 shoulder to shoulder scuffles and physicality and this guy goes down on the softest touch by players 6+inches shorter than him.

In b4 gif of Busquets covering his eyes and looking for a card when Ezzatollahi hits him Minute 2.

 

In Rezaei's case its because he is currently 4th/5th choice behind Azmoun/Taremi/Ansarifard/Gucci.

 

Well, I am actually curious to see what Iran is planning to do. My initial impression was that none of the foreign based players, even if not first choice starters, would be used against Libya. Now it seems that is not the case.

 

Spain and Portugal should advance in that order. But I have not seen Iran play in a long long long time. But when I did I remember they had a very dangerous counter attack. And they got everyone behind the ball when they lost the ball. If they still have that they maybe be able to beat out Portugal.

I looking through this thread it looks more like a pin up thread more then a football one

If Iran was smart enough to play a man defense they would have a better change to do well in this. Old tactics can become new again if no one has seen it in decades.

 

Even though Arsenal spanked Ghoddos' Swedish club 3:0 in the first leg in Sweden, many commentators said Ghoodos was in some ways the most impressive player that night on the pitch. In the pregame press conference for their match tonight, Arsne Wenger also singles out Ghoddos for praise.