WC 2018 Group B: Spain Portugal Iran Morocco

Actually, despite the valid points you raised, it was Kosovo which just announced that the friendly with Iran won't take place. Apparently, Iran wanted to play the match without spectators behind closed doors but Kosovo wanted a friendly with spectators. I suppose part of the reason Iran might have insisted on a closed door friendly, however, might have related to the issues you raised.

 

Ungrateful of Iran. Kosovo would have been a good simulation for Morocco's playing style. Also it would have been benefical for Kosovo to play a World Cup team. I guess Queiroz is again behind this. You guys were not supposed to play Greece behind closed doors, yes? So why Iran/Queiroz insists on playing Kosovo behind closed doors? Makes no sense at all. It is impossible to find a solid team that plays you behind closed doors. Especially within a short period of time. Iran will end up playing only Lithuania.

 

Why play behind close doors? That's pretty useless in the age of drones and smartphones.

 

Morocco's starting 11:

Gardien:
Munir Mohand Mohamedi

Défenseurs:
Medhi Benatia
Marouane Da Costa
Ghanem Saiss

Milieux de terrain:
Hamza Mendyl
Nordin Amrabat
Karim El Ahmadi
Younes Belhanda
Mbarek Boussoufa

Attaquants:
Hakim Ziyech
Khalid Boutaib

 

Any link to watch the Ukraine Morocco game?

 

Why is it ungrateful of Iran? As a policy, Iran doesn’t recognize Kosovo simply because it doesn’t recognize any separatist entities as a principled position. Iran also has not recognized Crimea or Karabakh, despite Russia and Armenia being very close to Iran. So it’s not really a political decision. Also, speaking of being grateful, Iran was the single biggest supporter of Balkan Muslims , Bosniaks and Albanians during the Yugoslav wars. Many young Iranians died in Bosnia...and what has that got Iran and Iranians? Both Albania and Bosnia are now in bed with Iran’s enemies one way or another, while Serbia has built good relations with Iran and Iranians can even invest there or travel there visa-free etc.

 

http://www.stream2watch.org/stream/84068

 

I don't think insisting on playing behind closed doors was sensible at all and don't know whether it was because of Queiroz or some other reason. But I don't think this has anything to do with Iran being ungrateful either. If it was Queiroz, I suspect despite his bravado, he must realize that the experiments he has been conducting haven't helped at all and is worried that the team he is molding wouldn't even do well against Kosovo. By playing the game without spectators/tv cameras he is probably trying to shield himself and his team from the kind of criticisms leveled after our performance against Turkey. If it was the federation, it was probably due to wanting to play Kosovo because they were the only side that could be arranged in such order and yet not wanting to give publicity to the indicia of recognition of Kosovo.

 

0-0 at half time. Didn't like Belhanda and Boutaib. But the rest was decent.

 

That doesn't make any sense as he has been very optimistic about our chances going into the tournament in every interview, which is in stark contrast to last World Cup. Now that he had a chance to schedule a new friendly, he probably took advantage of the situation to have it behind closed doors and experiment with tactics and lineups. We are not the strongest team in the group so having some element of surprise would serve us well.

 

Iranian fans are often too emotional when it comes to Queiroz and I prefer not to open up certain issues. All I will say is this: Queiroz had done well with Iran after World Cup 2014 until this year. I don't like what he has been doing since. Whether this is part of some scheme to surprise opponents and not let them know some tricks up his sleeves or what I alluded to is anyone's guess. But I don't know too many people who saw Iran against Turkey and didn't feel concerned. Yet, the guy who would often brood and turn even success into an occasion to lambaste and criticize someone for some real or perceived slight or excuse, gave an interview pretending our defense was excellent against Turkey!!!

 

Taking friendlies seriously anyway, its silly, you seems you dont know much about this portuguese generation.
They have come close in beating greater Spain once before while today they have very good depth at many positions, they can beat Spain and it will be perfectly normal.

 

Morocco looks a solid team until they get to the final 1/3rd.

As much as CQ's defend and counter strategy is controversial amongst us it might work wonders against this team.

Ezzatollahi is an idiot for being suspended, this is the type of team he excels against.

 

Morocco are a good, solid, side. It would take Iran playing very well and using the right tactics and players, to beat them. While I haven't seen much evidence of defend and counter strategy from Queiroz lately, who seems to be instructing our team to play further upfield and press in the opponent's half lately, I agree that the best way Iran could beat Morocco would be to play the style that was more typical of Iran until lately.

The players that impressed me the most in this game were Ziyech, Harit, and liked the sweet cross from Hakimi towards the end of the game. Physically, they are stronger than I had imagined and looked on par with Tunisia physically. Overall, though, Morocco was pretty much at the level I expected.

 

2nd half was bad. No chances. The moroccans looked like they just wanted to manage the draw.
No need to talk about the so called "fans".

 

If we played similar effort levels in competitive games then it should be a somewhat comfortable win in the first match against morocco.

 

If I had never watched some of Iran's recent friendly games, especially against the Uzbek U23 and Turkey, I would feel quite confident that Iran could beat Morocco. Especially, if Queiroz hadn't surprised me (and most of the Iranian football community) with some of his selections/non-selections and choices for the roster. Right now, however, I just have to trust that Queiroz knows what he is doing despite the evidence showing otherwise.

 

Morocco might get severely paralyzed because of the striker problem...The team is strong physically, technically, but way too sterile to produce goals, and if being honest let's remember the two goals scored against Ivory Coast were a failed cross by Dirar and a goal on a corner kick thanks to the poor defending.

It just gets so sterile upfront, Boutaib is too limited, Bouhadouz should never be in that 23 squad, El Kaabi deserves to get a lot of playing time against Slovakia and Estonia, but I don't expect much from him neither.

Renard tried to use Amrabat as striker tonight during 20 minutes, did not really work out, he moves too much.

 

If I had to give notes tonight :

Munir 5,5
Benatia 5,5
Da Costa 4,5
Saiss 4,5
Mendyl 7,5
El Ahmadi 5,5
Boussoufa 7
Ziyech 6,5
Belhanda 3
Amrabat 6
Boutaib 4
Harit 6
Hakimi 6,5
Bouhadouz 4

Fajr and Ait Benacer did not play long enough to be judged for me.

 

Morocco's strengths: physically strong, good technical ability, strong bench and good depth.
Morocco's weaknesses: average goalie, average strikers, liable to lose composure and focus, more like a club side than a national team

 

I had not heard much about that black Moroccan player, Mendyl, before but I agree he did well. He had one tackle that was quite impressive.

 

I dont understand why Munir is playing. Our second GK is much better than him and plays in Girona in La Liga. Munir is not even fist Gk at his club

 

Munir reactions is way fast than Bono, i feel more safe with him tbh.

 

today game just to keep matches rhythm , and avoiding injuries , and the coach tried some new tactics , i didn't see any effort from players in offense games , it will be a trap to other teams if they judge us depend on today draw.