Carlsberg Cup in HongKong [R]

Will Iran, Uruguay, Denmark bring their best teams?

 

No

 

Denmark sent its U21 team, which played a game with the Chinese U21 team in China 2 days ago.

 

Uruguay will bring their domestic-based players only.

 

Carlsburg Cup in Hong Kong

Iran, Denmark, Uruguay, and a Hong Kong League XI side will shortly play in this year's edition of the Carlsburg Cup. Iran will kickoff its game against Denmark on Saturday.

The Danish team is not their true national team, although it includes several capped players, the most experienced of which is defender Morton Wieghorst. Instead, the Danish side is essentially an XI team from their domestic league. To warm up for the Carlsburg Cup, the Danes played Thailand's national team and won 1:0 a couple days ago.

Iran, under a new interim coach, has taken a mixed squad to this tournament. Iran misses its most important legionaires, who were not released for the tournament by their clubs. Those include UAE based players Daei, Karimi, Majidi, and Kazemian, as well as its remaining European based players -- Mahdavikia of Hamburg, Rezaie of Perugia, and Hashemian of Bochum. Featuring prominently in the squad are Iran's youngsters from the Asian Games gold medal team, along with some veterans, including notably Azizi -- a player who has not played for Iran since the 2000 Asian Cup.

Iran, BTW, played Denmark's full squad in Coppenhaggen in 1999, with the Danes warming up for their Euro2000 playoffs. In that match, helped by an MVP performance by Iran's then goalie, Tabatabaie, Iran held Denmark to a 0:0 draw. However, I don't know if that match can say much about the upcoming one as the two teams are very different this time around.

According to media reports, Iran's likely lineup is as follows:

Mirzapour (Foolad) - Golmohammadi (Perspolis) - Peyrovani (Perspolis), Kameli (Foolad) - Nosrati (Pass), Nekounam (Pass), Kavianpour (Al Wasl), Navidkia (Pass), Minavand (Al Shabab) - Azizi (Pass), Nikbakht (Esteghlal)

With the following players on the bench:

Fanaie (Perspolis), Rahmati (Fajr); Azizzadeh (ZobeAhan), Madanchi (Fajr), Kaabi (Foolad), Badavi (Foolad), Mobali (Nirou-Zamini, Akbari (Esteghlal), Amirabadi (Saipa), Mohtashami (Fajr), Samereh (Esteghlal), Bayatinia (Pass).

Good luck to Iran.

 

Same with Iran.

 

i agree!!

 

No of the nations are taking this tourney too seriously it seems. I think Iran has the most experienced starting lineup with most players having been capped before. I look for Iran to dominte this tournament under the leadership of Khodad Azizi the former star that had fallen out of graces with coaches, players, and fans alike.

 

Azizi was painfully slow and inactive on the pitch a couple of years back. It will be interesting to find out if it is physically possible for him to be even more slow and inactive now. Can someone give a report on this point?

 

Pass? what city does that club play in?

 

I might attempt the matches if I can find somebody.

 

Iran-Striker, You are welcome.

Topcow, Pass is based in Tehran, with the club affiliated to the armed forces.

Although Denmark aren't coming with their true national team, they are probably still stronger than this Iranian selection in physique, albeit weaker in some technical skills.

My view is that Iran would be better served if it doesn't take on the Danes in central midfield. Instead, IMO Iran should tactically employ a compact system in the back, deny the Danes room to circle the defense to cross the ball, and hit them continuously and repeatedly on the counter.

This tactic would then highlight Azizi's technical strengths in open space, while it would also work well given the attributes Nikbakht brings to the table. The tactic also takes advantage of Denmark's somewhat slow footed defenders, since even their top national team is quite vulnerable to properly executed counterattacks.

I personally think Iran would be making a mistake starting with 3 central midfielders given that it is unlikely IMO that those numbers would sufficiently offset Denmark's advantage in midfield. Rather, it would merely make fewer players available for Iran to mass in other sectors where the Danes are more vulnerable.

Thus, my own preferred lineup from this selection would be as follows:

Mirzapour -- Golmohammadi - Peyrovani, Kameli - Nosrati, Minavand -- Nekounam, Navidkia -- Azizi, Nikbakht - Samereh.

In other words, I would defend with 5 players in the back, while counterattacking with 3 (Azizi, Nikbakht, Samereh) and sometimes 4 (Navidkia joining in). Perhaps challenging the Danes in midfield can work, although I doubt it as I suspect the Danes will win that battle and find Iran out of position defensively.

 

There's an article on Yahoo! Hong Kong's football section about this year's Carlsberg Cup:

http://hk.news.yahoo.com/030130/60/pqld.html

It's in Chinese & for our friends who can't read Chinese, you're not really missing much. It notes that Iran & Denmark arrived in Hong Kong on the same plane on the afternoon of the 30th (Hong Kong time). It also notes that both teams had a chance to train at Hong Kong Stadium on the evening of the 30th.

The rest of article gives a quick recap of both team's recent progress. It says Denmark reached the round of sixteen at the past World Cup and spent six days in Thailand before arriving in Hong Kong.

As for Iran, it mentions their recent triumph at the Asian Games and that despite most of it's stars not being there, it still has some well known players in the squad, ie Khododad Azizi. The Iranian coach is quoted as saying that they hope to win the Carlsberg Cup this time after two previous attempts & that these matches will serve as a warm up for the Asian Cup & Olympic qualifiers.

Nothing none of us here didn't know, then...

kevin
+ http://tullamarine.org

 

nice post Ken, but I think Samereh will start as a striker in place of Vahedi, who is more of a winger than a striker. Iran v Denmark is tonite 11:30 PM PST. Go Irann

 

Simply Ken, I know you are no relation to Ken McElroy, but your knowledge of Iranian football is as great as him. You are simply not as big as goozoo as McElroy...

 

Nikbakht sucks

 

Good to hear that Azizi is still alive and kicking!

But still, isn't he too old for 2006?

 

I only saw a few minutes of the match. Azizi was great. The danish also showed good sportsmenship.