WC 2018 Group B: Spain Portugal Iran Morocco

I watched 10 min of Iran vs Uzbekistan today . Apparently it was their B teams but, it was horrendous. What an eyesore! Iranian players couldn't put a string of 4 proper passes against an Asian team or pass the ball without losing possession. Iranians need miracles to even draw with this sort of players in WC.

This should be good news for Moroccan and Portuguese fans.

 

Ali Karimi is OUT of our World Cup squad with an injury.

More headaches for Queiroz...

— Gol Bezan (@GolBezan) May 18, 2018

 

We lack squad depth. The real test should be against Turkey 28 May in Istanbul, should be a good indication of Iran’s chances in this group. Both teams are bringing their strongest players. But this Uzbekistan game was real shit, I fell asleep.

 

That was the most horrendous performance I have seen from Iran in ages and I am sorry you had to watch even a minute of it, much less 10 minutes. It was unbearable.

On the other hand, you have to realize that many of these players have come from playing grueling knock out series in the AFC CL just a few days ago and were tired and couldn't get excited about playing Uzbekistan's U23 team! Add to it several other factors involving Queiroz and his gripes and comments the past few days in about how his "master plan" wasn't adhered to, and the totally depressed mood he has brought to the team these days, and you basically had a "farewell game" being played while everyone seemed to be going through mourning!

 

While Iran's team as a whole was poor against the Uzbek (actually mostly Uzbek U-23) squad we played last night, the player who Queiroz wanted to give every chance to prove he deserves a spot in the squad but completely failed in that task was Reza Ghoochannejad. If before the game last night, Ghoochannejad's chances of making the final roster were 50/50, after the game I think he won't make the final cut. Conversely, another attacking player, Mehdi Torabi of Saipa, improved his chances of making the squad and so did his Saipa teammate Gholizadeh. Both were among the best of a bad bunch last night.

 

Seriously. What’s up with Queiroz and his piss-poor attitude the last few days? He looks and sounds like an old grandpa looking to pick a fight with anyone and everyone. He was actually charging the referee after the match, like a drunk old fool. Has he offcially gone mad?

 

soooooooooooo what? all of the pro-Iran talk that has been going on for months.. is now all of a sudden being shut off?

 

When he became our head coach, his first task was qualification to the WC 2014 with weakest squad we had from 1995 to now. He qualified Iran from tough qualifying group as group winner. For WC 2014, the gap between our top 7-8 players with rest of our squad was too big unlike now. So we could not have much complain for WC 2014 performance. Also he tried very hard to qualify us to the WC 2014. Here is the video of Iran vs Korea game in 2012 where you can see how badly he had stress like us. During this game, as much as I was worried about the outcome of the game, I was worried about my health and his health too. That is why you sometimes here from our fan that Queiroz is both Portuguese and Iranian. So most fans thought he was deserved the contract extension for 4 more years after WC 2014.



Regard the Asian cup 2015, we entered to the tournament as one of the big favorites. We finished the group stage with 9 points strongly. In the quarter final match, we were winning but an incorrect red card from referee changed the outcome. If It was not because of that red card we would have won that game comfortably. Anyway qualification to the WC was a lot more important than winning the Asian Cup for us.

He gave us so much consistency in terms of both result and performance in last 3 years. When his contract was renewed after WC 2014, his another legacy was Performance Elite Center (PEC). This center was built with his design and under his management. Senior Iran national team along with youth national team players use this center to do their recovery training with modern facilities. Injured players use this big center to be recover soon. The center is like the house for Iran national teams. According to what I heard, only a few teams in the world have a center like that and CQ said Man United is one of them. When the president of Netherlands football federation visited this center he was amazed and said they do not have something like that.

So I think he is worth the amount he was paid so far. However I agree that we must get better results than last WC for renewing his contract after WC 2018 but I doubt he will have enough motivation to stay as our head coach even if we do well and I hope we do well.

 

What are these comments Queiroz said?

 

I don't even understand what you mean? The game didn't change anything about my assessment about Iran's prospects at the World Cup. It was, for me, the very definition of a meaningless friendly. Against a side Iran had nothing to prove against since we had already dominated and defeated them home-away in the qualifiers without any difficulty. Involving their U23 players for the most part, which made the game even less important. At a time when our coach has spent the past few days griping and in a sour mood complaining about how his master plan wasn't adhered to because the players he wanted to be released to him were not released to him until a couple of days ago because of the AFC Champions league. With Iranian players who were fielded in this game mostly players who (other than the 2-3 players who did okay) from clubs who were playing important AFC CL knock out games in front of 100,000 Iranian fans the past few days and couldn't get excited playing this stupid friendly match in the atmosphere that existed.

 

If you do not like any of his behaviors, just ignore it. As you can see he is a passionate and kindhearted coach who is worried about his team. He is trying to send the best possible team to the WC. Our final squad is going to be announced tomorrow based on what I heard.

He did not make any comment yesterday. One of Uzbekistan players had a bad tackle on our player which could injure him and the referee did not call the foul. He did not see it. Queiroz got very angry and protested the referee harshly. It seems that he did not get over it even right after the game.

He also wanted to start the training with local players earlier but there was Round 16 of Asia Champions League (ACL). The federation asked AFC to postpone the Round 16 of ACL but they refused and CQ was mad of that. That is it.

 

Queiroz is a very stubborn person and someone who holds grudges and can't let go of them!

Basically, Queiroz had asked that Iran's domestic based players be made available to him earlier for "special training and preparation". The problem was that their clubs were involved in the AFC Champions league. 3 Iranian clubs made the knock out rounds and had important games to play which concluded only a couple of days ago. So, obviously, those players weren't released to Queiroz when he wanted them. The fact that the 2nd leg of both the AFC CL games were played in Iran in front of enthusiastic crowds further upset Queiroz, who saw that as a sign that the fans had also rejected his view that the World Cup preparation were more important that the Asian champions league. This all combined to create an atmosphere were Queiroz has been only focused on settling scores, except this time he can't blame just the federation and blames everyone in Iran who showed any excitement about the AFC CL.

 

Queiroz is upset at everyone in Iran (and in Iranian football) for rejecting his view that the local players should be made available to him. While he wasn't happy with the AFC calendar and the fact that it wasn't changed by the AFC, his focus recently has been on the Iranian football federation and football community for (in his mind) preferring the AFC champions league to his World Cup preparation plans.

 

Sorry for wrong spell Salas033. I wrote this comment very fast. I meant "That is why you sometimes hear from our fans that Queiroz is both Portuguese and Iranian."

 

Lol... Are you for real man??
Benatia who just finished playing the Champions League semi final for Juventus and regularly plays the best forwards in the world is gonna have difficulty with some unknown Iranian who plays in the Qatar League ..
Seriously. Please have some perspective when you post something and understand how a non Iranian will read this.

 

If Azmoun can break Boateng’s ankle and posterize him, I don’t think he’s too worried about Benatia or any other Moroccan defenders.

 

Iran’s Final 23+1 List

Goalkeepers
Alireza Beyranvand
Rashid Mazaheri
Amir Abedzadeh

Defenders
Ali Gholizadeh
Majid Hosseini
Milad Mohammadi
Mohammad Khanzadeh
Morteza Pouraliganji
Pejman Montazeri
Ramin Rezaeian
Rouzbeh Cheshmi

Midfielders
Ehsan Hajsafi
Karim Ansarifard
Masoud Shojaei
Mehdi Torabi
Omid Ebrahimi
Saeed Ezzatollahi

Forwards
Alireza Jahanbakhsh
Ashkan Dejagh
Mahdi Taremi
Reza Ghoochannejhad
Saman Ghoddos
Sardar Azmoun
Vahid Amiri

Standby: Vouria Ghafouri, Jalal Hosseini, Kaveh Rezaei

Some shocking and questionable selections by CQ with two of our starting defenders Jalal Hosseini and Vouria Ghafouri as well as our in-form Belgium-based forward Kaveh Rezaei not making the final list, and likes of Mohammad Khanzadeh and Vahid Amiri making the final list.

 

Benatia is a much better player than Boateng

 

I believe the stand by list will bebe added to the main list

 

That’s your opinion though. Objectively speaking, Boateng‘s market value is twice as much as Benatia’s and he’s accomplished far more as a defender, winning everything there is to win, including a World Cup.

 

With the shocking exclusions of Jalal Hosseini (36) and Vouria Ghafouri (31), and the surprising inclusions of Majid Hosseini (21) and Ali Gholizadeh (22) , we are officially the youngest team in the World Cup. Our starting eleven’s average age is going to be 24 I believe. The only players in the final list who are 30+ are Dejagah and Shojaei, both of whom are injured/recovering and will not play a significant role in Russia.

 

Good forwards! Who do you think is going to start?
The swedish coach, Janne Andersson, so tired of him, he didnt care about Saman Ghoddos. We have no good forwards so i wanna know what he was thinking. Well good for you guys....

 

Azmoun-Taremi-Jahanbakhsh will be the starting trio upfront. Ghoddos will play behind them as a CAM or RM/LM. He will not start though, he will most likely be a sub replacing Ansarifard.

 

Most football fans in Iran are shocked by these selections, especially the fact that S. J. Hosseini and V. Ghafouri weren't picked. For whatever reason, Queiroz is testing the adage: if it ain't broke, don't fix it! A side that was doing well in qualifying and its friendly games until recently when we started experimenting with some of the players on this list, is being undermined with no clear reason. I just hope none of this has anything to do with Queiroz somehow taking his anger and disputes with Iranian clubs, Persepolis and Esteghlal and the fact that they didn't release their national team players for his training camp due to their AFC CL games, by excluding their most notable national team players!

 

The final list shows that CQ will most probably rely on his offensive players, and play a more attacking game. Especially when you consider the fact that in the 2014 World Cup, he only took 2 real strikers (Ansarifard and Ghoochannejhad) to Brazil. Now we have several strikers.

 

Our LW/RB/GK are up for grabs really depending on what Cq wants. This might be what CQ opts for vs Spain for example.

Taremi---Azmoun----Jahanbakhsh

----------------- Shojaei----------------------

------Hajsafi--------------------Ezzatollahi


MIlad---PAG----------Montazeri-----Rezaian

-------------------Beiranvand--------------


Against Morocco he might pick the less defensively prone players given we need a result.

The team I posted vs Spain would probably follow the plan vs Argentina. Defend super narrow then fast break with pace. Also spamming crosses from our right side for Azmoun.

For the Iranian bros, I'm a bit relieved with Hosseini's exclusion. He is a legend and a shame he never played in Europe he had that vibe of emergency defending and an absolute monster in the box.

He shouldnt be defending vs Ronaldo on corners or Asencio in game. We dont want age catching up to him on the world stage.

The team is younger than I thought and inexperience might be our downfall but they might be more ambitious than our older guys.