I have been following this WC like most of you and was pretty disappointed with our first match with Nigeria. Now that a few days has gone by I have had adequate chance to reflect on our WC and my feelings are a little different. The reality is that we are passionate people with high expectations from TM. This of course is natural and to be expected. I also think deep down we are all aware of our shortcomings and realize that we can not rationally put Iran in the same league as the top football nations of the world. Having a chance to reflect on Iran and the way we played, I was very impressed by our conditioning and defense. We have to give it to QC and the coaching staff for keeping these guys in such good physical shape and being able to stifle a pretty offensive team like Nigeria.
We also need to understand that this coaching staff has a mission and that is to make it to 2nd round no matter what. This is Iran's goal. Get to the 2nd round regardless of how ugly or beautiful we play. Sure as fans we want to see fluid and beautiful football like the Dutch or German team, but realistically we realize that we are not that good and are incapable of playing the fluid football that we see from other teams. Many reasons for this, most importantly is the fact that our league is an amateurish league and most of our players are by products of that league. We also don't a youth program, facilities, and the list goes on forever.
I can tell you that against Argentina our strategy will be quite similar to what we saw against Nigeria. We need a point. A point will make it possible for us to have a shot and control our destiny against a Bosnian team which probably will be in a do or die situation for the final game. We can not afford to play the likes of Argentina at their level. They are talent wise superior, condition wise better, almost all their players are true professionals playing in Europe and they have Messi. Our only option is to park the bus and do counter attacks. The game will be ugly and one that we will most likely be shameful to say the least. But that is exactly QC plan. He knows that our limitation in all aspects of the game will not allow us to play an attacking or a possession game. We just don't have the talent to do that. Our only hope is to be a disruptive team that loads the midfield and does not allow the other teams to get into a grove. Fortunately a game plan like that does not leave much room for tactical change on behalf of our opponents and forces them to play a type of game that allows for mistakes.
Again parking the bus is not an ideal solution or pleasing on the eye, but unfortunately we have very little else as option
We also need to understand that this coaching staff has a mission and that is to make it to 2nd round no matter what. This is Iran's goal. Get to the 2nd round regardless of how ugly or beautiful we play. Sure as fans we want to see fluid and beautiful football like the Dutch or German team, but realistically we realize that we are not that good and are incapable of playing the fluid football that we see from other teams. Many reasons for this, most importantly is the fact that our league is an amateurish league and most of our players are by products of that league. We also don't a youth program, facilities, and the list goes on forever.
I can tell you that against Argentina our strategy will be quite similar to what we saw against Nigeria. We need a point. A point will make it possible for us to have a shot and control our destiny against a Bosnian team which probably will be in a do or die situation for the final game. We can not afford to play the likes of Argentina at their level. They are talent wise superior, condition wise better, almost all their players are true professionals playing in Europe and they have Messi. Our only option is to park the bus and do counter attacks. The game will be ugly and one that we will most likely be shameful to say the least. But that is exactly QC plan. He knows that our limitation in all aspects of the game will not allow us to play an attacking or a possession game. We just don't have the talent to do that. Our only hope is to be a disruptive team that loads the midfield and does not allow the other teams to get into a grove. Fortunately a game plan like that does not leave much room for tactical change on behalf of our opponents and forces them to play a type of game that allows for mistakes.
Again parking the bus is not an ideal solution or pleasing on the eye, but unfortunately we have very little else as option
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