I thought this was a very well written and thought over document, by far one of the most reflective ones I've read in the past few months where we as Iranian fans have looked no where deeper than results to take tempature of our Team Melli.
All of this evidence about Branko Ivankovic's success just goes to show that he was not the "bad coach" here, (albeit not Sir Alex Fergerson) but we are the ruthless fans. We are the fans who boo their players and jeer their head coach thinking that we either know something they don't, or that our negativity would somehow inspire these people to do their jobs better.
Ivankovic's success now in qualifying for the Champions League, as well as his resume with Iran and before show that he was not the sterotypical "bad coach" but rather a good guy cast into a bad shadow by a nation of fans with their heads stuck so far up their asses that the only thing they could hear were the echos of a national media telling them how this Croat deserved to be our Goat. How he knew nothing of what he did, was out of touch, and was a puppet of other influences within the team...it just happened to be that everyone relized Ali Daei's influence within the team as something bad, without noticing the horriable presence of Ali Karimi who, IMO, single-handedly SCREWED OVER our World Cup appearence with his personal issues. With no sign of Professionalism in our National Team, with agents of players, and personal motives of our biggest egos running loose, Ali Daei and Branko Ivankovic's roles were both norms in the sport of football comparitivley. Look at Cuatemhoc Blanco's role with Mexico -- not much different that the role Ali Daei had been given at the WC, the exception being that Daei was given the chance to start (which we now relize wasn't a great option for the WC...but which one of these other SCRUBS who play in the Arab leagues has shown themselves more capable, or even the least bit deserving as Ali Daei? Reza Enayati? Rasoul Khatibi? Arash Borhani? Javad Kazemian? None, none, none, none. Borhani may not of had the chances, and Kazemian may of come on of late, but we should be smarter than to look at four Asian Cup games as a sign of "arrival"...especially for Kazemian).
The point is that our country had some people who were worthy of representing us at the World Cup last year. A globally known striker in Ali Daei who was at least capable of providing good leadership and play on a level equal to most of his future succesors, a coach who would go on to claim a Champions League birth, a team that had enough bright spots to land two players in European Leagues (Andranik, Nekounam) and nearly land two others (Mirzapour in Portugal, Nosrati in Belgium).
If this is truly a time for a new era in our football as some have been calling for; an era of Nekounam as captain and Mahdavikia as a former international, an era of Teymourian as a center midfielder and Karimi as a famous onlooker, then it is also a time for a new mentality by us -- Iran's Supporters. More postive, more supportive, more cautious of our national venomus media and tempered in our prejuce of forigners let them be named something like Ivankovic or something more familar sounding like Zandi, another name we shunned from out team a year ago.
Thank you for the article, as you can see it really got me going. Very good!
