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GOAL - Despite all the problems, this week’s
four team tournament will kickoff on Friday albeit under a new name. Iran
will face Macedonia while Togo will play Paraguay. The winners play for
first place and losers for third two days later on Sunday, November 13.
Iran will enter the tournament with a full strength squad. However,
Macedonia and Paraguay are entering what may be considered their B teams. It
is hard to tell if this tournament will be a good test for Iran, but that is
only because it is even harder to guess what coach Branko Ivankovic’s goals
are going into the tournament. Judging from the list of 23 invited players
he is not trying to test new faces in an attempt to strengthen the squad.
It is no secret who Ivankovic’s preferred starting eleven are. Barring
injuries, not much will change in the months leading to the World Cup. That
is all fine and dandy except that there are a few very obvious weaknesses
and vulnerabilities that Ivankovic has failed to address over the last two
years. Furthermore, the bench is very thin a fact that is certainly not due
to lack of talent in Iran, but rather due to Ivankovic’s unwillingness to
try new players. Over the last two years, many have been invited to the camp
only to sit on the bench and watch.
Many in Iran were hoping that this tournament would be used to test new
talent, but it is highly unlikely that Ivankovic would be willing to risk
getting results at the expense of experimentation. He probably learned his
lesson earlier this year in England when his mostly reserve team was
humiliated by Queens Park Rangers. Many Iranian newspapers ignored the fact
that this was supposed to be a test match for the reserves only and
unleashed their wrath on the coach and Iranian Football Federation (IRIFF).
Since then Ivankovic and the IRIFF have been much more careful in selecting
friendly matches.
The Starting eleven
Ivankovic’s starting eleven is predictable as there have been few changes
over the course of the last two years.
Ebrahim Mirzapour has been Ivankovic’s first choice in the goal for as long
as he has been the coach. Granted that Mirzapour is arguably the most
consistent of Iran’s current crop of goalkeepers, but it is nonetheless
worrisome that no reliable backup has yet been found. In the last two years
six different goalkeepers have been invited to the national team camp, but
none have claimed the backup position. What is puzzling is that Mirzapour
continues to start in all the friendly games making one wonder about the
coaching staff’s approach to finding a backup.
Two backup goalkeepers were invited to this training camp, and one of them
is again a new face. It would be a great surprise if any of them gets to
start on Friday.
Hossein Kaebi, Yahya Golmohammadi, Rahman Rezaei, and Mohammad Nosrati are
the starting defenders.
Golmohammadi and Rezaei are solid as central defenders. Although
Golmohammadi will be 35 next summer.
Speedy Kaebi has been inspiring on the right side, but at only 163cm and
63kg he may be too small to be effective against the bigger and stronger
European and African strikers.
One of the trouble spots in the team is on the left side where Nosrati has
been consistently inconsistent! He came under severe, and perhaps sometimes
unfair, criticism after going through a series of four matches, two in the
AFC Champions Leagues and two internationals, in each of which he was
somehow blamed for an own goal. Replays suggest that at least three of the
four were just bad luck, but his knack for being at the wrong place at the
wrong time combined with other weaknesses in his game make him a liability
at best. His backup Sattar Zare has not proven to be much better, but at
least the ball does not take a wrong bounce off of him as often as it does
off of Nosrati.
This generation of midfielders is arguably the most talented in Iran’s
football history. The problem, however, is that Ivankovic has failed to find
the optimum combination.
Individually Mehdi Mahdavikia, Ali Karimi, Javad Nekounam, and Freydoon
Zandi are the best Iran has to offer. Mahdavikia and Karimi are proven
talents and they are doing well for their respective teams in Germany.
Nekounam is certainly the best midfielder in the Iranian domestic league
now, but he lacks experience playing against faster European and African
midfielders. This showed against QPR when time after time he was
dispossessed of the ball because he simply held on to it a split second too
long. Perhaps he will be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the friendly
games leading to the World Cup.
Zandi, who plays for Bundesliga’s Kaiserslautern, performs at his best when
he plays a more attacking role at the center of the field. But Ivankovic
likes to plug him in on the left side and very close to the line. To make it
worse, Zandi has not been getting much playing time at his club this season
and his match readiness is questionable.
Ivankovic has routinely substituted Zandi for the defensive specialist
Seyyed Mohammad Alavi at around 70th minute of every game. This at times has
come as a surprise especially because pulling Zandi out tends to take a lot
out of Iran’s offense.
On the bench is the promising Moharam Navidkia who plays for Bundesliga II
side VfL Bochum. Coming off an injury that put him on the sideline for a
year, Navidkia is struggling to find a starting spot this year, and can not
be expected to play a big role for Iran this summer.
Pas FC Midfielder Maysam Maniei, who has been consistently good under
Mustafa Denizli this year, was invited to the last training camp and in the
very little time he was given against Korea showed some promise, but
surprisingly he was dropped this time around. Taking his place is Perspolis
FC’s Mehrzad Madanchi who has been out of form as of late.
Under Ivankovic, striker and captain Ali Daei has been untouchable. Daei is
Iran’s best striker ever, and over the span of his long career he has had
many heroic performances for the national team, but he is now well past his
prime. At 36 he is visibly slower and less effective than he was only a few
years ago. Ivankovic has refused to try new faces in Daei’s position, and
unless unavailable due to injuries, Daei has started every single friendly
or competitive game under Ivankovic. This has been at the expense of many
others, most notably Reza Enayati of Esteghlal who has been one of Iranian
league’s top scorers over the last few years.
The other striker, Vahid Hashemian of Bundesliga’s Hannover 96 had a few
good performances for Iran during this WC qualifying campaign, but
ironically his best performances came when Daei was out and he started at
the center forward position. With Daei playing center, Hashemian is forced
to slide to left and closer to the line and that seems to make him far less
effective.
To add to the problem, Hashemian has gone through this entire Bundesliga
season without having scored a single goal for Hannover. This does not seem
to worry Ivankovic however as he insists on starting Hashemian and refuses
to give others such as Pas FC’s young striker Arash Borhani a starting
chance.
The Macedonia Game
Unfortunately, the sometimes unfair media criticisms have made Ivankovic
very conservative and afraid of experimentation and this could cost Iran
dearly if any of the starters suffer any injuries or fitness problems prior
to the World Cup.
It will be interesting to see Ivankovic’s arrangement for this Friday. If
history is an indication, we will get to see the 13 or 14 players mentioned
above playing in their predictable roles.
Ebrahim Mirzapour will start in the goal. His backups Mehdi Vaezi and Vahid
Taleblou will be spectators.
Defenders Hamid Alizadeh and Mehdi Amirabadi who are two of the new faces in
this camp will not get any playing time.
In the midfield, new comers Andranik Teymourian or Mehdi Rajabzadeh may see
a few minutes at the end of the game, and Mehrzad Madanchi is likely to be a
spectator.
Upfront, Arash Borhani is likely to come in for Hashemian some time in the
second half, but Reza Enayati who deserves a chance to prove himself will
probably watch Daei from the bench for most of the game.
Do not expect any tactical changes either. Iran’s buildups are likely to
come through the left side where Kaebi, Mahdavikia, and Karimi tend to form
an effective attacking triangle.
Zandi will be forced to hold back to help Nosrati or Zare with their
defensive responsibilities effectively taking out of the offensive scheme.
Hashemian will be stranded upfront without much support.
If the Macedonians have done their homework, they will be taking advantage
of the space created on the left side of Iran’s midfield and mount attacks
from there and through the weak side of Iran’s defense.
Iran’s other weakness has been effectively clearing incoming crosses.
Goalkeeper Mirzapour tends to be shaky when coming out to collect high
crosses. To make matters worse are Kaebi’s lack of height and Nosrati’s
weakness in the air.
IRIFF has been presenting this up to be the strongest tournament lineup in
Iran in the last few years. That may be, but regardless, Iran’s A squad
should be able to defeat Macedonia’s B team on the way to defeating an under
strength Paraguay or Togo on Sunday. Anything less, and they will face a new
flood of criticism come Monday.
Afshin Afshar
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