Sports > Football > HAMBURG SV BEAT IRAN 2-1 IN UAE TOURNAMENT BY AFSHIN DASTAFSHAN
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In the opening match of the four sided UAE tournament Mehdi Mahdavikia’s club Hamburg SV beat Iran 2-1, Mahdavikia played for Hamburg in the first half. Iran’s squad was made of the Persian Gulf League clubs (previously the Iranian Premier League) plus a number of UAE based players such as Kaebi, Mobali, Enayati, Kazemian and Khatibi, Iran’s European based players missed this friendly match due to club commitment.
Hamburg SV have been struggling in the Bundesliga this season winning only one match out of seventeen played so far, Hamburg currently lie second from bottom in the table and will be relegated unless they move out of the bottom three (out of 18 teams), Hamburg were therefore not a top nudge opposition, they also tested several young players compensating for Iran missing their European based players.
Iran made a poor start to the match, the first half was dominated by Hamburg SV, Iranian players are yet to play one touch football and hold on to the ball too long before passing, with a number of players missing and Fekri retiring from Team Melli the Iranian 21 year old star Hussein Kaebi got the chance to start this match, as ever Kaebi had pace and worked hard, he was quite rough with his challenges though and was booked during the match, Kazemian played in front of Kaebi on the right in the absence of Kia, this partnership should have been tried in the last six months but Iran’s head coach Mr Ghalenoei has not been in favour of using Kaebi since taking charge and has sidelined Kaebi.
On the left Nikbakht Vahedi seemed a confused player and running without purpose like several other Iranian players. Lack of game plan was evident on the Iran side, a problem that the coach Ghalenoei is responsible for. Hamburg opened up the scoring after 30 minutes when the Iranian keeper Talebloo failed to punch clear a cross from left, the resulting header from striker Paolo Guererro ended in the back of Iran’s net. Apart from a Kaebi long range effort going above Hamburg’s cross bar Iran had no say in the first half.
The second half saw several substitutions with Hamburg taking their key players out to avoid injury. Iran brought on Iman Mobali and Kianoush Rahmati in an effort to attack Hamburg, Mobali did well in this match connecting well with Kazemian and Kaebi, his performance should secure his place in the squad, Mobali’s three free-kicks taken from outside of Hamburg’s penalty area gave the Germans a lot of problems and resulted in Iran’s sole goal of the match when Khatibi headed home a teasing Mobali cross into the box, however Hamburg keeper made two good saves stopping Mobali’s other free kicks.
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But Hamburg won the day not just on score-line but also on performance, they showed their ability to attack and cut through Iran’s defence at will and scored their second goal in open play, Iran’s next opponent is VfB Stuttgart.
I remain concern with the state of Team Melli, Iran will kick off their Asian Cup finals campaign against Uzbekistan in six months time on July 11th. Ghalenoei has now been in charge of Team Melli for six months but the team performance remains far from convincing, new players are selected when first team players are unavailable due to club commitment but even against South Korea under 23 side Ghalenoei used Iran’s top players from Europe rather than give the regular substitutes the chance to play. Iran lack composure and consistency, they rely purely on individual players to pull a trick on the day and win the match, there is no continuity and no long term plans in Iran football, whilst all this mess cannot be blamed on one man (Ghalenoei) since the whole system in the Iranian Football Federation is at fault Ghalenoei has to accept his share of the blame for the current state of Team Melli.
With only six months left to Asia 2007 finals Ghalenoei remains confused as to what players he is going to assemble a team with, the team used in world cup 2006 continues to make the back-bone of Ghalenoei’s team for Asia 2007 finals, this is contradictory to Ghalenoei’s claims of building a new team, using new players only when the regular first team players are not available is not my idea of building a new team, Ghalenoei wasted crucial time last year when he used mainly Iran’s WC2006 players in meaningless matches such as the ones against South Korea under 23 and Taiwan ranked 154th in the world at the time, such matches should have been used to test new players and build a new team.
The time for testing new players is over, with Team Melli playing a totally disorganised and unplanned football Iran need to focus on around 30 players and build a team that will gel together and play as a team, Ghalenoei totally dismantled Branko’s team to start with (I trust this wasan attempt to impress his supporters) but then gradually reverted back to Branko’s players when his own selection failed.
There is no time to waste for Team Melli, should Iran continue to play the way they are they will stand no chance against Australia, Japan, South Korea or Saudi Arabia in the knock-out stages of the Asian Cup this July, a professionally run football federation would have replaced Ghalenoei by now, however since the Islamic Republic of Iran Football Federation (IRIFF) has only weeks to sort out their hierarchy in line with FIFA Rules and avoid further suspension Ghalenoei is the last thing on their mind.
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