Sports > Football > IRAN BEAT UZBEKISTAN IN ASIAN CUP BUT ONLY JUST BY AFSHIN DASTAFSHAN
Group C: Iran, Uzbekistan, China, Malaysia
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Iran came from a goal behind to beat Uzbekistan 2-1in their Group C Asian Cup first round match on July 11th. Iran’s choice of players and tactics raised more questions than they answered though, whilst Iran secured the 3 points at the end of the day their superiority was reduced in this match due to wrong choice of players and wrong tactics used by the head coach Amir Ghalenoei alleviating Iran’s strong points.
On the right flank where Iran have been dangerous for over a decade Hussein Kaebi was left on the bench despite his proven record as a key player for Iran who can link up well with Mahdavikia on the right, Khatibi was given the task of right winger playing further up from Mahdavikia who was in full right back position. This combination was a failure from the outset and killed off Iran’s strength on the right flank; Khatibi was ineffective and was taken off at half time.
An equally self destructive decision was made on Iran’s left flank; Fereydoon Zandi was used in full left back position where he is not used to playing, Zandi was tested in this position last month in the match against Ghana under 23 and he struggled, I was amused to see Zandi used in full back position again, clearly lessons have not been learnt from Iran’s recent friendly matches. Enayati was used as a left winger, he was as much a failure on the left as Khatibi was on the right, Iran’s sole striker Vahid Hashemian was left totally isolated upfront as he received no support from his wingers, Ali Karimi was as poor in this match as he was in his world cup appearances last year. By half time Iran had scored an own goal thanks to a mix-up between the keeper Roudbarian and centre back defender Rezaei who plays for Livorno FC in Italy.
I could not believe how Iran’s quality players were mismanaged and asked to play in the wrong areas of the field which killed off their strong points! In the second half Javad Kazemian took over from Khatibi on the right tolink up with Mahdavikia, this is a combination that was used by Ivankovic in word cup 2006, Kaebi, Mahdavikia and Kazemian were Iran’s main right flank players in last year’s world cup and they proved to be the best players on the right, Ghalenoei’s decision not to use Kaebi in this match at all and to leave Kazemian out of the starting line-up was suicidal and killed off Iran’s traditionally strong right flank. Iran had no say in the first half against an Uzbekistan which I can only describe as a third rate Asian team (second rate at a push); the last time Iran played Uzbekistan Iran won 4-0.
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Iran’s second substitution was to bring Madanchi on as the left winger, Madanchi was used on this position in last year’s world cup, the introduction of kazemian and Madanchi on the opposing flanks changed the flow of the game in Iran’s favour, Madanchi and Kazemian are former team mates from Persepolis and have played in these same positions together before both at Persepolis and in Team Melli (under Ivankovic). Two good goals followed for Iran, a typical accurately taken Mahvadikia corner kick was met by Jalal Husseini header who made no mistake and drew Iran level, Andrianik Teymourian of Bolton Wanderers FC (England) put substitute Kazemian in the clear in Uzbek penalty box with a long pass from midfield, Kazemian made no mistake and beat the keeper taking his shot with his first touch and Iran were 2-1 up, Enayati had the chance to add a third for Iran late in the match but failed.
Top seeds Japan, Australia, South Korea and Saudi Arabia all drew their first matches in their groups, Iran are in the easiest group in the first round, Iran’s Group C is the only group that has no Arab teams and that is in favour of Iran since their matches against Arab sides are often overshadowed by historic Persian Arab rivalry not mentioning today’s political rivalry between Iran and Arab countries of the Persian Gulf region. Iran have none of that to worry about in the first round, having won their first match Iran are almost guaranteed to qualify for the quarter finals, Iran will play China and the weakest team in the tournament Malaysia in their remaining group stage matches.
Iran have won the Asian Cup a record three times with all titles coming before the revolution in the sixties and seventies. Iran have quality players with world cup experience under they belt, they have the potential to win the Asian Cup this month so far as quality of the players are concerned, but I remain doubtful whether Iran can go far in the knock-out stages purely due to poor coaching and poor management in the team. We have already seen that bad decisions and poor tactics from Ghalenoei can hurt Team Melli based on Iran’s match against Uzbekistan. Unless Mr Ghalenoei starts to do his job right selecting the right players and formation not mentioning change of tactics during the match then Iran will not win the Asian Cup despite having their strongest and most experienced players ever. At the end of the day if the head coach is not capable of using his assets in the right way then the team will fail.
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Last but not least a point of concern on team discipline. Iran had a player sent off in each of their friendly matches against Mexico and Ghana under 23 last month, I flagged this at the time as an area of concern which team management would need to address. Sadly for the second time this year Iran’s head coach Mr Ghalenoei was red-carded and sent off the side line to the main stand for misbehaving on the touchline. Mr Ghalenoei will have to watch Iran’s match against China from the stands rather than the dugout. I can only say that Iran’s head coach has set a bad example for his players to follow, it is not often a coach is red carded by the referee during a match but Team Melli head coach Mr Ghalenoei has now been red-carded twice in the last six months!
Good start for Team Melli in terms of winning their first match, I hope Iran’s coaching team will not throw away the golden opportunity Team Melli have of winning the Asian Cup for a record fourth time, no country has so far won the Asian Cup four times. Iran have the assets to do the job (i.e. Iran have quality players mainly selected from last year’s world cup team), the question is whether the coaches and management have what it takes to guide the team through to the final.
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