Accusations abounded after Iran's World Cup quest came to an end against Republic of Ireland, although it was the group-stage loss to Bahrain that still angers the nation's fans. How can this team of brilliant talents ever find the results to match their skills - and are they already on the right track? By Shahin Rahmani and John Higginson.

Goalscorer Yahya Golmohammadi leaves the Azadi Stadium pitch in tears after Iran's World Cup dream came to an end against the Republic of Ireland.

As the four Asian sides spend the next months preparing for the World Cup, it's going to prove a painful effort for Iran's players to lift their heads and game knowing the ticket to Korea/Japan was in their hands? and they only have themselves to blame.

Everyone in the country has a theory on what went wrong and where, and are not afraid to voice it. When Iran's World Cup quest finally came to an end against the Republic of Ireland, players and fans, journalists and federation members all had their own reasons why the team had come up short and who was to blame.

Football passions run fiercely high in the Islamic Republic, where over 100,000 fans pack the legendary Azadi Stadium every time the national team play and show little forgiveness in defeat. Both were on display as the world watched Iran bow out after the second leg of the AFC/UEFA Play-off, their injury-time goal not enough to make up for the two-goal deficit from Dublin.

Coach Miroslav Blazevic had enjoyed wide support up until that match in Tehran but has since joined several players and federation officials in being blamed for Iran's failure. Despite his outer confidence throughout the qualifiers that Iran would succeed in their mission, Blazevic had also hinted that his reputation could easily turn from hero to villain in one fell swoop: "Remember: there's a thin line between love and hate."

The line was crossed that night in Tehran, when most supporters turned their backs on the team and left the Azadi with the game still playing, while the few that remained showed how much the failure had hurt them.

Several fires were lit up in the stands and, closer to the pitch, an angry spectator threw a bottle of water in Blazevic's direction. The splash of water at the feet of the coach signalled that he would not be immune to criticism.

Even Yahya Golmohammadi's headed goal did little to lift the dark atmosphere in the stadium. Everyone knew it was too little too late.

Players and fans broke down in tears. The Irish, dancing with joy, simply highlighted the black mood that pervaded the rest of the Azadi.

'Chiro', as the Croat is known in Iran, looked on in disbelief and gazed at the crowd. The memories of leading Croatia to third place at France 98 must have seemed a distant memory as rubbish was thrown from the stands and swear words rained down.

"Go hang yourself," shouted a fan, asking the coach to fulfil his earlier promise if he failed to lead Iran to the World Cup.

Another believed the World Cup quest had ended in Dublin, shouting: "If [Ali] Karimi had scored a goal in Ireland, we would have qualified. If [Rahman] Rezaei had not given away the penalty?"

One fan believed it had ended at the end of the group stage. "We were eliminated in Bahrain," he said, referring to the shock 3-1 loss in Manama when victory would have sealed their place at the top of Group A and automatic qualification ahead of Saudi Arabia. "All this extra toil was for nothing."

Through his own tears, another looked beyond the results on the pitch, offering his morbid view of the bigger picture of Iranian football. "That is typical of our football. We were wrong to hope from the start. This defeat is the reality of our football."

Internal Division

"There's a thin line between love and hate." Miroslav Blazevic

If defeat - or more accurately, the inability to live up to the expectations and to their potential - is truly the reality of Iranian football, where does it fall short and why?

Although efforts are being made with the new Professional League, which is designed to bring a level of professionalism to both the structure of the league and the players' performances, there's still very little in place in terms of organized youth development.

The structure of Iranian football falls well short of its 'Big Five' neighbors - Japan, Korea Republic, Japan, China and Saudi Arabia (Asia's World Cup representatives) - all of whom have had fully professional leagues for a number of years, attracting top players and coaches from overseas.

Yet while Iran has a lot to do to catch up in terms of overall development, the fact remains that the current side had a golden opportunity to book their place at Korea/Japan and failed to take it. Despite some uneven performances, they needed only to win their last group match to book their place at the World Cup and all 'big picture' theories would have been forgotten until after the event.

The loss to Bahrain was the first and biggest nail in the Iran campaign's coffin. Up until that ill-fated visit to Manama, Iran had not lost any World Cup qualifying games and Blazevic was still a hero. However, the coach is the most likely target after any disappointment, and the first to turn on him was Khodadad Azizi, one of several players dropped from the squad early in the Croat's reign.

"Chiro is a liar. He annihilated Iranian football so now he must fulfil his promise and hang himself," said an angry Azizi, hardly recognisable from the smiling hero who miraculously rescued Iran's last World Cup cause with his decisive play-off equaliser against Australia that booked their place at France 98.

Anger aside, the more specific accusations leveled at Blazevic from some who had been a bigger part of Blazevic's plans were the same that followed Iran's quarter-final exit from the Asian Cup. For the second major tournament running, accusations were rife that 'player power' was still a major factor, with top players making the decisions, not the coach.

Mehdi Hasheminassab, who was discarded by Blazevic after comments he made following the Bahrain game, claimed that the coach was the puppet of captain Ali Daei and that the team were divided, while his former Esteghlal teammate Ali Samereh added fuel to the fire.

"Chiro is not a professional coach," said Samereh, currently at Italian Serie A side Perugia. "For Chiro and two or three players, their fame is what holds them in place."

Midfielder Sirous Dinmohammadi, who spent most of the qualifiers among the substitutes, said: "Some players only walked around on the pitch, but Chiro didn't dare to change them."

Daei, the team's figurehead who celebrated his 100th cap for his country in the 1-0 home win over Thailand, vehemently denied any involvement in the coach's decision-making.

"Some were happy when we lost," said Daei. "If they're telling the truth, they must tell us how I affected Chiro's decision making. They are liars."

Keeping Positive

Incredibly, amid all the finger pointing and flying accusations, one of the few voices of reason belonged to the unpredictable Ali Karimi. His relationship with Daei has been strained to say the least, but the midfielder has been able to rise above the sour atmosphere to not only speak positively about Blazevic but also to warn against change for change's sake.

"I believe that he had all the characteristics of a completely professional coach. We mustn't stir up the pot and start from zero again after this defeat," said Karimi.

Karimi's ability to keep his cool amid all the mud-slinging is admirable, and following his well-chosen words, Iran must now work out the best way forward for their national team.

However, although this is a side who had looked in control of Group A up until the final game in Manama, upon closer inspection there are some interesting points about their performances that may say more about the team than all the players put together.

Iran's perceived dominance of the group had much to do with their excellent record against the two teams perceived as their biggest rivals - Saudi Arabia and Iraq. They had looked on course to top the group ever since they beat the Saudis 2-0 at home and then took all three points in Baghdad.

After managing to salvage a 2-2 draw in Jeddah, the 2-1 victory over Iraq suggested to the 100,000 fans in the Azadi and the rest of Iran that the final match was a formality. The security forces even sent out warnings to fans in advance of the match to take care in the street while celebrating and not disrupt public peace and order.

Looking at their performances in these games, it's hard to blame the inability to handle big pressure as the reason for the surprise loss to Bahrain. Instead, the guilty factor may have been complacency, as defender Afshin Peirovani explains.

"Our downfall was our false pride, being sure of winning and not counting on Bahrain as a difficult adversary. We should have beaten them in both the home and away games, but all the good opportunities were lost," said Peirovani, a veteran of the side that qualified for France 98.

Maintaining Commitment

According to Peirovani, if Iran had showed the same application and commitment through all eight group games, they would have had no need for any play-offs and could have sealed their place at Korea/Japan long before the visit to Manama. Instead, in their ties against Bahrain and Thailand, Iran failed to display the passion and commitment they showed in their other matches, scoring just twice in the four games against the sides perceived as the group's weakest.

Iran were poor in their visit to Thailand, escaping with a 0-0 draw, and were unable to turn their possession into goals in the scoreless home encounter against Bahrain. They were again unconvincing in their 1-0 win over Thailand at the Azadi, so the loss in Bahrain, where the tone was set by Ebrahim Mirzapour's misjudgement in conceding Abdulla Marzooki's opening goal, simply continued this poor run.

"We could have scored more goals in the Thailand and Bahrain games," confesses Peirovani. "We sometimes do badly against weaker teams, and are normally better when we play sides better than ourselves."

Saudi Arabia's scoring sprees highlight Iran's failure to capitalize on their chances in front of goal. After their opening 1-1 draw with Bahrain, the Saudis under Nassar Al Johar beat Thailand 3-1 and 4-1 respectively, and crushed Bahrain 4-0 in their final match, scoring more goals in these three matches than Iran did in their eight group games.

Would the presence of Azizi or another striker to help partner Daei have helped? As well as Daei led his line - he finished joint top scorer in the final round with five goals - he didn't have much scoring support up front, as Karimi is still best playing in a slightly deeper, playmaker role.

Maybe it should be noted that these are the first steps for this young side, who, barring the likes of Daei, Bagheri, Peirovani and Mehdi Mahdavikia, are new to World Cup qualifying and should have a bright future ahead of them. The fact is the France 98 glory days are long gone, and this new, young team needs time to realize their massive potential, says Daei.

"If you have a look now, we have a much younger team than at the Asian Cup. I believe we have a good mix of younger and older players," said Daei during the qualifiers.

"Tactically we are better than in previous years, although we still have the potential to be much better."

Peirovani agrees that the team should not be disheartened by their performances, emphasizing that this time they simply didn't have the luck they enjoyed four years ago.

"We were disqualified although we defeated Ireland 1-0. This small performance shows how powerful Iran really are," said Peirovani.

"There's nothing special that we can pinpoint as the reason for our failure to qualify. We had more luck four years ago in Australia, when we only had two opportunities to score and we scored both."

Four years ago Iran also had three bites at the cherry. On November 7, 1997 in Doha they knew they could have qualified automatically by beating Qatar. They lost 2-0. On November 16 in Johor Bahru, Malaysia they faced Japan in the play-off between the group runners-up. They lost 3-2 in extra-time. On November 29 in Melbourne, Australia they were 3-1 down on aggregate with 14 minutes left to play.