Iran’s Team Melli defeated Jordan 3-1 on Friday evening to reach the final of the 4 nations international tournament and set up an interesting encounter against Qatar coached by the former Team Melli coach, Carlos Queiroz.

Iran opened the scoring early when Mehdi Taremi fed a nice through ball to his partner Sardar Azmoun, who nicely side-footed the ball into the net in the 8th minute. Taremi scored the second from a brilliant pass from the right flank by Ramin Rezaeian which the Porto striker placed on the far side of the Jordanian keeper.

In the first half, Iran did not face much of a problem distributing the ball with ease and patience, however, in the process, some easy chances were also missed by the Iranians due to some poor finishing and overconfidence.

The second half was totally different story. Jordan was the better team by far while Iran crumbled and the defense was leaky. The middle of the field was totally taken over by the hosts and if it was not for the poor finishing of the Jordanian players, Team Melli would have been a few goals behind.

Team Melli’s poor defensive play, with suspect marking, combined with Jordanian players’ determination to show themselves as a better team than the result suggested, eventually paid dividends as Jordan scored in the 74th minute from a horrible blunder by Saeid Esatollahi and Kananizadegan. After the goal, Jordan pressed on, leaving the Iranians nervous and in disarray which led Ghalenoei’s players to resort to long balls and hasty clearances. It is safe to say that the second half was one of the worst teams Melli performances in many years.

Jordan’s pressure eventually paid off as a soft penalty was declared by the Saudi referee late in the second half. Jordan’s Ehsan Haddad’s right foot kick from the spot went airborne and was nowhere near the goal. It was indeed a bad spot kick and consistent with Jordan’s performance as a set of talented players who have great problems shooting straight and finishing.

And as Jordan was still hoping for a late equalizer leading to penalty kicks to decide the winner, in came Mehrda Mohammad a substitute in injury time to score the third for Team Melli with a pretty good-looking chip over the Jordanian keeper. Cheshmi provided Mohammadi with the ball from a long clearance.

This was yet another win for the undefeated Ghalenoei, but one doubts that he was proud of his player’s performance this evening. There were more negatives than positives in this game for Iran. Not that Qatar will be a great threat on the 17th when they play in the final match, but this type of performance, leaves a lot to be desired and reduces the faith of the fans to be a leading title contender comes January 2024 in the AFC Asian Cup 2023. As of now, and with such a scruffy display, Iran’s chances to win the AFC Asian Cup is relegated to the third or fourth level, while Japan remains the top favorite.

Lots of work needs to be done. The midfield was embarrassing, the normally dependable defense was falling apart and the two stars at the froing were the saving grace, although both were far from their best.