Tag: Syria

Group A: IR Iran tighten grip with victory over Syria

the-afc.com    – 16.Nov.2021

Amman: A dominant display from the Islamic Republic of Iran at the King Abdullah II Stadium saw them cruise past Syria 3-0 on Matchday Six of the AFC Asian Qualifiers – Road to Qatar on Tuesday.
Team Melli went into the game off the back of a five-match unbeaten run, and they cemented their place at the top of Group A with a fifth win in their last six, moving up to 16 points, while Syria was rooted to the foot of the group without a win and remained there after the game.

A touch away from creating a goalscoring opportunity, Syria watched on as Omar Al Soma’s attempted through pass at the edge of the opponent’s box was intercepted and turned into the quickest of counterattacks with Vahid Amiri supplying an exquisite overhead pass for Sardar Azmoun, who broke through between the Syrian center-backs and kept his composure to slot home the opener for IR Iran in the 33rd minute.

Both Amiri and Al Soma were involved in the build-up to another attempt nine minutes later. This time the Iranian winger attempted a cross on from the left with Syria’s number 9 blocking his path and Al Soma’s misfortune continued as he was adjudged to have handled the ball inside the box, leading to the visitors being awarded a penalty that Ehsan Hajsafi (pictured below) duly converted to make it 2-0.

A quick Syrian response saw the Qasioun Eagles come within millimeters of instantly halving the deficit as Mahmoud Al Mawas showed nifty feet to trick two Iranian defenders and rifle from just outside the box, but he watched in agony as his effort beat goalkeeper Amir Abedzadeh only to cannon off the underside of the crossbar and out.

Ahmad Nourollahi nearly found the back of the net for the second game in a row as he attempted his luck in back-to-back shots just after the 70th minute, but the Shabab Al Ahli midfielder was denied on both occasions by the fingertips of Syrian goalkeeper Khalid Al Haji who made flying saves.

Gholizadeh went from provider to scorer, doing so in style with his last touch of the ball before being replaced by Mehdi Ghayedi in the final minute of the match.

The RSC Charleroi winger beat the offside trap and went on to waltz his way past three Syrian defenders before calmly placing the ball into the bottom corner to confirm the Iranian victory with a third goal.

Iran continues their campaign at home against Iraq at the end of January while Syria’s chase of a first win sees them traveling to third-placed United Arab Emirates next.

A comfortable win for Iran keeps them at top of the table.

Team Melli defeated Syria 3 -0 in Amman in the first match of Group A’s return legs of FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 qualifiers. The goals were scored by Saradar Azmoun (33’),  Ehsan Hajsafi (42’)(P), and Ali Gholizadeh (89’).

With this win Iran consolidates its position at the top of the table with 16 points, opening a 10 points gap with the team in the third position UAE. Korea Rep. beat Iraq 3-0 in Doha to remain second with 14 points.

This match saw a much-improved performance from the Lebanon game 5 days ago. The changes that Skocic had to make on the lineup were sensible and effective. Beiranvand was given an off day in goal, while his deputy Abedzadeh was a very competent replacement despite not being really tested. His Aerial ball control was immaculate, but his ball distribution was quite impressive.

The midfield was more effective and distributed the ball efficiently feeding Azmoun and the flanks.  In defense, the introduction of Omid Nourafakan was satisfactory, while Sadegh Moharrami had a sterling performance.

Ahmad Nourallahi was one of Iran’s best players and it is pity that he was not on the scoresheet after several fine shoots especially near the ends of the match which the Syrian keeper remarkably saved.

Azmoun scored the opener with a marvelous assist from Vahid Amiri. Azmoun immaculate ball control, his escape from two Syrian markers, and the finishing touch was world-class.   Azmoun however, could have easily ended this match with a hat trick missing two golden opportunities in the second half.

Hajsafi made a start after some time with Team Melli, however, he has not lost any of his quality and scored well from the penalty.

The third goal by Gholizadeh was Messi-like. The Chareloi midfielder received the ball on the left and bamboozled four Syrian players before slotting the ball into the net. It was a great goal and one for the purists.

This was one of the matches that Team Melli won in performance and result. Players were disciplined and hardly made mistakes of judgment. It also helped that the Syrians came to play football and that made the match competitive and entertaining. However, the difference in class was evident from the start.

Although there were many candidates for MVP including Azmoun, Nourollahi, GHolizadeh, and Moharrami, The star of the match was Vahid Amiri. Not only did he provide a classy assist to Azmoun, his energy, runs on the flank, control of the ball, passing accuracy, and general attitude in the game were exemplary.

Syria Match review: The most challenging is the enemy within

Team Melli players under Dragan Skocic, will be meeting Syria tomorrow with all eyes on the three points and widening the gap at the top of the table of Group A of FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 qualifiers.

While on-field, this match like the rest of them in this group, is far from a forgone conclusion despite the fact that Syria is at the bottom of the table. It is going to be the same story for Team Melli. The object is to translate the superiority of the team into goals while keeping the defense tight.

However, the biggest battle for Team Melli seems to be occurring outside of the field of play and the enemy within. There seems to be an agenda to undermine the coach, Skocic. That enemy within, people working behind the curtains, have a systematic means of ruining the squad to serve their own interests. The target is Dragan Skocic.

The Croat has been criticized left, right, and center by many so-called Iranian football personalities who are perhaps blinded by self-interest or serving some agenda. These people conveniently ignore facts and figures such as playing 12 games, winning 11, and drawing 1 under the resume of Skocic, while denying the Croat coach any credit, by attributing the team’s immaculate results to individual players’ performance !!

Their objective is to force FFIRI to replace Skocic with one of their own.

Even a personality like Ali Daei, who is a living legend, has been dragged into this battle, In defense of Skocic-Taremi , Ali Daei who has been out of work in football since he left Saipa in 2019, took a side and supported Taremi but he also made some statements against Skocic which was indeed in poor taste and not appropriate for the character of Daei. Many other ex-footballers went on similar rhetorics.

Whether FFIRI will succumb to pressure to replace Skocic at some stage, is another tale for another day but suffice to say that the Croat has held his heads high, performed marvelously for Team Melli, and put Iran on the brink of qualification to the World Cup with a few games to spare.

On the field, Syria with a few key players missing will hardly deviate from their usual game plan. Tight defenses, pressure of opposition players, and hope of a goal on counterattacks. Heaven forbids if the Syrians score, as the repeat of the Lebanese Black Art of time-wasting, cheating, and faking injury, will be the tale of the day.

With Jahanbakhsh missing, Skocic will have several options available. He has Hajsafy, Torabi, and Sarlak as replacements. Last time out, Ghoddos was used from the start but it was a disappointing performance from the Brentford midfield player alongside Azmoun. Ansarifard or Rezaei are two options for Skocic while Ghoddos , if used again, would be operating behind the two strikers.

Goalkeeping was far from assuring against Lebanon. It will not be a great surprise if Beiranvand is benched and either Abedzadeh or Niazmand start instead.

The defense was solid and Vahid Amiri excelled in his left-back role.

Under the circumstances, Syria’s job to improve their record against Iran looks like a mammoth task, But football is a strange game, and surprises can happen. Skocic, however, is a Wiley coach and has prepared well for worst-case scenario.

Syrian camp in predicament with key players’ absenteeism.

the Syrian Football Federation announced yesterday that the midfielder  Mohammad Othman has left the Syrian squad in protest after sitting on the bench in the game against Iraq and will not play against Iran. “Ayaz Osman”, another Syrian player, left the camp on the eve of the game with Iraq due to injury. The Federation also added on Friday evening that Omar Kharbin, the key striker of the Syrian national team, will be absent against Iran too, because of injury. The results of medical tests show that the striker needs a week off due to an injury against Iraq. Furthermore, Esra’a Hamawiyah is suspended for receiving his second yellow card of the competition against Iraq, and he will be absent from the Iran game.

But these people are not the only ones absent from Syria against Iran, because “Mohammad Halaq” and “Saad Ahmad”, who were already injured, are not able to accompany Syria against Iran. Four of the six Syrian absentees played against Iran in the first match in Azadi which ended 1-0 for Iran

Team Melli and Syria will face off on Tuesday in the third qualifying round of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 in Amman, Jordan. Iran currently leads Group A with 13 points followed by South Korea with 11 points.

Syria Absentees

  1. Mohammad Othman
  2. Ayaz Osman
  3. Omar Kharbin,
  4. Esra’a Hamawiyah
  5. Mohammad Halaq
  6. Saad Ahmad

A big call to make on Beiranvand!

Alireza Beiranvand, Team Melli’s number one goalkeeper, is going through some bad patch both at the club and national Team level these days. After conceding four goals in Boavista’s game against FC Porto to experience a bitter day against Mehdi Taremi and his teammates, he also conceded another five in the next game against Famalisao, in total he has conceded nine goals in two games.

However, this dip in performance did not seem to affect Dragan Skocic’s confidence as Beiranvand was picked in the starting lineup against Lebanon. As expected, he started the match in which he continued performing dreadfully against Lebanon. He still could not put things right and perform as well as expected from him.

Beiranvand was the main culprit in Team Melli conceding a goal in that match. Despite the oddity and the very strong possibility that the ball was in fact traveled well beyond the line out of play, he was nevertheless at fault for his unprofessional response. While he should have been watching the flight of the ball and being alert, he instead watched the linesman ignoring the field and raising his hand as if such action will stop the game! A clever and opportunistic Lebanon forward scored what must have been an easy gift the type of which he might never experience again at the international level.

It was a poor goal to concede even at a much lower level of competition, let alone a match in a World Cup qualifier.

The second major mistake of the day from the shaky Beiranvand came in the second half when he decided to dribble the Lebanese forward in his 6 yards area in the 55th minute of the game. As the forward was pressing on him and getting real close, in haste Beiranvand released the ball and gave it away to another Lebanon forward, waiting for a mistake, who had an empty goal in front of him, It was another gift for Lebanon!. Thanks to the great interception by Sadegh Moharrami that the shot was deflected to a corner saving Beiranvand and the Team.

A goal would have put Lebanon 2-0 up and the recovery would have been extremely difficult especially considering gift goals by Team Melli players.

There is no doubt that Alireza Beiranvand is a liability after consecutive poor performances. He is shaky and his confidence must be at the ebb. Starting him against Syria is now considered a great risk for the Team in which Skocic will be sitting on the stands as he is suspended. However, like Taremi’s absence, Team Melli has a solid bench for goalkeeping. Abedzadeh and young Niazmand are both capable and ready to slot in and relieve the underconfident Beiranvand.

Every footballer will have some downturn in his fortune and experience a bad performance patch. It remains to be seen if Skocic and the rest of the coaching staff will risk using Beiranvand against Syria, or exercise caution and rationale by choosing either of the two keepers.

The coaches of Team Melli must consider the effect of repeated failure on the psychology of a player.

There is a serious risk wherein if Beiranvand starts against Syria and heaven forbids, commits further mistakes that lead to a goal or goals conceded, the emotional uneasiness and the feeling of guilt will perhaps destroy the confidence of Alireza Beiranvand permanently ruining his career in the process. Rationale dictates that Beiranvand should not be exposed to possible psychological agony.

It is a big call for Skocic to make against Syria.

Karim Bagheri update on Team Melli.

Karim Bagheri has been loaned to Team Melli as an administrator and advisor. He recently commented on the latest situation of the Team Melli squad which is preparing for two crucial matches against Lebanon and Syria in the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 qualifiers,

Bagheri said: “No match is an easy one, especially at this stage of the competition where all teams are trying to get the results to qualify for the World Cup. The same goes for Lebanon. This team (Lebanon) is playing at home and is determined to achieve the best result.” He added: “on the other hand, our side is the national team of Iran with the best players it has. We always do our best to get good results in every match. It is important for our national team to win this one. We also have a tough game ahead against Syria. In these few days, we have prepared ourselves well and the players are ready to play hard with good recovery and training.”

Referring to the team’s training in Lebanon on artificial turf, the national team coach emphasized: “The first training session was held on artificial turf because the situation did not allow us to train on natural grass. We have this issue on Tuesday as well, but this is no excuse at all as we will practice with all our might on the main field the day before the game.”

Regarding the controversy created after dropping Mehdi Taremi from the latest Team Melli list, Bagheri said: “In the last few days, things happened that created a lot of conflict and disputes. These disagreements and conflicting opinions have always existed in football. On the subject of Skocic and Taremi, our media friends could have reflected the issues much better and more rationally. We have two important games ahead. All the media outlets could have paused and kept the issue under control until we finish with these two games and then proceed to discuss and comment on the issue.”

He pointed out “There was a lot of talk in these few days. Mr. Skocic, Mr. Khorshidi  (the Manager of Team Melli) and I called Taremi several times to resolve any problems. Dialogue can solve problems. We could have arrested this controversy, but unfortunately, Taremi did not answer me or Mr. Skocic!” Karim Bagheri emphasized: “The last person told me to call Mehdi, but I already have called him twice, unfortunately – Taremi did not answer. He could have his own reasons for such. God willing, these problems will be solved and Mehdi will return to the national team. Mehdi is one of our most in-form players, both in the national team and his club. He works hard and has made very good progress in his career. We do not deny this. “

The coach of the Iranian national team clarified: “If Mehdi had talked to me or Skocic, the case would have been settled more easily. Mehdi’s failure to speak fueled this problem. I ask everyone not to drag this issue by blowing it out of proportion. I see on some sites that they are polling who is right and who is lying!! Support the national team because this team is for Iran and not for one or two people. We have to look at the national team as a whole. I ask the press, television, and media to support the national team. Creating controversy, inflating the situation could have negative effects on the squad. Only the name of the national team should matter, not the interest of a person. We need to come out heads high after these two games.”

Iran is playing Lebanon on 11th November in Sidon.

Taremi is out of Team Melli squad for Lebanon & Syria matches

The names of twenty-seven players invited to the camp of the Iranian national football team were announced.

Team Melli will face Lebanon and Syria in the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 qualifiers on November 11 and 15, respectively. For this mission, the names of the players invited to the national team by Dragan Skocic were announced as follows:

GOALKEEPERS:Alireza Biranvand ,Amir Abedzadeh ,Payam Niazmand

DEFENDERS: Shoja Khalilzadeh, Hossein Kananzadegan, Majid Hosseini, Siavash Yazdani, Milad Mohammadi, Omid Nourafkan, Sadegh Moharremi, Saleh Hardani, Ehsan Haj Safi

MIDFIELD: Saeed Ezatollahi, Ahmad Nourollahi, Vahid Amiri, Milad Sarlak, Saman Ghoddos, Soroush Rafiei, Yasin Salmani, Ali Gholizadeh, Alireza Jahanbakhsh, Mehdi Torabi,

FORWARDS: Mehdi Ghaedi, Sardar Azmoun, Karim Ansarifard, Allahyar Sayyadmanesh, Kaveh Rezaei

The shock of the list, although expected, was the exclusion of Mehdi Taremi.

The FC Porto Player was the best Iranian scorer in the third qualifying round of the World Cup but his remarks against the coach in a social media posting have angered Dragan Skocic.

In a recent interview with the media in his country, Dragan Skocic described Iranian players as lacking in tactical ability, despite past praise: “Iranian footballers are technically and physically strong and are at an enviable level. What they lack, and I see progress there, is tactical ability. Iranian players are still not that good in tactical ability, but in the long run, it can be improved.”

Following that remarks, Porto-based Iranian striker Mehdi Taremi, who scored the most goals for the national team during Skocic’s tenure, tweeted against Skocic: “I have to say that in addition to individual technique, Iranian players and Fighting and.… Have a very high understanding in terms of football knowledge and tactics, but unfortunately, the problems lie. elsewhere. Long Live Iran”.

This issue was associated with a lot of controversy in Iran, forcing the Manager of the national team, Mojtaba Khorshidi, to declare “This is a family problem and it will be solved. There is nothing to worry about.”

Taking Taremi’s place is the young striker Allhyar Sayyadmanesh who has been brilliant this season with Zorya in Ukraine. He has been scoring goals and with his compatriot, Shehab Zahedi helping the club win matches in the Europa Conference league.

Another bright edition is the star of Omid team the 19 years old Yasin Salmani. By far the best player in the recent AFC U23 qualifiers held in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, the Sepahn Midfielder makes his first appearance in the squad.

Also back on the list are three former players Soroush Rafei, Sivaush Yazdani, and Kaveh Rezaei.

Cracks in the dressing room!!

While Team Melli is comfortably sitting at the top of the table in FIFA World Cup 2022 qualifiers with a two-point cushion against the closest rival South Korea and 5 points margin against 3rd rank Team, Lebanon, signs of discord and possible conflict are appearing in the squad.

There are always distractors or saboteurs lurking around in Iranian football circles to create controversy with the aim to dictate their agenda by someone stirring up troubles and following the great tradition of creating ” Hashiya”. This time it seems that Skocic is the target while Taremi and Ghoddos are part of the whole episode.

The core of the matter is that Dragan Skocic expressed his opinion about the Iranian footballer’s quality to which Mehdi Taremi took an exception. What Skocic said was nothing far from the truth, as we have witnessed these attributes for decades. Skocic said what accounts to that Iranian players lack technical abilities but physically are the best and capable.
Taremi did not like that and he tweeted against his national team coach perhaps dragging other players into it creating a toxic atmosphere in the dressing room of Team Melli.

Ghoddis’s case is about not being given playing time in the last two matches and his possible absence from the squad for the next match against Lebanon and Syria.

We can all take sides in an argument as people are free to express their opinions however before such decision making one has to look at facts and circumstances when parting judgment.
Taremi is a clear-cut case. He is being silly and as usual, lacks discipline and professionalism, regardless of how many goals he scores. He has undoubted abilities in scoring, his physique is of a great classical forward,  and no one can deny that, however, he is far from a technically accomplished player, yet he is still of great value for Team Melli.

Ghoddos case is more complicated  He is the only Iranian player who plays in the English Premier League and that is no mean feat. He is creative with vision and quality. Ghoddos is the very player that Skocic complains that Iranian teams lack. Yet this skillful creative midfielder that can make an impact on a game is warming the bench!
Whatever the reasons Skocic has for benching Ghoddos, it conflicts with his statement about lack of skill in Iranian footballers. The player has also the right to say that if you don’t want me and I do not get playing time, I might as well stay in London and practice with my club to get better opportunities with Brentford. It is only fair.

Our verdict is with Ghoddos on this despite not knowing the exact details of the reason Goddos left the Azadi without even informing his coach.

One thing that Skocic needs to realize is that needs to keep his words to the absolute minimum. He definitely knows that there are many packs of wolves after him and his job. Despite his immaculate record with Team Melli so far, his name is not Carlos Queiroz so he is not the real charismatic coach that some want. It’s a ridiculous thought, but its is all real with many.

Iranian players sulk if they are criticized and seem to be least comfortable with criticism. They accept and expect nothing short of praise as soon as they turn up. That is a reality that Skocic needs to skillfully deal with. In a football league where coaches blame the earth and the sky and anything in between for their team losses, the management/organization of football is close to comical, a partisan media & fans and lack of strong leadership,  under these circumstances, the Croatian head coach needs to be wise when selecting his word, and wiser in dealing with the players. unfortunately, he can little to change their mentality in a few days where he meets his player.

The improvement of players’ mentality, technical abilities, professionalism, self-discipline, and respect for peers starts at the grassroots level in any country. Iran is no exception. There were the problems lies

So, if Skocic needs to act wisely if he wants to prevail and continue with Team Melli.

Pre-match Preview Iran vs. Korea Rep. Lessons to be learned.

With Team Melli sitting comfortably at the top, this particular match remains the most crucial of all the matches. A win by Iran will lead to practically unassailable command for Team Melli and 70% of the mission accomplished towards the qualification for FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. Of course, the results of other matches are also significant, but not as important as the three points of this one.

Korea Rep will always be a tough and uncompromising opponent for Team Melli never mind the Table or the Ranking. The Koreans are 14 places behind Iran in the FIFA Ranking of October 2021 and 59 points behind. No one should be fooled by such numbers though because the Koreans will surely give it all for this particular win.

FIFA RANKING

RK

Team
Total Points
Previous Points

+/-
22
IR Iran
 Iran
1538.08
 1522.04 16.04
26
Japan
 Japan
1520.46
 1529.45 -8.99
32
Australia
 Australia
1493.99
 1477.21 16.78
36
Korea Republic
 Korea Republic
1479.41
 1474.96 4.45

During the Queiroz era, this match would have been the right candidate for combustions. There was no love lost between Queiroz and the Korean coach. Eventually, Queiroz was instrumental in his counterpart losing his job following defeat to Team Melli. That is all settled now as no such hostility exists between Bento and Skocic.

Politics of the game aside, when it comes to the power, tactics, and influential players, the teams are neck and neck. There is, however, a marked decline of standard and form by the Koreans, versus the ascendency and improvement of Team Melli in the last few years, but particularly under Dragan Skocic.  Despite having arguably the best Asian player in its rank, in the shape of Son Heung-min , the Tottenham winger has been less than effective in a team of many new faces. The Iraqi’s managed to close all doors away to the Koreans,  with the match ending goalless. Lebanon was next where the Koreans won by the tightest of margins. Then came the third match against Syria. The match was drawn 1-1 until a momentary lapse of concentration in the 89th minute of the match by the excellent Syrian defense allowed Son Heung-min to score the easiest of goals and his first for his country since 2019. Son Heung-min was unmarked and the goal came from a set piece.

Sadegh Moharrami during a practice session before the Korea Rep match

The winning goal scored by the Koreans is a lesson to be learned by Team Melli. number one is that players should never relax against them and number two,  Son Heung-min can not be left unmarked in or around the box. That goal was similar in circumstances to the one that was conceded by Team Melli against Iraq in Amman in Round 2 of the same qualifiers, a goal that ended in defeat for Team Melli.

Singling Son Heung-min as their main threat is also misleading as there are many such good players in the squad, however, this team has been surprisingly profligate, wasteful, and squandering chances by the dozen in the last three matches. The other area where the team has seen a decline is the accuracy of the passes and the end result. While passing the ball around might appear neat, the final passes were mostly disappointing. In fact, the Koreans despite their control and passing stats in all three matches, have created only a handful of real scoring chances in relation to their superiority.

KOREA REPUBLIC MEN’S RANKING

The official World Rankings of the international Men’s team

36

40

17

69
Recent Ranking Average Ranking Highest Ranking Lowest Ranking

Team Melli’s perfect record in round three is also somehow misleading. Out of the three matches, only against Iraq that the team shined quite well and the result reflected the good performance. The last one played against UAE was perhaps the most worrying, but we can excuse the team performance as they were playing in a humid and warm climate that normally seeps the energy of players not accustomed to such conditions. As such it results in exhaustion, dehydration, adverse physical conditions, and lack of concentration. A very good example of that was the penalty kick carried out by Sardar Azmoun right at the end of regulation time of the match. His body language did not augur well for a player who is about to take a penalty. He was visibly tired and his feeble kick was easily saved by Khausaif, the UAE keeper.  The miss did not change the outcome, but it could have been costly in other circumstances. Another lesson to be learned by the coaching staff.

We cannot conclude any Team Melli match preview without mentioning the proverbial discipline. While Korea was lucky to get the winning goal against Syria, Iran were lucky not to lose their key central defender with around another half an hour to play. Such fouls like the one committed by Shojaa Khalilzadeh against Ali Mabkhout, was amateurish by a player who was until that time, one of the best players in the match. What instigated this foul was more emotional than tactical. Granted that Mabkhout beat him and was heading towards the goal at the edge of the penalty box, a professional and composed defender would have left his goalkeeper deal with the forward, after all, Beiranvand is one of the best in Asia especially since Mabkhoiut was not in full control of the ball anyway, and he runs behind to cover Beirnavand. Khalilzadeh, took the weaker option by pully Mabkhout!

It was all immaterial at the end because there was a VAR decision that an offside occurred earlier on and Shojaa’s red card was rescinded. A lesson learned? perhaps.

Mental and Emotional control, composure, and cool balanced heads are in short supply at team Melli level. There is always a possibility of combustion and fans have grown accustomed to seeing silly fouls and acts from the players. We just hope that tomorrow in Azadi against Korea is not one of those black days.

 

 

 

Analysis of the matches vs UAE and Korea Rep.

 In an interview on the prospects of Team Melli, the former lecturer and football analyst Amir Haj Rezaei spoke of Team Melli chances for the upcoming games against the UAE and South Korea in the group stage of the final qualifying round of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar,

“The unity and empathy of the players can be clearly seen in the games of this team. The most important factor in shaping a team’s success is their sense of engagement, duty and technical responsibility”. Haj Rezaei continued: “The victory of the Iranian national team against Syria and Iraq was very important and we were able to defeat teams that were always a problem for us during the period of Carlos Queiroz, but now we see that they have nothing to say against Team Melli.”

Referring to Dragan Skocic’s excellent statistics on the Team Melli bench, Hajrezaei added: “He was not a leading coach and not a front runner for the post of coaching Team Melli, but now he has proven himself to everyone. Although Skocic, was not a household name, his success on and off the field are speaking volumes about him and his reputation is growing bigger and bigger.”

“There is no call to ignore his performance and credit the victories to other issues such as the legionnaire players and the management of the federation. The fact is that the current pillars are harmonized and we see successive successes in the senior team because of many factors, not just one.” HajRezaei who was a former assistant coach of Team Melli commented on differences and comparisons between Skocic and Carlos Queiroz ” I really do not understand why there is a need to compare these two people, who have nothing to do with each other. Each has done his own thing. The only point I like to point out is that during Queiroz, there was no stability and high tension as a result of the Portuguese coach’s demeanor.”

“but talking about the past does not help the current situation. We need to enjoy the results over time and learn from them when we fail to achieve our goals.”

He noted: “Team Melli will have a lot to say against the UAE and South Korea, and I think it is not necessary to create giants and hype the opposition like they are doing to  Al-Hilal, which really did not perform well against Esteghlal.” Hajrezaei added: “The fact is that we have neglected our resources and do not enjoy it, then we talk about the small assets of other teams.”

“Let us stop criticizing the team on every point and remember to be supporters aiming for the success of Team Melli. Let’s leave the technical issues for the coaching staff,  and focus our energy on being supporters of Team Melli which currently has at least three good players in each position.”