Tag: USA

GARETH SOUTHGATE has travelled to Vienna to watch Iran play Senegal.

 

The England manager is busy preparing for the Qatar World Cup after the Three Lions’ Nations League campaign concluded with a 3-3 draw against Germany.

And with England set to take on Iran in their opening World Cup fixture, Southgate is doing his homework in person. He was joined by his assistant manager Steve Holland at the behind closed doors match. Southgate, 52, was likely casting an eye over Iran’s dangermen to work out how to nullify Carlos Queiroz’s side.

The England boss looked in good spirits despite mounting pressure on his team and took time to pose for photos with fans ahead of kick-off. Despite a run of six matches without a win Southgate has belief in his squad and is re-assured by the leadership qualities some players have shown in recent days.

He said after the Germany match: “Some of the more senior players have been outstanding. “They asked for a meeting on their own to talk things through. For me, that was such a positive sign. The best football teams have a real core of players that drive things.

“To have the right sort of messages filtering through to the group to keep people on track is crucial. We need to stay calm. “We have been through times like this before but they are all learning together. The message is we must stick to what we do. “You will have pressure in a World Cup. It may be in a group game or in a quarter-final. It is better we feel it and learn how to feel about it.

England are joined by Iran, Wales, and the USA in the Group. Iran and England have never met at the international level.

There was no word from Southgate after the end of the match.

The Welsh rating Wales chances in the FIFA World Cup 2022.

How Far Can Wales Go at the Upcoming World Cup?

The Welsh, or their media at least, seemed to be hyped up for the World Cup. As usual in the football press in the West, their groundwork and background knowledge is quite poor as they seem to gauge and judge the opposition on the number of footballers playing in the English Premier League rather than proper analysis and knowledge of the team. This Welsh reporter’s article highlights the lack of depth when he considers USA Team’s chances above Iran because of two American footballers one playing with Juventus and the other in Chelsea !!

When the unfortunate Andriy Yarmolenko nodded into his own net after a wicked Gareth Bale freekick, Wales could finally return to the FIFA World Cup after 62 long years. But how far can the Dragons truly go? Oddschecker, which provides free offers for online casinos and sportsbooks, doesn’t rate Robert Page’s men’s chances very highly. Admittedly no one expects the FIFA World Cup trophy to be paraded around the streets of Cardiff a few days before Christmas, but Wales are priced alongside the likes of Serbia, Canada, and Ecuador in terms of outright betting.

That won’t bother Bale and co. one bit though. We all recall the summer of 2016 in France. During that European Championship campaign, Wales was also unfancied. They went on to top a group containing England, Russia, and Slovakia. After that, they edged out a 1-0 victory over Northern Ireland in the last 16, before the greatest result in the country’s history in the quarter-finals. That was, of course, the 3-1 victory over tournament favorites Belgium. Goals from captain Ashley Williams, Hal Robson-Kanu, and Sam Vokes were enough to seal a 3-1 victory over Roberto Martinez’s men, with the nation celebrating the victory long into the night.

Eventual winners Portugal would prove one step too far in the semifinal, cruising to a 2-0 victory. But is there anything stopping Wales from achieving a similar result in Qatar?

Getting out of the group should be the primary objective

Once again, Wales have been drawn alongside old rivals England in the group stages. The other two sides in Group B are Iran and USA. On paper, the draw could have been much worse. Admittedly, the Three Lions are the favorites to secure the top spot. But, Robert Page will be looking at the other two nations as beatable. To be fair, even England isn’t impenetrable. Wales gave them all they could handle at Euro 2016, even leading through Bale’s thunderous freekick at the halfway mark. It took Daniel Sturridge’s last gasp winner to break Welsh hearts, but don’t count them out on gaining revenge for that day in Lens.

Photo credit : Hostpry of Soccer
Photo credit: History Of Soccer

Iran are the obvious weak link in the group, and victory against Dragan Skočić’s side is imperative if there is to be a success.

The US, however, are a much trickier opponent. They boast the likes of Chelsea’s Christian Pulisic and Juventus’ Weston McKennie in their ranks, and they are expected to progress from the group stages at Wales’ expense. That fixture between the pair on the World Cup’s opening day is most definitely winnable though. And if Wales does win that game, it is highly likely that they will progress to the knockout stages.

Progress, and who knows where from there? 

If Wales can somehow make their way out of the group stages, it’s highly likely that it will be as group runners-up. That would probably set up a last-16 tussle with either Senegal or the Netherlands.

Senegal is the reigning champions of Africa, an honor they earned by defeating Mohamed Salah’s Egypt on penalties in Cameroon this winter to seal their first ever Africa Cup of Nations victory. Spearheaded by Bayern Munich’s new boy Sadio Mane, the Lions of Teranga would provide a stern test in the second round.

The Netherlands would also be quite the challenge. Wales, however, can take solace from the fact that the Oranje were eliminated at the same stage during last summer’s delayed European Championships. Second-half goals from Tomáš Holeš and Patrik Schick were enough to seal a 2-0 victory for the Czech Republic in Budapest and if the Red Dragons are to face Virgil Van Dijk and co, you can expect them to study that match in detail to prepare for the showdown.

Should Wales progress beyond the last 16, the tournament will have already been a rousing success. Anything further than that and we should all just enjoy the ride, as we all have already been doing throughout the last decade, the most successful era in the history of Welsh football.

Wales spoil Ukraine dreams to reach first World Cup in 64 years

Wales ended their 64-year wait for a place in the World Cup finals as they beat Ukraine 1-0 on Sunday to end the conflict-torn nation’s hopes of reaching Qatar.

Gareth Bale, so often Wales’ talisman, again produced the decisive moment with his 34th-minute free-kick headed into his own net by Andriy Yarmolenko.

But Wales goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey took the man-of-the-match honors with an outstanding display that kept the gifted Ukrainians at bay.

Coach Rob Page saluted his players and the fans after seeing them clinch a place at the World Cup finals for the first time since 1958.

“It’s unbelievable. I’m so proud of these boys,” he said. “They thoroughly deserved that. The one thing they needed was a World Cup and they’ve got it.

“The fans were incredible. They’re the best supporters in world football, I’m telling you. They helped us from the first minute and deserve all the credit.”

More than six decades after reaching their one and only World Cup in Sweden in 1958, Wales are back at football’s global table.

Page will ready his team to face rivals England, USA, and Iran in a wide-open group in Qatar, while Ukraine faltered in a World Cup play-off for the fifth time.

Geopolitics of Football.

The recent news of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s criticism against “Canada Soccer” for arranging a friendly international match against Iran in Vancouver, reflects on how geopolitics is affecting the game as much as how hypocritical and biased the western politicians are becoming.

After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the geopolitics of the invasion crept into the world of football. FIFA, the world governing body, under pressure from the west addressed the Russian invasion by suspending Russia and its football clubs from all competitions on February 28, including the ultimate one: the 2022 World Cup tournament in Qatar. The Justification was poor and unprecedented. There was no global and agreed UN resolution of any kind. FIFA never suspended the USA for invading Iraq or Afghanistan and committing genocides in the process.

The non-western world was shocked by such influence of politics on football. while FIFA always enforced its policy against the government and political interference in the game, it has historically tried to avoid geopolitics impacting the sport in principle. However, it is now clear that the game is not played on even grounds.

Nevertheless, the biggest shock that exposed the mentality of prejudice was the western Media’s hypocrisy and double standard. Although nothing to do with football, white reporters kept on highlighting the plight of civilized Ukrainian refugees, with white skin and blue eyes, in such acts of duplicity, prejudice, and downright bias that exposed the inherent bias against non-whites and people of other ethnic groups, races and/or religions. Embracing hate against non-whites, was perhaps subdued and carefully vetted but Ukraine made it flagrantly clear that extreme right and white supremacy is on the rise and sometimes flagrant.

It also highlighted that when it comes to their self-interest, the spirits of Olympics, sports, and others are dumped in the bin.

Russia’s suspension by FIFA was significant for two reasons. First, FIFA historically doesn’t punish countries for intrastate conflicts. Secondly, this is the first time that FIFA sided with boycotters. Moreover, the integration of politics with the World Cup goes beyond the Russian invasion, as the choice of Qatar as the host nation invited a significant backlash.

Normally, it is the role of the United Nations (UN) to sanction countries and member states following the resolution agreed upon. FIFA’s speedy suspension of Russia marks the first time since 1950 that FIFA allowed the intrastate conflict to play a role in its disciplinary decision-making without a prior United Nations (UN) resolution preempting it. Since World War II, most intrastate conflicts haven’t resulted in suspensions from FIFA. Two prominent examples stand out. England and Argentina participated in the Spain World Cup in 1982, despite the UK considering withdrawal during the Falkland War occurring earlier that year. Additionally, Iran and Iraq fought a brutal eight-year war during the 1980s, but FIFA suspended neither nation from the 1982 and 1986 World Cups (with Iraq being the aggressor).

Iran, itself has been condemned umpteen times for mixing politics with sport. Its boycott of the state of Israel is well known in every sport. Its Judo federation was finally suspended due to that. It is fortunate that Iran and Israel are far apart when it comes to football with The Jewish state not qualifying for the World Cup since its only appearance in Mexico in 1970. Can you imagine if Iran refused to play a country it does not recognize in a World Cup?

We have to face reality and that this world is controlled by the mighty powerful and the rich. Equality, human rights, peaceful existence, friendship, and understanding are all slogans that the west preaches to us and will use in their quest to dominate and influence the world. Unfortunately, football has fallen victim to this strategy. A character such as Trudeau, who is a known vehement anti-Iran politician with a special bias against the theocracy of the Mullahs, is part of such domination strategy and thus feels obliged to express his objection against a football match!

Fortunately, Canada is a democratic society where one person cannot dictate his whims or rules without the consent of the parliament. That cannot be said of Iran, of course.

And hence, Canada vs Iran match in Vancouver is on and 95% of the tickets have already been sold. Take that!

Marijo Tot “We have a good chance of advancing from the group

The assistant coach of the Iranian national football team expressed hope that Team Melli would advance to the second round of the FIFA World Cup 2022 for the first time in its history.

In an interview with tportal site, Tot mentioned that this is a historic occasion for Croat coaches. For the second time in history, two Croatian coaches will be leading two different teams in the World Cup. This happened first at the 2006 World Cup in Germany, where Zlatko Kranjcar and Branko Ivankovic, were in charge of Croatian and Iran respectively. Zlatko Dalic has now managed to clinch qualification to the World Cup with Croatia, while another Croat Dragan Skocic achieved similar success with Iran.

“We are very happy with this group, it is clear that you can not have an easy opponent in the World Cup,” said Marijo Tot, about Iran’s draw in the 2022 World Cup. England is both on paper and in reality the first chance to win the group title. The other three teams can compete equally for second place. I honestly think we have a very good chance of making it to the second round. There is a major rivalry with the United States because Iran played the United States in the 1998 World Cup and Iran won 2-1. The players who scored in that game have a special place in the country. It will be a special game now that we all know for what special reasons and our players will go to the World Cup with great motivation.”

 

“In the case of the third competitor, I would prefer Ukraine.” The assistant coach continued: “There is still a long way to go before the tournament starts and anything can happen. But many fans in Iran have the chance to be present for Team Melli in the World Cup. I believe that this time we can take that historic step forward and cross the group for the first time. Alireza Jahanbakhsh from Feyenoord, Mehdi Taremi from Porto and Sardar Azmoun from Bayer Leverkusen are Iran’s first hopes in this cup. We also have players who play in Greece and Turkey. We also have Sadegh Moharremi from Dynamo Zagreb, who plays very well here in Team Melli and was the best player on the field in the last game against Lebanon. I do not want to get into Dynamo’s problems, but given how good Muharrami is, I wonder why he does not get more minutes of play with his club in Croatia.”

About the defeat of Iran against South Korea, he said: “Despite the fact that we went to Seoul with an incomplete team, that is, without 6 or 7 players from the main team, we were quite strong in that game as well. But regardless of everything, we were ended up first in the group. We are the best team in Asia. We travel to this championship with the extraordinary support of the fans who will surely be with us in Qatar.”

What did the coaches say after World Cup draw?

 

Gregg Berhalter, USA coach

“We think it’s a good group. We know every opponent in the World Cup is difficult but with England, you definitely get an exciting match-up. Gareth (Southgate, England manager) and I go way back. He’s a guy I look up to and has always been there for me, and given me advice. I reached out to him when I got the job and asked if he’d be interested in telling me more about international football. I looked at him as something as a mentor and since then we have stayed in touch.”

Gareth Southgate, England manager

“The first two teams (USA and IR Iran) we’ve not played for quite a while. The third (Wales or the winner of Scotland-Ukraine) is a total unknown but throws up a possible British derby. We know what they’re all about! When you’re seeded, you get the advantage of missing out on those big six or seven teams. But there are some really high-ranked teams in Pot 2, the US in particular, and I know Gregg Berhalter quite well – we’ve met a couple of times and had long chats about things. They’ve got some very good players and we know what they could be capable of as a nation.”

Skočić, hopeful of advancing from the World Cup group B.

The head coach of Iran’s Team Melli evaluated Iran’s group in the FIFA World Cup 2022 and emphasized that Iran has a chance to advance from the group stage for the first time in its history.

Dragan Skucic,  speaking to the Croatian media by HRT, commented on Iran’s group in the 2022 World Cup: “The group can always be better or worse. This group is not bad, although it is a bit unusual because England, the USA and probably Wales or Scotland play almost the same style of football. Of course, there is also Ukraine. In any case, I think the draw went well, there were more difficult groups.

Iran will face England on the first day of the World Cup on November 21st. “Our goal is to try to advance to the next round from this e group,” he said. I think England has a lot of chances and I also think we have a chance with other öpponents in the group. I think we can compete with them and achieve qualification to the knockout stages. We definitely have good players and a lot of potential in the team and we have a fighting spirit too.

Skocic knows Arabic football well and is convinced that a big World Cup awaits Qatar. In the end, he said: I was in the Arab Cup in Qatar a month or two ago. Everything was exceptional, I was in all the stadiums. I think it will be a big World Cup in terms of organization. Ïran’s head coach also commented on his own country’s team chances: ‌” Besides Croatia, Belgium has a great chance to advance, but we should not forget Morocco. I think Canada has a lower chance of qualifying than the other group teams.”

How Iran fared against the opponents ?

Iran’s records against the teams of the group are quite healthy and that is quite a boost for Team Melli players ahead of the first game on November, 21st.

Team Melli played four times against possible and actual opponents. England remains the only team that has not faced Iran before. Team Melli managed 2 wins, 1 draw, and 1 loss to the teams in the preliminary group.

By far the biggest and most famous result against the opponents here was in Lyon on 21st June 1998 when Iran beat USA 2-1 in one of the most anticipated matches of the 1998 World Cup. Estili and Mahdavikia were the heroes of the day scoring for Iran. But 20 years before that in Argentina, when the world cup had only 16 elite participationg teams, Team Melli gained a famous draw with overhyped Scotland or the Tartan Army coached by Ally McCloud who was promising the Scotland team will return home lifting the World Cup before a ball was even kicked. The Scottish team was a star spangle group of the best player in the English First Division, the predecessor of the Premiere League.

Team Melli also played a single match against Ukraine in a friendly international which at the time was making a name for itself in European football, in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. Ali Daei scored the only goal of the match.

Iran’s loss to Wales came in a friendly match in the Araymehr Stadium and was part of the team’s preparation for the Argentine 1978 World Cup.

USA asked Iranian for a friendly in the states in 2000 hoping to get revenge for the loss in Lyon two years before. This match was played in the Rose Bowl, Pasadena, California in front of 50,000 fans. Mahdi Mahdavikia was once again the scourge of the American team when he scored early in the sixth minute of the match. US team equalized through Armas in the second half, the match ending in a 1-1 draw with the USA not being able to exact revenge.

So, for all intent and purposes, Team Melli has no psychological disadvantage in preparing for the World Cup. Such head-to-head results should boost Iran’s hopes of qualifying from the group stages for the first time in history.

Head2Head Table

OPPONENT P W D L GD
England 0 0 0 0 0
USA 2 1 1 0 1
Wales 1 0 0 1 -1
Scotland 1 0 1 0 1
Ukraine 1 1 0 0 1

 

Iran Futsal qualifies for the next round with a win over USA

The Iranian national futsal team defeated the USA futsal team 4-2 in their second match in the 2021 World Cup in Lithuania.

Head Coach Mohammad Nazem Al-Sharia started with Alireza Samimi, Asghar Hassanzadeh, Mohammad Shajari, Mehdi Javid, and Moslim Olad Ghobad in the starting lineup for this match, but only two minutes after the start of the game Alireza Samimi committed an absolutely amateurish blunder by handling the ball outside his area.

After a review by Var, he was shown the red card to send a shock wave in the team. After this incident, while Iran was playing with one player less, the American scored the first goal. That was a second shock within a few minutes of each other. However, to their credit, Team Melli player soon returned to normal and managed to score the equalizer by Farhad Tavakoli.

Mehdi Javid, and Ahmad Esmailpour scored 2 more goals to end the first half with a 3-1 margin.

In the second half, Iran struggled to score. Despite their slick and fast passing, the players failed at the last hurdles due to profligacy and wastefulness. On the other hand, the United States determined to put the humiliating result against Argentine behind them, matched Iran, and were handled the attacks very well. The goalkeeper was the star of the team.

With ball after ball failing to find the net the United States scored its second goal in the final minutes and made the Iranians quite nervous. In the final minutes of the Americans’ power play, Iran scored the fourth goal by Saeed Abbasi to end the game in their favor with a score of 4: 2 and to secure their qualification to the next stage with 6 points.

Despite the win, the performance, discipline, and attitude of the players were far from polished. The TV Mic picked up Nazim Al Shariaa telling his player at a time out “This is what happens when you do not listen.” He then went on to explain what he told them beforehand and how the players failed to apply his plan.

The final match against Argentina will be on who heads the group. Team Melli needs a huge upgrade to match Argentina, the World Champions and if they have any real aspiration to repeat or better the performance of the 2016 Futsal World Cup, they indeed need a whole lot of improvement in every department, specifically the mental attitude strength and discipline.

Iran futsal to play USA for a place in the next round.

Vilnius

Iran’s National Futsal team will meet Team USA on Friday evening in matchday two of FIFA Futsal World Cup 2021 hosted by Lithuania. currently . Futsal Team Melli started in a positive note by defeating the Serbian Team 3-2.

Playing in their first FIFA Futsal World Cup since 2008, USA had a return to forget as they went down to an 11-0 defeat, albeit against reigning world champions Argentina. Their pride hurt, the Americans will need to dig deep if they are stay in contention for a place in the last 16 and go some way to matching their run to third place in 1989 and to second place three years later.

Iran are in a very different place after a confidence-boosting win over Serbia. Dominant in the first period, the Iranians clung on in the second. After their third place at Colombia 2016, big things are expected from Iran again. They will start favorites against USA, but will have to make do without the suspended Hamid Ahmadi, with Hossein Tayebi almost certain to miss out too through injury.

A win for Team Melli will ease their mind and go to the last match against World Champions without any due pressure.

Iran and USA met only once befor on in 18th October 2011 in whic Team Melli defeted the American 8-0. There is a good chance to improve this record later on this evening.

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