2005 Is the Year for Team Achievement!

Last week, Iranian midfielder, Ali Karimi was elected as “The Asian Player of the Year”. Naturally, this election brought joy and smile to Iranian football fans around the word. And it should!

This is not the first time Iranian players have made their mark in the individual categories and it won’t be the last time.

Let's move from individual to team achievements.

1. When was the last time an Iranian Football team won the Asian Cup? The answer is sadly over 28 years ago when more than 65% of the Iranian population, including many of you the readers, was not even born.

2. When was the last time an Iranian U17, U19 or U23 won in Asian level? Our U23 has had success in Asian Games but the last time they advanced to the Olympics was 24 years ago. The last time they actually participated in one was 28 years ago.

3. When was the last time an Iranian team, any team in any team sports, won in the world level? The answer to this question is regrettably never.

Historically, Iranians have performed well in individual sports that rely on strengths such as Wrestling, Weightlifting and Martial Arts types of sports. More recently we also have seen success by female chess players in Asian and youth level.

Let’s return back to football and individual performance.

Over the last 10 years, how many Iranian football players have won the “Asian Player of the Year” award?

- Daei has scored 102 national goals and is still going strong.

- Budnesliga fans have gotten to know and appreciate Daei, Kia and Hashemian as superb players deserving to be in the best of German clubs.

- Rezai has become a consistent and important part of Messina in Italy’s Series A.

Yet, all these recent individual successes by Iranian footballers have failed to turn into world stage team achievements. Over the last 12 years, the list of our claims to fame in football (team level) is very thin. It is limited to:

- A qualifying victory over Australia (Technically, two ties but we won on goals scored in the away match).

- A sweet victory over the U.S. 6 years ago in the World Cup 98.

- Two third-place finishes in Asian Cup (1996 and 2004).

- Asian Club championships many moons ago (IN 1992) by Paas football Club.

…That is it… until now.

It is time to turn the story around and turn individual achievements into team’s achievements.

We are now entering a new stage. We are now positioning ourselves to qualify for the World Cup 2006. Qualifying for the “big dance” is the very minimum we should expect, no we should demand, of the Branko Ivankovich team and our football federation. Depending on the draw, we should then set our goals high to advance from the group stage in Germany.

Although I am very proud of Karimi’s award, I will be officially over it by end of December.

Although I am very pleased of Daei’s record goals scored in the national team, I am now officially over it and will enjoy it more many years from now when I reach my golden years reviewing the record books to reminiscent and tell stories for my grandchildren.

Although I am happy that Hashemian and Kia have had success in Bundesliga (not counting this year), I am now officially over those individual successes and look forward for the team success.

The year 2005 is the year that we simply MUST harvest the fruits of the individual success stories with the team victories. Every ounce of energy by IFF (Iran Football Federation), football fans, media and you and I should be spent in making our national team a better team and get it qualified for Germany. Then the real fun starts.

As national team football fans and ones that care about Iran’s pride, qualifying for the 2006 World Cup is the only milestone that matters in 2005. In the big picture, nothing else compares to this milestone.

Let me be blunt!

Events that wouldn’t compare to the said milestone above include:

- The contract size of Karimi if he ever decides to move to Europe. Actually, Karimi moving to Europe matters only because it could improve his game and therefore should help Iran in the World Cup but not his contract size.

- Whether or not Daei scores another 20 goals for the national team unless those goals contribute to the qualification of Iran for the World Cup.

- Whether or not Daei, Azizi, Bagheri and for that matter Moabeli stay or become regular starters, substitutes or completely left off the national team as long as these decisions are made by the coach based on these players abilities, NOT because of the Media and certainly NOT because of the fans.

In our adult lifetime, we get to have 16 opportunities to see our national team play in the World Cup. I am 2 for 7 and selfishly would like to improve my average to 0.375.

Individual achievements by Karimi, Daei, Hashemian, Kia and Rezai bring joy and pleasure to all Iranian football fans.

Succeeding in the team level extends the pleasure to satisfaction, national pride and would create historical moments that we have hardly experienced. Well, we actually did truly experience it once that warm summer night in France when you and I and all Iranians laughed and cried for joy when Estili and Kia scored their goals.

Now that is what I call a true historical sports moment and that is why we must succeed again so we collectively experience such joy once more.