Sometime the glass
is viewed as half full and sometimes as half empty! This
is a famous English language cliché that applies to the
game between Iran and Bahrain…
Yes, sure we earned a point on the road
and that is the half full part of it. Oh, actually the
other part of the half full is that the Bahrain team didn’t
play a mental game (only 4 falling players).
But, after watching Iran’s performance today, following the hype and promises and the sense of payback and revenge and all other adjectives you can find in the English Language, and feel free to borrow a few from Persian and Spanish and French and German, I have to declare that for me today simply “the
Glass is Half Empty.”
“Let the lights dim” he said… And the
lights were dimmed…
“Get ready for show time!”, he asked… And
the show was about to start…
“Let the game begin”, he demanded… And
the game began…
But somehow the Iranian players, unlike 70 million fans in the country and scores of others around the globe, forgot to have a game face on for Bahrain.
Yes, the game began and we learned a lot about our team.
Iran had a collection of Lost Stars out
on the field. The midfield stars of Asia with Karimi, Kia,
Zandi, Nekunam and Navidkia were a group of stars imprisoned
into a system that seemed “Hardambilli”. It was like,
there was an eclipse and the stars lights were dimmed and
there was no lights to reflect back on the field.
Ali Karimi was determined to put a clinic of dribbling for the Bahrain players. A clinic was held but Karimi
learned that teamwork doesn’t mean moving the ball from
your left foot to your right foot and dribble one extra
player. You may say I am harsh on Karimi but his performance today precisely deserves a harsh assessment.
Ali Daei, my favorite player
of all time, played as he doesn’t belong to the national
team. I counted 10 times when his poor passes went to the
other side and for those who understand computers, my 10
is not a binary 10, it is a decimal 10.
Mr. Brnako Ivankovich, was Daei our classic center forward? If yes, why was he trying, unsuccessfully time and time again I may add, to be a playmaker one line behind Kia and Hashemian?
Did Vahid Hashemian play? I know
he was in the line up but did he actually line up? I don’t
seem to recall seeing him making an impact.
Ferydun Zandi was brought in
with 2 practices with the team. I can’t fault him for a
non-impact performance but Brnako who played him as a starter
is responsible to answer. Yes, yes, yes, I know these guys
are professional but our professional players like Kia,
Zandi, Hashemian and Daei played a professional mechanical
match.
No emotions and feelings were exhibited or maybe I expected too much.
Nekunam had one decent shot and
2, what is the opposite of decent, indecent (I don’t think
so), two poor shots.
In fact, our midfield had no real impact in being a conduit and connect our defensive line to our offensive line. Did we ever have 5 consecutive passes? By my count, once.
What did Daei say at the end of the
game? Oh yes, “A new ball was used that we were not used
to it.”
Mr. Daei, thank you for the explanation.
In Persian, we also have a similar saying that says “Zamin Kajeh.” I guess that could have been used as an excuse too. Does this mean that no one in IFF and no coach knew that such a “Strange Awkward Ball” would
be used and other than 1 practice session, we could not
have used such ball prior to the game?
Or was the ball so “Hot off the Press”,
that it could not be practiced with? Come on guys!
In my book, among the midfielders and forwards, Moharam Navidkia was the only positive sign. Judging this one game, we do need him badly.
Surprise, Surprise…
Our defense, well as a whole played
well. This was only the second time in 18 official games
that Bahrain didn’t score.
Rezai and Kaabi did their job and held their ground although Kaabi was not himself when attacking.
…BUT, BUT, the one defender I have been
personally very critical of, Golmohammadi, was the
leader of the defense. He collected the ball well, tackled
well and “Zabunam Laal” convinced me that he belonged there.
Nosrati was placed in the poor position, actually out of position, as the left back where Bahrain engineered 80% of their attacks. Nosrati blew it a couple of times but he survived.
And finally Mirzapour… He saved our day/night that one time with an amazing reaction. Mirzapour is usually fantastic on reflexes and he proved that again. His weaknesses are…some
other day on this.
Today, I am happy with Mirzapour, still
remembering Rahmati’s performance against Bosnia, and let’s
stay positive with Mirza.
We waited 1,206 days for this game but as another English saying goes:
When it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it is a duck!
Iran’s team was out of synch,
didn’t exhibit an offensive game plan, some would say any game plan,
looked to be happy with a tie,
forced players as starters who were not ready to play with each other on the field,
and all of that point to one man…Our head coach.
I am still a huge supporter of Branko Ivankovich but he is responsible for this poor performance, just like he has been the one getting credit for our victories. He may be sort of happy with the result but the performance was sub-par.
What do you plan to do for the next game Mr. Ivankovich?
The lights went dim for the show and
we wanted so badly to create the “field of dreams” for the Iranian side and turn Manama’s stadium into the “field of nightmare” for the Bahrainis…but….there
were no fireworks by Iran.
On this day, it saddens me to say that the glass was certainly half empty.
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Iran
0 – Bahrain 0: Sometimes The Glass is Just Half
Empty