ISP EDITORIAL- There's Something About Branko's Iran

We had not seen the national team play an international side in many months, let alone an international side of the quality of the Croatians. Don't forget this was the same Croatia who had not lost a single game under their manager Zlatko Krankjar during his two year tenure.

Enough with the foreplay, and let's get straight into the action. Iran made an explosive start, which not only caught out the home side, but over 70 million Iranians worldwide. A dominant period of one or two touch football moving effortlessly towards the Croatian goal was significant in letting the Iranians settle early on. Quick pressing from up front meant that the Croats were forced into unforced errors in defence. It wasnt until about 25 minutes in that the Croatians began to take control of the match, and from that point onwards, the half was theirs, as Iran sat back. But Iran's players always looked dangerous on the counter attack with Karimi on the left, Zandi drifting from a central area towards the right, and Nekounam and Teymourian adding to the attack whenever necessary. Vahid Hashemian looked impressive for a man who had not played competitive football for almost 2 months.

Defence was where the problems lay though. Every Croatian set piece seemed to cause panic in the Iranian defence with the ball not being cleared properly. This meant that Croatia could return with a second ball. That is suicide at international level. Croatia carved open the Iranian defence on numerous occassions and only last-ditch defending saved the Iranians blushes. All too easily on another day, Croatia could have easily scored a further 3 goals off set pieces. Rahman Rezaei was not his usual solid self and as expected Yahya Golmohammadi did not impose himself onto the game, rather choosing to sit back and read the game from further back. At international level, time and space are essential and pressing is vital. Mohammad Nosrati had a torrid early time against one of Europe's best right-sided players in Darijo Srna. But if he thinks it will get any easier against players like Cristiano Ronaldo or Luis Figo, he is dead wrong. All too often, the young Pass defender seems to panic and let the blood rush to his head and it can be costly. But at the same time, lets not downplay his cascading runs into the opposition half, with one run significantly leading to the opening goal.

Defensively, another performance like Sunday's at the World Cup can see Iran punished heavily against more clinical finishing, especially if you give the ball away in the penalty area. But offensively, Iran will have the quality to cause any defence problems. Karimi is slowly rediscovering his fitness, and when he is fully fit, as we saw on Sunday in short glimpses, he can cause any defence problems.

Let's summarize what came out of Sunday's clash with Croatia.

Positives

+ Impressive non-stop pressing by the Iranians early on which didnt allow the Croatians any time to settle. Unfortunately the midfield began to sit back a bit too much in the second half and this gave Croatia the time and space to launch attacks. But by that time, Iran was confident of holding on defensively.

+ Fluid one or two touch attacking football (Editor's note: Yes, we are talking about Iran here. Who would have thought!).

+ Ferydoon Zandi playing his best game in an Iran shirt.

+ The coming of age of the next big thing in Iranian football, Andranik Teymourian. He hassled the opposition, pressed, fouled, never stopped running and marshalled the central midfield like a seasoned pro, and not as a 22 year old playing for the first time against top quality opponents.

+ Ali Karimi and Vahid Hashemian returning to fitness, impressively I may add.

+ Brilliantly timed substitutions by the tactician, Ivankovic. Bringing on Bakhtiarizadeh to sit in front of the defence was a stroke of genius as it stabilized what looked like a shaky defence. Don't forget Arash Borhani coming on too. Borhani ran his socks off in 20 minutes, created a golden opportunity out of nothing for Nekounam and scored a goal he truly deserved, all because of his persistent running. Don't blame the Croatian defenders who were caught off guard. It took time to adjust themselves after they had a quiet stroll out against Ali Daei.

+ Finally, impressive tactics, which saw us switch formations, impressive decision-making, substitutions and the whole nine yards by Branko Ivankovic. He answered his critics well. Although there is more work to be done, especially in defence. But, he proved to many critics that there is life left yet in the Croatian and his heavily pummeled tactics.

Negatives

- The defence, especially on the wings. All too many times Croatia got behind the full backs and sent in dangerous crosses which were not dealt with well. Set plays gave Iran a torrid time, but you can always train on set plays. Individual defensive errors is what you cannot improve upon.

- Javad Nekounam had an off day. Was it just a case of not wanting to risk injury or was it the UAE blues hitting another one of our players?

- Ali Daie was simply miles away from international quality. He posed no threat to the Croatians. At the moment, he is in the team on two fronts, one as captain, it is more difficult to drop him and two on his contributions on defensive set pieces. Iran was effectively playing with 10 men.

- Long diagonal balls over Hossein Kaabi's head.

- Ebrahim Mirzapoor's poor distribution of the ball. He set no pace for any attacks and his abysmal goalkeeping cost Iran a goal right at the death. Other than that, he made a number of routine saves, albeit some of those saves may have gone in against him months ago. Altogether, there were signs that his confidence is coming back. There is no need to pummel him now, as it is probably too late in the game to change goalkeepers.

- The Mehrzad Madanchi experiment failed miserably but he effectively played as a second left back.

Conclusion

Much more reason to be optimistic than not to be. Many things became clear during the 90 minutes. None more important than Branko Ivankovic proving to all Iranians that the team may be in good hands. The Croatians didnt expect it and I promise you that the watching Mexicans would have been unpleasantly surprised at what they saw. They will be more worried now than at any time during the past 6 months going into the opening match. All this and we havent even unleashed Mehdi Mahdavikia on them yet. They never saw us coming.