Maa eydi meekhaaym yaallaa!
Team Melli should give Iranians a Nowruz present
by defeating Japan
Siavush Randjbar-Daemi
March
24, 2005
iranian.com
The cream of Asian football will meet in Tehran’s
Azadi stadium on Friday (18:05 local time), when Iran will host
Asian Cup winners Japan in an AFC Group B World Cup Qualifier.
Nowrouz has just passed, and many Iranians around
the world are delightfully using their Eidi presents. But there
is one present that has not been unwrapped
yet, since it's due to be delivered on March 25: the joy of seeing Team Melli
win a crucial World Cup 2006 qualifier against Japan in Azadi Stadium., Tehran. On Friday, Asia's currently two best teams (Iran and Japan take
turns in being ahead of each other in the monthy FIFA World Rankings)
will go head to head in the West Tehran cauldron, where a crowd
of over 100,000 Iranians, most of whom afforded the spare time
of the lengthy Nowrouz holidays and the economic incentive of the
promise of free tickets for some parts of the stadium, will match
a determined contingent of fans who will arrive from Tokyo. Famed
for not leaving anything to chance, the Japanese authorities
forced the tourists to undertake a small course on the behavior
to adopt
once the 3,000 person party arrives in Iran.
The two teams reach the Azadi showdown in different shape. Japan
won their first game, against a surprisingly sprightly North Korea
side, that succumbed only at the very end of the ninety minutes
of play, loosing the game 2-1. Iran on the hand played a very stiff
and dry encounter in Manama, Bahrain, that left many Team Melli
fans not too upset at the 0-0, given that the match could have
very
easily
been a repeat of the dreadful October 2001 3-1 defeat that cost
Iran a berth in World Cup 2002.
Various colorful reasons were set
forth for Iran's bad performance, the most fancied was
Captain Daei's assertion that the Nike balls used during the
game were unsuited to Team Melli, having worked with Adidas kicking
material for years. The state of the field brought to blame was
easier to comprehend, as the game was played in a terrain much
more akin to a potato plantation than a professional football
arena.
Having set aside the rickety ride to Manama and back, Team
Melli has been gearing up in the best of spirits, and one of
the best
Iranian sides ever will face a wily Japanese outfit that has
proven to be able to withstand the toughest of hostile environments
in
the Asian Cup 2004 Final, when faced with a incessant barrage
of Chinese venom, they held sway in the National Stadium in Beijing
and defeated hosts China to win their second Asian title in
a row.
It is therefore doubtful that Azadi's fearsome appearance will
taunt them excessively. That said, a moral boost for the
Iranian team
is not to be discounted, and the festive atmosphere of Nowrouz,
coupled with the unique prospect of giving an Eidi that will
be remembered into the years to the millions of devout Team
Melli worshippers must be ringing through the minds of the
Iranian
players.
Team Melli is a mix of fresh talent, some of which noted internationally
as outstanding, and safe old hands who have been in the thick of
the action is many of Team Melli's recent moments of glory. Will
Ali Daei or Khodadad Azizi perform the crowning action of the twilight
of their careers or will teenager Hossein Kaabi or new import Fereydoun
Zandi strike the first of a hopefully long series of winning actions
for their National Team?
Croatian coach Branko Ivankovic, a patient
tacticial of the game, has steadfastly refused to sub out, or
worse yet, bench veteran recordbreaker Ali Daei unless
he calls himself
out due to injury, raising the criticism of those who claim that
the Ardabili striker's form is long past the one needed to be
a Team Melli starter. Ivankovic mostly prefers a one
striker formation,
and keeps the flanks wide. many have hinted at a long standing
personality war in Team Melli, with Daei calling the shots and
avoiding competition for his coveted role. So far, these has
been no substance to these claims against the longstanding
Captain.
Ivankovic's men walk into the field with the high
expectations of a nation that eagerly awaits an international
success of any
kind, most importantly in the sports arena. Iran has all the ingredients
on paper to achieve a famous win against the powerhouse of Asian
football, and thus establish a name for itself internationally.
Whether we will all recieve the best of Nowrouz Eidis
is a matter of hours away, but certain is the fact
that a positive score in
Azadi would very well justify a frenzy of phone calls by Iranians
worldwide to tour operators and tourist agencies offering summer
packages to Germany next year, as little more than standard performance
would be needed from our team to see through the remainder of
the World Cup Qualification series and join the world's
elite teams
at next summer's competition.
About
Siavush Randjbar-Daemi is a commentator on Middle Eastern
affairs in Italy and staff member of Persianfootball.com.
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