Iran may have never reached the second round of the World Cup in three previous appearances but that does not mean Team Melli’s participation has been forgettable -- far from it. When the West Asians appear on the global stage, they may leave fairly early but the stories remain for much longer. With games coming against Argentina, Bosnia and Nigeria this June, just how well Iran do in Brazil under coach Carlos Queiroz is set to become the most fascinating chapter yet. This is episode four, a new hope.
- Ultimate XI: World Cup 2014
- All-time Top 20: No. 1 - Pele
It all started back in 1978 in South America. Being drawn against the mighty Netherlands, a talented Scottish team and the dark horses of Peru was a tough introduction even before the team gave away four penalties and one own goal in the three games. Two spot kicks were converted by Robbie Rensenbrink as the Dutch won 3-0 and then two more were scored by another of the tournament’s standout stars, Peru’s Teofilo Cubillas, in the final match of the group.
The bright point came in between with a 1-1 draw against Scotland that ensures the name ‘Iran’ still sends shivers through Scots of a certain age. The Tartan Army arrived in Argentina in high spirits after being promised a place in the last four by coach Ally MacLeod. In truth, the team was overconfident and underprepared for an opening game defeat at the hands of Peru but Iran were still seen as a certain three points. They reckoned without a talented team and a goalkeeper in Nasser Hejazi -- the Islamic Revolution of 1979 deprived the shotstopper of the chance to join Manchester United -- who was on his way to achieving legend status on and off the pitch.
His successors in the national team did just that two decades later. The Asia-Oceania playoff of November 1997 will never be forgotten in Iran or Australia. A 1-1 draw in the first leg in front of well over 100,000 fans in Tehran, most of which were considerably older than the Socceroos’ teenage goalscorer Harry Kewell, suggested the trip Down Under was going to be a tricky one.
Kewell, who has just recently announced his retirement from football, struck again in the first half and when Aurelio Vidmar made it two just after the break, Terry Venables and his men were fantasising about France. Two late goals from the visitors, however, shocked the vast majority of the 85,000 inside the Melbourne Cricket Ground into silence. The scenes in Tehran were naturally very different and the regime told the team to delay their return home as celebrations on the streets threatened to get out of hand.
There was more to come. Being drawn in a group with the United States was naturally one of the stories of the 1998 World Cup. It was a tough, tough group, A narrow opening game defeat at the hands of a talented Yugoslavia team left Iran heading to Lyon to face a USA team in need of points. For all the build-up, for all the messages of peace from US president Bill Clinton and for all the oversized flowers that the Iranian players presented to their surprised opponents before kick-off, it is often overlooked that the game marked Iran’s first, and to date only, win at the World Cup.
Veteran Hamad Estili headed the opener five minutes before the break to produce a Tardellian celebration. Then six minutes from time, a young Mehdi Mahdavikia (who still looked 20 when he ended his international career in 2009) broke free to double the advantage. Brian McBride pulled one back shortly afterwards, a scrambled effort that served to make the final whistle sound all the sweeter.
The reward for making history was a game with Germany that had to be won. The players still had yet to come down from the high point of Iranian football history and a 2-0 defeat meant that they were heading home, though with heads held very high indeed.
No Iran fan will want to remember the failed qualification for the 2002 World Cup -- suffice to say that an opportunity to exact revenge on Bahrain is taken with relish at every opportunity -- but the road to Germany 2006 was a relatively smooth one despite the riot their late goals provoked in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang.
Fans felt Iran had a real chance of finally reaching the second round. A team led by the affable Croatian Branko Ivankovic contained Bayern Munich’s Ali Karimi and Bayern old boys, the legendary Ali Daei and Vahid Hashemian. There was top Asian-based talent too such as Andranik Teymourian and Javad Nekounam. It all suggested that a group containing Mexico, Portugal and Angola was tricky but not impossible.
A bright first half against Mexico on a scorching Sunday afternoon in Nurnberg confirmed that this Iran side could live with teams more experienced on the world stage but it all went wrong in the second half after a tired and not quite fit Karimi was withdrawn and El Tri scored two late goals to win 3-1. International news outlets praised the stubborn Iranian resistance but these were plaudits unwanted and unsought by the supporters who felt their team could and should have won. These fans lit up the cities of Germany with their numbers, colour, passion and love of the game and their country, but the team paled in comparison.
There had long been a debate among the followers and media as to whether Daei, the world-record international goalscorer, deserved a place in the team at the grand old age of 37 as he started to move slower than traffic in the Tehran rush hour. The splits extended to the dressing room and it should perhaps be said that pushing Mexico and Portugal so close despite the divisions showed the potential of the team. The final game with Angola in Leipzig was a sad affair between two teams already eliminated. The fallout from the fallout took a long time to dissipate.
And that has been it. Qualification for 2010 ended amid heartbreak, as a late Park Ji-sung goal in Seoul killed any hopes of South Africa, and controversy. The game took place against the backdrop of a presidential election in Iran in which opposition leaders claimed that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had rigged the results. Some members of the team wore green wristbands in the first half against Korea, a gesture seen as support for the opposition -- green was the colour of the challenger Mir-Hossein Mousavi.
Two years later and Carlos Queiroz entered the fray, a man with more international experience than most of the 32 men ready to patrol Brazilian technical areas this June. It will not surprise anyone to learn that his version of Team Melli is well-organised and miserly at the back, conceding just twice in eight games in the final round of qualification. His Iran team will not do a North Korea and lose 7-0 to anybody this June. The issue -- as shown by the fact that the four goals recorded in the win over Lebanon matched the entire haul from the other seven games -- is going to be scoring.
Preparation for Brazil has been a disaster with, to date, just one friendly match arranged since last June (South Korea have managed 14 in comparison) and a major fallout between Queiroz and Iranian powerhouse Sepahan FC, after the club refused to release players for an overseas training camp. In response, the boss has reportedly decided not to include any Sepahan players (and there would be a few) in his World Cup squad.
Such incidents have done little to dampen the mood of excitement back home, though. Iran can’t wait to get to Brazil this June in order to, off the pitch as well as on it, write another chapter in their already fascinating World Cup history.