itsbeautifuloutside

Iran v Nigeria

Curitaba, 16th June 2014

Match Report

The first draw of the 2014 World Cup. Not only a draw, but goalless. Not only a draw, and without goals, but I had won the privilege of doing the review!

It’s a good job that we’re not getting paid for this otherwise Channonite would have had my resignation around the 20 minute mark. Watching this match bought to mind, for some strange reason, the Wimbledon team of the 1980s but without their personalities and flair!

Nigeria, a mix of naivety and sophistication, took the initiative from the start but Iran, well organised and disciplined by coach Queiroz, weathered pretty much anything and everything.

Nigeria were determined to score, Iran were determined to stop them.

While the TV in the corner was pumping out the footballing equivalent of tofu my mind was wandering. Terrorists will tell those who try to defend society from them that they only have to be lucky once but the defenders have to have luck with them every time. I think that this must have been Nigeria’s gameplan as wave after wave of green shirted attacks pumped the ball forward. But that was it. The ball was going forward regularly .... then stopped - running into an uncompromising double defensive wall.

Iran didn’t really need to be lucky every time; Nigeria seemed to be quite unable to fathom out how to get through. Moses had an early shot but it was straight at the goalie - that seemed to set the standard for the rest of the match. Little of quality or initiative. Plan B? Nigeria didn’t even have much of a Plan A.

Apart from one save by Enyeama in the Nigerian goal and Joseph Yobo coming on in place of the injured Oboabona to win his 98th cap not much else of interest happened in that first half. No prizes for guessing which manager was happiest at halftime.

Second verse, same as the first. I suppose that Nigeria coach, Stephen Keshi, did try to add some variety by bringing on Shola Ameobi and, later, Peter Odemwingie in a vain attempt to get through, over or around Iran’s defence. But all that happened were more niggly fouls, more than a little frustration and a complete lack of interest by this watching unfortunate. The thought crossed my mind that I was, maybe, the last man in England watching the match.

My trouble is that I’m a romantic when it comes to football. I don’t want to watch a team of over-coached, B stream players park the bus and stop the opposition from scoring. I wanted to see the Nigeria team of the 1990s run riot, not a hapless, dithering, clueless bunch seemingly lost for ideas.

Can Iran do the same against Argentina on Saturday? Will Nigeria beat B&H? I honestly don’t know - and, if the games are like this one, I won’t care much. I suppose Carlos Queiroz is happy; and, I suspect, so is the Bosnian coach. I know that I wasn’t!

stbaz