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Dogged Iranians fall to Messi’s magic

They gave Argentina dose of their own medicine, prescribed by their coach Carlos Bilardo in 1990 World Cup, by guarding their citadel with virtually a ten-man defence that was breached by Lionel Messi magic.

The Italy World Cup hero Diego Maradona was in the stands watching the men in light-blue stripes struggle to create space in the crowded Iranian defence. That was until Messi unleashed a magical curling kick from just outside the box. The goal must have evoked Maradona’s memories of 1990. Then he was the lone crusader for Argentina, now, it was Messi.

Argentinian goalkeeper Sergio Romero said Messi rubbed his magic lamp for Argentina victory.

That stoppage time goal, off target shots and Serbian referee Milorad Mazic’s howler left Iran (and Asia) winless so far in the samba land.

Portuguese coach Carlos Queiroz’s boys, however, did Asians proud by keeping the title-favourite Argentina at bay for 90 minutes and even getting close to scoring on more than one occasion.

Otherwise, the Asian teams in Brazil have struggled to find net amidst 84 goals (in 29 games) scored by the other teams. So far, four Asian teams, in seven matches, have managed only five goals, including Tim Cahill’s spectacular volley for the Socceroos against the Dutch, one of the best in the tournament.

The teams in the quadrennial tournament have so far played open aggressive football for an average of 2.9 goals per game. Ergo, the below par performance by the Asian teams definitely raises questions about four slots given to them by Fifa.

The poor show by Asian teams is not come as a surprise when teams from all the other continents are making their presence felt. The Asian countries at the Brazil World Cup are four of the six lowest-ranked teams. The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) is the only confederation without a team ranked in the top 40.

The early exit for Asian teams could give African continent a reason to ask for more than four slots as they have done much better at the World Cup since Roger Milla-led Cameroon reached quarter-finals at Italia 1990. And, four years ago, it needed Luis Suarez’s handball to deny Ghana a spot in last four.

Since the World Cup Finals expanded to 32 teams in 1998, Asia was guaranteed at least four slots. Since then only hosts South Korea made it up to semi-final, albeit with accusations of referees favouring home team in 2002.

Other than that with four countries qualifying, only three times Asian teams have had first round success in the recent past. Australia made it to the knock out stage in 2006 and four years ago both Japan and South Africa advanced to the pre-quarter-finals stage.

It was so near yet so far for Iran this time but still have a mathematical chance of advancing. South Korea and Japan can also qualify,

The three Asian teams will, however, need a Gin to come out of the magic lamp to grant them a wish because among them they don’t have a Messi to ‘run his own magic lamp’.