WC Qualifying Review (Round 3 MD6 & 7)

We’re fully into our stride along the final furlong on the Road to Russia, and the field is notably shortening. Despite a few shocks on Thursday, Tuesday saw a clean sweep of home victories and clean sheets for those best positioned to make an assault for the World Cup 2018 qualification spots. That being said there remains a heavy cloud over much of the Asian elite, with question marks still being squarely pointed at Uli Stielike and Samvel Babayan of Korea Republic and Uzbekistan respectively, after both picked up disappointing defeats. Looking back over March’s window, here is the player, team and key talking point from another eventful international break.

The Player

Returning to World Cup qualification, there was plenty of discussion concerning the raft of quality within the Japanese attacking midfield, with question marks being squarely put against the likes of Shinji Kagawa and Keisuke Honda after strong performances from Hiroshi Kiyotake and Genki Haraguchi in 2016. One name that was only discussed briefly was that of Yuya Kubo, who made his debut against Saudi Arabia in November (where he performed adequately), but in turn has had an eventful winter with an eye catching move to Belgium with Gent, where he’s started in red hot form.

When it came to the team sheets in Al Ain, Kubo on the right hand side probably didn’t spark too much interest, as concerns diverted to the recalled Kagawa and the axed Honda. Kubo however was the man inform, and he hit the ground running from the start. After troubling his full back Abdelaziz Sanqour on a number of occasions prior to the breakthrough, Kubo evaded his man as he drifted inside to pick up a slide ball from Hiroki Sakai. An instinctive and crucially early strike caught Khalid Essa unaware, scoring his first national team goal within a blur for the poor Emirati defenders. It was only the start of things, as in the second period, Kubo assisted returning stalwart Yasuyuki Konno with a perfectly flighted cross, granting the Japanese with a crucial three points on the road. 

Again he was the main man upon return to Saitama against Thailand. It was a much easier tie for Japan, but the penetration came through Kubo once more, assisting early for Shinji Kagawa with a pull back, before finding Shinji Okazaki from a more traditional crossing avenue. Kubo capped his week with a stunning left footed drive, again created by his vision for space. It was only a few months ago that we were left concerned for Japan in an attacking sense, but with Haraguchi, Kiyotake and now Kubo all finding form, it doesn’t look too bleak anymore.

The Team

World Cup qualification is starting to fall into place, and no team is in any better position of guaranteeing this than Iran, whose back to back wins this week have effectively put one foot in Russia. Often been portrayed as simply a solid, cautious, tactically sound side, the emergence in form in Europe of a number of attacking players have all been timed perfectly to ensure they make a consecutive World Cup for the first time in their history.

Defensively there is no question that Team Melli have been excellent; still to concede a goal in the final round of qualification, Iran haven’t conceded for some 17 months now. This comes on the back of constant rejigging of the personnel, but little change is visible in their solid performances. Further up-field Iran have gone from one of the shallowest to one of the deepest attacking stocks in the whole of Asia. An embarrassment of riches allowed Carlos Queiroz to effectively swap pairs of strikers across the week. When you’ve got players playing at such a high level such as Sardar Azmoun (Rostov), Karim Ansarifard (Olympiacos) and Reza Ghoochannejhad (Heerenveen), why risk burn out?

The one striker to start both games however was domestic based Mehdi Taremi, a similar positioned club level player who wants to be deployed in the prime number 9 role. With such competition around him, Taremi was forced to develop his game this week, into at times a wide left forward, something he greatly impressed in. A greater work ethic off the ball, both in possession and without it, along with some adept interplay whilst at full speed, made him a perfect fit to the system, and the Persepolis man delivered, scoring the winner in both matches this week against Qatar and China PR. Just over a year until the World Cup comes around and Iran’s players individually and collectively in qualification look set to keep on improving.

The Talking Point

In the last international window, I made the case for Mahdi Ali and UAE, where I urged the Emirati fans to get behind their coach given their still promising position in World Cup qualification. If this week was a positive one, if they could’ve picked up at least a win against Japan and Australia, we’d probably be still be debating the merits of Ali, but instead two losses in the end cut short an arrangement few were still enjoying. 

While Ali deserved to go, in the way Ranieri had lost the dressing room at Leicester, Ali had clearly lost the support of the fans. And with qualification now a distant dream, a new dawn needs to set about in Emirati football. With the coach gone, questions need to now be asked of the players, their ambitions and their share of this missed opportunity. On paper should we think a squad full of players playing in the Arabian Gulf League can really compete with regulars in Europe, which Japan and Australia have in abundance.

This question probably comes at the wrong point, given Saudi Arabia, a side similarly bolstered by universal domestically based player coverage, but where does the difference lie? I believe in the end the Green Falcons won’t qualify for Russia (at least automatically), but the feel good factor instilled by Bert van Marwijk is key to this success. He’s made a good, but still trailing in terms of quality squad, perform that bit better, something the players have forced home personally.

It was clear from this last week, the UAE players had given up taking responsibility. The hope that Omar Abdulrahman, Ali Mabkhout or Ahmed Khalil could win it alone is severely misguided. Against the lower ranked sides maybe, but rewind to their successful Asian Cup campaign and UAE were playing as a unified squad with a purpose and desire to succeed. The key players need to play their part ahead of a home Asian Cup in two years time, which at present looks like a precarious campaign that needs more than a sound coach at the helm to succeed in.