In preparation for the World Cup, friendly matches were being discussed with teams such as Sweden, Yugoslavia, Wales, Bulgaria and Mexico. In the early national team camps, injuries deprived Mohajerani of players such as Mazloomi and Khorshidi while others seemed to be suffering from lack of fitness. Meanwhile, a trip to France by Iran’s military team, which consisted of eight national team players, further disrupted team preparations.
The first preparation match would be in early spring at home against Yugoslavia. The game would end in a scoreless tie and expose the lack of cohesion amongst the fielded players. While the performance of Korbekandi in goal and Ghasempour in midfield stood out, however, the overall level of play was cause for concern especially considering the World Cup opponents. For the next game against Wales, in spite of the return of Iran’s missing eight players, a similar performance was displayed and peppered with many individual mistakes. Mohajerani still expressed satisfaction from the match as he claimed it was great preparation for what to expect from Scotland. The national team camp suffered some further confusion when media outlets announced Ghelichkhani as part of the national team’s roster. Due to his political activities, Ghelichkhani had been previously detained and at the moment was playing his club soccer in the US. The Iranian soccer federation would neither confirm nor deny the news of Ghelichkhani’s inclusion although ultimately he would not be part of the final squad.
A friendly with Mexico was cancelled, thus leaving Bulgaria as the final team before heading to Europe for some more matches. The match ended in a 1-1 tie with Parvin scoring from the penalty spot. The game raised questions about the physical fitness of the players. Iran would lose against their hosts France by a score of 2-1. Hejazi seemed at fault for the first goal which bounced off the post on which he had positioned himself. Shortly after halftime Roshan tied the game with a long range shot. France would take the lead under questionable circumstances as Iranian players awaited a whistle for the continuation of play after a free kick while the French opted for a quick restart. The Iranians protested the goal, with Hejazi storming off his line to the center circle to confront the referee, earning himself a yellow card in the process. In spite of the loss, many praised Iran’s performance.
A final match, the first leg of the Afro-Asia Cup ended in a 3-0 win for Iran. While on paper such a result would seem to give hope for a decent performance in Argentina, however, when one reviewed the lineup it would be clear that none of the players taking part in the match were on Iran’s final roster. As it would turn out, the return leg would never be played. Iran would head to the finals yet to win a game that year.
Iran flew out to Cordoba in anticipation of its first round games in against Holland, Scotland and Peru, none of them a particularly easy opponent. The Scots spoke of a championship and considered anything less than an appearance in the Final as a failure. The Dutch, albeit without Cruyff, were hopeful for a repeat performance of their 1974 team. On paper Peru seemed to be the likeliest team for Iran to get a result from. Roshan was still recovering from his left knee injury which was worrisome. Looking back, Eskandarian recalls, "We were not expecting a miracle. We were not that organized. Our federation wasn’t prepared. It was a little difficult but we had pride.” The first game would be against Holland.
Holland would display a majestic performance against Iran in Mendoza. While Iran attempted controlled football in midfield and their defense was uncompromising in the tackle, however, they lacked pace and numbers up front and their attacks fizzled out too soon. Iran had two good chances in the first half. Sadeghi’s long range shot was deflected and Jongbloed had to scamper across his line to save at the foot of the post. Then, with the Dutch appealing in vain for offside Faraki raced clear on the right side to face the keeper one on one. His shot went just barely wide in spite of Sadeghi’s outstretched foot attempting to guide the ball into the empty net.
More often, though, Iran simply retreated into its half of the field, stuck rigidly to its 4-4-2 defensive formation, and invited Holland to come at them. Although often embarrassed by the Dutch aerial supremacy, they looked quite comfortable defending on the ground. Late in the first half Reinier Van de Kerkhof intercepted a loose pass in the center circle and cut into the penalty area before being tripped by Abdollahi (although Abdollahi insisted he made no contact whatsoever with the player). The impact caused a serious injury to Van de Kerkhof’s hand which would be in a cast for the rest of the tournament.
Rensenbrink gave Holland the lead from the penalty spot.
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The second half saw the Dutch gradually asserting their superiority in terms of fitness and organization. Seeing little success with the direct route attack, Holland began peppering crosses from the sides on Iran’s goal. Iran seemed to be contempt on settling for damage control. Roshan, still not fully recovered from his knee injury, was brought on in the second half but he found support rare and insufficient. Rensenbrink effectively clinched the match in the 62nd minute when he climbed high at the far post for a header, meeting René van de Kerkhof's excellent cross, and heading in Holland’s second goal.
The third Dutch goal was another penalty. Rep's run into the Iranian defense from way out was the highlight of the game by some way, and it inevitably ended in his being brought down by a posse of four defenders. Eskandarian was cautioned for knocking the ball out of the referee's hands, but it did seem one of the easier decisions the ref had given in what was in most aspects a particularly sporting opening game. Rensenbrink completed his hat-trick from the spot, and the result was beyond dispute.
Without the agility and safe handling of Hejazi, Iran might have been more comprehensively beaten.
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Following the defeat against Holland, Iran would face Scotland next. With Scotland 3-1 losers against Peru, a defeat for either side would realistically eliminate them. Prior to the match, former national team coach O’Farrell paid Iran’s camp a visit to discuss strengths and weaknesses of the Scottish team. He singled out Archie Gemmill as the key player and suggested that he be man-marked and provoked to not only deny him the opportunity to play his regular game, but also bait him into possibly getting sent off. The task would fall to Danaeifard.
On game day Iran started cautiously and keen on containing the Scots. They feared Scotland’s pace and strength and were quick to pull back reinforcements to the defense. Meanwhile the Scots played miserably and without rhythm. Their midfield was industrious, but rarely effective while their attack was pitifully unproductive. Danaeifard did a splendid job of containing Gemmill while Eskandarian was assigned to mark Kenny Dalglish, a task that he performed to perfection and resulting in the eventual substitution of the ineffective Dalglish. Scotland’s best chance was a quickly taken freekick as the Iranian wall was organizing that Hejazi pushed wide for a corner kick.
It was Scotland who would take the lead before halftime. Hartford played an innocuous-looking ball down the middle and Jordan chased more in hope than belief. Eskandarian would later recall Hejazi telling him to leave it just as Jordan pushed him into his goalkeeper. In the ensuing chaos Eskandarian’s half-clearance would send the ball into his own unguarded net.
The first half would end 1-0 for Scotland.
On the hour mark Iran would score their equalizer. Danaeifard went wide on the left and muscled his way past a Scottish defender. From a tight angle he then squeezed his shot between Rough and the post to tie the game.
Suddenly Iran sensed victory was there for the taking and two minutes later they should have gone ahead. A perfect through-ball split the Scottish defense and Ghasempour found himself on a breakaway. He raced away on his own but his last touch was too heavy and Rough smothered the ball before Ghasempour even had a chance to take his shot.
After Dalglish was taken off, Eskandarian was reassigned to Jordan. "I was half the size of him and kept beating him in the air," he remembers. "He was really pissed." Other Iranian players were less kind about their observations of Jordan. "He was harsh, rude and rarely involved with the game," Kazerani recalled in an interview. "He spent most of his time swearing and spitting at me." Jordan had a header superbly saved by Hejazi at the foot of the post as Scotland produced a last rally. The two teams settled for a 1-1 tie that mathematically kept both of them alive.
The final group game would be against Peru. Needing a win to advance, Iran set aside the cautious approach of the previous two games and instead opted for an offensive onslaught.
The game could not have started any worse when Jose Velasquez put Peru in the lead after only two minutes from a header close to the penalty spot.
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Iran threatened the Peruvian goal off of same fancy moves and a low cross by Roshan that the keeper parried away only for Peru to bring the ball back up the field and fire just barely wide of Hejazi’s goal from distance. Roshan would once again threaten Peru’s goal after a through-ball and quick breakaway and while his final shot would elude the keeper but it went just wide of the far post. Quiroga had to act swiftly to tip another shot over the bar late in the first half. Off of the resulting corner kick, Danaeifard’s header had to be cleared off of the line. Iranian hopes virtually disappeared when they had their third and fourth penalties of the championship awarded against them. Former South American Footballer of the Year Teofilo Cubillas scored from the penalty spot in the 36th and 39th minutes to extend Peru’s lead to 3-0.
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Roshan made sure the Iranian supporters in the stadium had something to cheer about when he cut the lead to 3-1 in the 41st minute. A cross from the left bounced off of the head of a Peruvian player and fell to Roshan who hit it one time past the keeper and in off of the far post.
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He was unlucky not to have another in the 58th minute when Quiroga defied him with a superb double save. Although Iran’s play picked up in the second half, however, in the 78th minute Peru took advantage of a defensive mixup and a deflection in the box that fell kindly to Cubillas for him to complete his hattrick.
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Later the ball fell to Ghasempour in the box and with enough time and the entire goal at his mercy he shot wide. The game would end 4-1 for Peru although in reality it was much closer than the score suggested.
Iran would return home with one tie and two defeats. There would be much disappointment with and criticism of the performance. Very few people pointed out that the results were consistent with Iran’s current strength against its opponents and that the players’ efforts could not be blamed and rather this should be considered a step to build upon for further improvement. Most observers, including Mohajerani, were critical of the four penalties Iran conceded. Mohajerani would comment, “We have had four penalties given against us, is this justice? We didn’t come here claiming we would beat these teams but we have not been given a chance. My players are sick because they didn’t think they deserved to lose so heavily. We lost the game but mainly we lost it to the referee. FIFA should have protected us.” Years later Danaeifard presented an explanation for the penalties, pointing out that within Iran’s domestic club games, penalties were rarely awarded and defenders would get away with blatantly obvious fouls in the box. As such during the World Cup Iran’s defenders were caught off guard by the stricter implementation of the rules by the referees and were penalized accordingly.
Iran roster: Hejazi, Mavaddat, Korbekandi, Allahverdi, Gheshghayan, Nazari, Eskandarian, Abdollahi, Kazerani, Danaeifard, Nayebagha, Parvin, Ghasempour, Sadeghi, Shojaei, Fariba, Bishkar, Roshan, Teymouri, Nouraei, Jahani, Faraki. Coach: Mohajerani
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