Iran and Bosnia meet in their respective final Group F matches on Wednesday in Arena Fonte Nova in Brazil. Iran is needing the full three point win to have a shot of qualifying into the knockout round while Bosnia has already secured airline tickets back home as they have been eliminated from the tournament.
Iran has been a pleasant surprise to many as they have done well this tournament and almost held World Cup favorite Argentina to a scoreless tie had it not been for the last second heroics of Leonel Messi scoring the winner in the waning seconds of extra time. On the offense however, Iran has not scored a goal in two matches so that is an area of improvement that needs to be addressed in this match if they are going to get the win.
Iran has been led by Head Coach Carlos Queiroz who has quite a resume going back the past 20 years, which includes coaching stints at such clubs as Manchester United Real Madrid, Portugal, Sporting CP, New York/New Jersey Metro Stars, South Africa and now Iran.
Coach Queiroz has Iran playing a very defensive game dropping everyone back and looking for the counter attack as a means for offense. This system thus far has worked well for the Iranians and look for more of that type of play from the Iranians when they face off against Bosnia. Bosnia’s defense is going to have to look out for the speed of Iran’s Reza Ghoochannejhad who has been Iran’s go to player up front. Expect Iran to have a similar lineup to its previous two matches
Bosnia on the other hand has had mixed reviews at best. From an attacking standpoint, Bosnia has looked sharp at times, but it’s the defense that is having issues throughout the tournament. Senior Captain Emir Spahic has had a nightmare tournament as he has looked slow and has been beaten several times by opponents thus Bosnia’s defense has been very suspect.
Bosnia Forward Edin Dzeko, who plays for Manchester City has had a lackluster tournament even though he had a goal taken away from him for an inaccurate offside call against Nigeria but has yet to score in this tournament.
The game is set to kick off at 12:00 PM EST at the Arena da Baixada in Brazil. It can be seen on ESPN 2 and in Spanish on Univision. If you want to live stream the match, simply go to WatchESPN here and here for a live stream in Spanish.
© 2024 Latin Times. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
