Iran 0-1 Spain: 3 things we learned

Spain grabbed a crucial 1-0 win over Iran to keep themselves in contention for the knockout rounds. Here are three things we learned from the game.

It was dull, ugly tedious 90 minutes, but Spain eventually emerged winners through a deflected Diego Costa goal. The win puts Spain level with Portugal in group B and ensures that qualification for the knockout stages will go to the last game with three sides in contention. Here are three things we learned from the game.

An ugly win

In many ways, the first 45 minutes of this game was the half from hell. Vuvuzelas have made an unwelcome return to the World Cup this year and, quite aptly for this game, were at their very worst throughout much of the game. There was a single shot on target between the two teams and Iran committed all 11 men to defense, opting to boot the ball back to the Spanish rather than trying to engineer an attack of their own.

Spain’s goal eventually came from a scrappy deflection off either an Iran defender or Diego Costa (the goal was awarded to Costa). A brief phase of panicked possession and Iran attacking resulted in an offside goal midway through the second half. From that point, Spain held onto the ball and killed the game. It wasn’t the aesthetically pleasing football like we are used to seeing from Spain, however in a World Cup where more and more of the pre-tournament favorites have failed to win ugly, La Roja will be pleased to have done exactly that and avoid another shock.

In fact, the current standings of the group are best described as ugly. Both Spain and Portugal are locked on points, goal difference, goals scored and head to head. Should they both win or lose their final group games by the same margin, their World Cup fates could be decided by anything between fair play or being drawn out of a bowl in FIFA headquarters.

Hierro’s mixed start

Its hard to criticize Fernando Hierro. He was brought to a team in crisis with a mere 24 hours to prepare himself and his team for a opening clash against Portugal at a major competition that La Roja are expected to win. With that in mind,  an opening draw against Portugal and now a win against Iran would have been considered ideal.

However, their are some caveats in Hierro’s managerial style so far that he will need to improve upon if Spain are to progress further in competition. Spain’s backline often looked isolated, the offense looked flat, and on top of that, one particularly annoying aspect of this game was the timing of Hierro’s substitutions. Spain were clearly lacking something come halftime, and given the wealth of depth that Spain possess, one would have liked to seen the former Madrid defender go to the bench earlier than he did.

Although Diego Costa’s name will go down as a decisive figure of this game, his goal was very fortuitous, and he was a non-factor outside of his goal, having less touches of the ball than goalkeeper, David De Gea. Spain got lucky today, and they deserved to. However, fortune might not shine on them again in this tournament, so Hierro should ensure Spain make their own luck by utilizing all his options.

Iran could cause Portugal trouble

Following a first win at the World Cup since 1998, Carlos Queiroz hailed his side’s win over Morroco as beautiful. According to the Portuguese manager, his side’s strategy against the North Africans was to cause a “mental collapse” through dogged defensive football. Its very much the spirit that many sides of similar quality of Iran have approached this World Cup, as just four of the 20 games have been decided by more than a one goal difference so far, with nine of those finishing 1-0.

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It didn’t pay off against Spain, and in fairness to Iran, they played much better after conceding and found themselves in dangerous areas of the field, but one senses Iran have another result in them. Their opponents, Quieroz’s home country of Portugal, might be better suited to Iran’s mental warfare. Santos’ team are mainly in their current position down to the genius of Cristiano Ronaldo, as collectively the team have been poor and are much happier to, like Iran, sit back and allow teams to come at them.

Portugal’s mental fortitude has yet to be tested so far, and they will be uncomfortable facing an Iranian side that will hand them possession. It will be an interesting and tense battle, one Iran can cause a shock in.