One of the less auspicious entry lines in to the World Cup. Yugoslavia, not quite bill-toppers in this production but strongly fancied after shining in the auditions, stuttered and rambled through their opening exchanges with Iran in St Etienne yesterday.
Only a Sinisa Mihajlovic goal from a set-piece, wherein both the Iranian goalie and defensive wall were negligent, separated the teams at the end. As Jalal Talebi, Iran's latest manager, suggested afterwards: "We lost the game in a set play. I don't see that as very shameful." Shame and humiliation are no longer considerations at this level. One of the hardening impressions of the competition is that the world has become a smaller place and the mobility of top coaches has levelled standards everywhere. Iran, on their fourth coach in seven months, have made more use of that mobility than most and yesterday they were sufficiently well organised to frustrate a disappointing Yugoslav team.
The Iranians are a tricky team to play against. Their midfield works zealously at closing down everything that moves. Their defence tackles with fervour and the strikers Ali Dai and Khodadad Azizi, although suffering from the team's general lack of ambition, carved out half a dozen chances. The Yugoslavs, stars in half a dozen of the world's top leagues and used to having the space for elaboration, found the whole business dispiriting. They amounted to considerably less than the sum of their expensive parts. Particularly disappointing was a much vaunted midfield which got hustled and seldom inspired fluency. Predrag Mijatovic grew gaunt from lack of rations as the game became bogged down in the middle third of the field.
The first half was so interminably dull that members of the press corps sought diversion by helping out with the Mexican waves which swept around the ground. The press desks are small and some of us suffered sever abrasions of the belly, but it was a small price to pay for bringing harmony among nations.
Indeed, Group F should perhaps draw its referees from the UN peace corps. There's ethnic cleansing, muslim fundamentalism, two world wars and the great Satan (the US) itself in there. The second half had a little more spark to it, but the absence of the resting Dejan Savicevic was keenly felt as his replacement Savo Milosevic clattered around to little effect.
Iran created the first clear-cut chance with a Dai header bouncing wide before a Mihajlovic free kick drew a splendid save from goalkeeper Nima Nakissa. Two minutes later, however, Mihajlovic had better luck. A free, from almost the same position, slipped past a badly placed wall and Nakisa saw it late.
And that was all that separated the sides in a game lacking most of the things which have made this World Cup so intoxicating.
The possibility of Yugoslavia scoring a hatful in the last 15 minutes loomed briefly but Iran recovered and Mehdi Mahdavikia spurned a glorious chance with eight minutes left, while Bagheri and Dai came close in the dying minutes.
