that we will have no trouble defeating Qatar http://persianfootball.com/pfdcnews2...3168315415.htm. Underestimating them, specially considering the fact that they were the hosts. This in my opinion only helped motivate our opponent to play better and prove a point.
By the way we have traditionally had trouble playing the hosts in Asia. That is why I give the 2002 team so much more credit winning the AG title on the Korean's turf against all the odds.
I also have a comment on the player selection: why include a useless player like Oladi in the team but not Kaabi who should have been the captain considering his numerous experiences at the national and international level? You probably also realized that Roudbarian is not really an improvment over Mirza.
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Looking on the bright side:
Mathematically speaking, the probability of a team winning championships back to back gets smaller every time: Say, if we had 50% chance in 2002, now we had only 25% to win it twice in a row. To win it a third straight time (like we have in 1998 and 2002), we would have had a chance of only 12.5%. As an analogy, even Brazil could not do it: They won WC 1994 & 2002 but could not live up to the task in 1998 and 2006.
In any event, speaking by the odds, I was not expecting a third straight championship. Yet I am happy that we participated rather than being banned and that we managed to get past the Chinese and the 1/4 finals. It was a shame to miss the final match by not performing well, but still there is a chance to win a bronze medal.
If anything comes out of this tournament it should be the learning experience and the fact that now we have a group of young players who could build on this experience and improve for the future tournaments. Maybe some of them will be in the backbone of the TM for the 2010 World Cup.
By the way we have traditionally had trouble playing the hosts in Asia. That is why I give the 2002 team so much more credit winning the AG title on the Korean's turf against all the odds.
I also have a comment on the player selection: why include a useless player like Oladi in the team but not Kaabi who should have been the captain considering his numerous experiences at the national and international level? You probably also realized that Roudbarian is not really an improvment over Mirza.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Looking on the bright side:
Mathematically speaking, the probability of a team winning championships back to back gets smaller every time: Say, if we had 50% chance in 2002, now we had only 25% to win it twice in a row. To win it a third straight time (like we have in 1998 and 2002), we would have had a chance of only 12.5%. As an analogy, even Brazil could not do it: They won WC 1994 & 2002 but could not live up to the task in 1998 and 2006.
In any event, speaking by the odds, I was not expecting a third straight championship. Yet I am happy that we participated rather than being banned and that we managed to get past the Chinese and the 1/4 finals. It was a shame to miss the final match by not performing well, but still there is a chance to win a bronze medal.
If anything comes out of this tournament it should be the learning experience and the fact that now we have a group of young players who could build on this experience and improve for the future tournaments. Maybe some of them will be in the backbone of the TM for the 2010 World Cup.
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