Sepahan - Kawasaki match up

[Doctor DOOM]

I just have a few points to make.

1- I am very much pleased to see an Iranian team able to maintain a semblance of stamina and pace for 90 and then another 30 minutes in a TOUGH AWAY game, with pretty high humidity.

Kudos to the physical trainers and coaches of sepahan for getting the players fit enough for this.


2- sepahan's defenders didnt look like the usual "bezan ziresh" of our traditional "defending away from home". even in the second half when they were under tremendous pressure.
They controlled the balls and didnt just kick it away cheaply.

3- Aghili, Aziz-zadeh, Bengar were rock solid, especially Aghili.
The guy could be Iran's and TM's best defender at the moment along w hosseini.
( what a pair in the heart of our defense they'd make )

4- Navidkia is getting back to his brilliant form of 3 years back.
good for him and good for us.
I hope he continues to shine and get the TM call up deservedly. ( especially since now that karimi is as good as a retired player )


5- keeping the 2nd half aside, the game was pretty even.
but if we consider the 2nd half chances, the japanese deserved to win more than us.
except we had a magnificent performance from Mohamadi in the goal.
simply brilliant.
He was a true star today.
But I'm happy to see at least once we get by and get lucky in penalties when we werent the stronger team.
we usually fall victim of the penalties when we are the better team and that just breaks my heart. ( so I know what the japanese fans feel ).
but it is a welcome change to see us go through once in a while .

[zzgloo]

Very well observations Payman jaan....

We Iranians some times do not give credit when is due.....
We also, put down many achivements, and may call them luck....
I realy, think, with all the talk about the forign coaachess come in for our money, and get the money and go.....
Sepahan's LUKA, seems to be working his B...t off, and realy puts his heart to the job......Sepahan,has not particularly amassed all the talents in Iran, nor have the fans supported them ,as they do with Esteghlal and perspolise...
Just immagin, if the coach of Sepahan was an Iranian !!!!, he would have been treated much better.
In other countries, Job well done, gets promotions,and rewards......
He deserves, some type of reward, in my opinion......

[gol_kuchik]

I just have a few points to make.
1- I am very much pleased to see an Iranian team able to maintain a semblance of stamina and pace for 90 and then another 30 minutes in a TOUGH AWAY game, with pretty high humidity.

Good. I know you are going to hate this, but it sort of reminded me of Branko in Asian games. Please revisit both our games against S.K and Japan.

2- sepahan's defenders didnt look like the usual "bezan ziresh" of our traditional "defending away from home". even in the second half when they were under tremendous pressure.
They controlled the balls and didnt just kick it away cheaply.
3- Aghili, Aziz-zadeh, Bengar were rock solid, especially Aghili.
The guy could be Iran's and TM's best defender at the moment along w hosseini.
( what a pair in the heart of our defense they'd make )

I did in fact suggest both of these guys to be used in our TM in Asia Cup. Unfortunately,
GN did not have the guts or vision to give Aghili a chance and did not even invite Bengar.
Sigh. Fortunately Rezai is out and the next coach will have to at start one of these
guys for WC Qualification.

4- Navidkia is getting back to his brilliant form of 3 years back.
good for him and good for us.
I hope he continues to shine and get the TM call up deservedly. ( especially since now that karimi is as good as a retired player )

ditto here. A bigger lesson from Navidkia experience in my view is that, everyone thinks
the next step for every good Iranian player is to go to Europe. Well that may very well
be true for some. But as a generic recepie for every player, it is simply wrong in my view.
Navidkia lost so much by going to Europe and I don't think he really benefited from being
there. So hopefully players will consider this before making a blind move, which they may
regret.

But I'm happy to see at least once we get by and get lucky in penalties when we werent the stronger team.
we usually fall victim of the penalties when we are the better team and that just breaks my heart. ( so I know what the japanese fans feel ).
but it is a welcome change to see us go through once in a while .

I am not sure if we can attribute making 5 out of 5 penalty goals to luck alone. Even the best
players, if they go into the shoot out without mental prepration will make mistake, so perhaps a lot of prep work went into this.

What I have observed over the years, is that once you get to shoot out, usually the team
expected to lose have a slight edge, as the stronger team is more frustrated by not getting
the result it seeked in regulation.

[Doctor DOOM]

LOL.
1- why shd I hate it?
I know they outdid themselves at Busan.
THAT branko I have no problems with.
it is the branko after AC04 that I have serious problems with.


4- to be fair, when Navidkia went to europe he was coming off a major injury and it takes time to recuperate. Had he been fit and ready at the onset, I think he'd have remained there and progressed far more.


5- no. but the japanese player kicking the ball out , I do consider "lucky".
good point on the matter of motivation and edge of the underdogs.

[Mr.Click]

let's not forget Mohammadi's great performance... he was the #1 factor in Sepahan advancing to semis...

Mohammadi for TM

[Doctor DOOM]

now that we've gotten the pleasantaries and compliments out of the way, lets get down to the faults:

Sepahan did well in many areas. but that shdnt provide cover for the shortcomings of sepahan either.

one major defect was lack of WIDTH in the team!
having no real wingers provided ample space for the japanese wingers to run at us and they gave us HELL ! especially in 2nd half.
giving up that much space on the sides is just unacceptable.

we also lacked any width in attack , for the same reason.
and that effectively took out a series of offensive options for us, which made sepahan less incisive.
just attacking the middle never got any team anywhere. bonacic shd have learned this from the esfahan game which saw the same tactic , over and over !

one would think having a great left winger or wing-back like Jalal Akbari would give sepahan more options down the left. but he was unnecessarily shifted to right ( which drastically reduced his effectiveness ) and even on the right, he wasnt allowed to go down the line to the touch-line and stretch the japanese defense !

so, bonacic is certainly not bereft of mistakes either.

[maij]

Doc

1- Japan is no where as humid as Southeast Asia, however the physical condition of Sepahan was admirable, which is not really surprising for Croatian coaching style.

2 & 3 - I fully agree that most of the Sepahan defenders ball clearing was done in style specially at the crucial last 15 minutes of the match.

4- I tend to disagree with you on Navidkia, to me he was quite disappointing and well below his standard. He has NOT been the same since his recovery. I am a staunch supporter of this maestro, he is a class act , but he is way way off his standard.


5- I agree with the fact the Japs played better football and perhaps edged Sepahan in many areas BUT this is football. Time & again Iranian teams played better football yet lost against their oppositions....let this one be for us...call it a unique change of luck!

To add your excellent post , I must add and will keep adding this comment about Iranian footballers. There mindset and mentality MUST be changed if they want to progress in football. They need to understand that football is a team's sport and football is different than futsal.
In general Iranian footballers , take a few more seconds to think , they keep the ball more than they should and when they have option to pass , they normally take the wrong option or the difficult ones!!!!!!

Iranian footballers are mostly selfish individuals, in particular the players up front . Everyone wants to dribble at least past one opposition player !!!!

This game was a classical example of what I mentioned.


Cheers.

I just have a few points to make.

1- I am very much pleased to see an Iranian team able to maintain a semblance of stamina and pace for 90 and then another 30 minutes in a TOUGH AWAY game, with pretty high humidity.

Kudos to the physical trainers and coaches of sepahan for getting the players fit enough for this.


2- sepahan's defenders didnt look like the usual "bezan ziresh" of our traditional "defending away from home". even in the second half when they were under tremendous pressure.
They controlled the balls and didnt just kick it away cheaply.

3- Aghili, Aziz-zadeh, Bengar were rock solid, especially Aghili.
The guy could be Iran's and TM's best defender at the moment along w hosseini.
( what a pair in the heart of our defense they'd make )

4- Navidkia is getting back to his brilliant form of 3 years back.
good for him and good for us.
I hope he continues to shine and get the TM call up deservedly. ( especially since now that karimi is as good as a retired player )


5- keeping the 2nd half aside, the game was pretty even.
but if we consider the 2nd half chances, the japanese deserved to win more than us.
except we had a magnificent performance from Mohamadi in the goal.
simply brilliant.
He was a true star today.
But I'm happy to see at least once we get by and get lucky in penalties when we werent the stronger team.
we usually fall victim of the penalties when we are the better team and that just breaks my heart. ( so I know what the japanese fans feel ).
but it is a welcome change to see us go through once in a while .

[Ali Chicago]

Just managed to watch the second leg. Congrats to Sephan, but to be honest, I don't think Sepahan will make if any further. Japaneese team was the better team in both games. Again Congrats to Sepahan. Amazing how result is what really matters. Sepahan didnt' do much and yet won on PK Shoot out (but no one remembers how they played).
Again congrats to Sephan and best of luck to them.

[mkbf2]

Congratz to sepahan. The physicallity was great to see for an iranian team. However to me Navidkia was a big disappointment again. Where is the flair and go-getter attitude he used to have?

[Adesor Vafaseya]

we have to consider the fact that Sepahan played in Japan versus a strong Asian club, I would not have expected Sepahan to play extraordinary beautiful football and win by a big margin. But what I expecetd came through. They went there and gave all they had in a brave manner, that brought them through.

Congratz to Sepahan!