I'm no conspiracy theorist but...

[faraz]

Now, I sat down and watched the UAE - Saudi game fully.

A couple of points:

-UAE are absolutely no pushovers and we cannot go into this game thinking we can trash them. they have 3 firecrackers in the line-up in Mattar, Hamadi, and Mubarak (10, 9 and 15). they're creative, they have vision, they have speed, they can shoot and they all understand each other very well. add to that the divine motivation they get for some reason once they play against Iran, and we need to be a tad bit careful (nah Peyman jan, i'm not saying we play 'defensively', just cautiously, try to cut down the mistakes in our middle third type of thing). i sincerely hope there is a plan to minimize the dangers of these players, although with creative players like these, they are bound to make one or two opportunities at least per game, no matter what. but minimizing those opportunities is the key.

-they seemed quite inferior in the air to the saudi's. maybe we could exploit that point through our set pieces/wing play a little bit and generally, they were slow in getting back on the counters, especially down the right side.

-i'm no conspiracy theorist type of guy, but the UAE own goal, and subsequent goalkeeping blunder looked oddly suspicious to me. you guys judge for yourselves:

http://www.livegoals.com/free_footba...01-04-2009.php

was the game really fixed, or is this all just a big coincidence?

[KasraKhan]

When I was youger, circa WCQ 2002 days, I always would think about these possible theories.

But now, I am older, wiser, smarter, better looking, and I've realized, it really doesnt matter at the end of the day.

The only thing that matters is that Saudi has 3 points from todays match, and that we are in 4th place.

[faraz]

When I was youger, circa WCQ 2002 days, I always would think about these possible theories.
But now, I am older, wiser, smarter, better looking, and I've realized, it really doesnt matter at the end of the day.
The only thing that matters is that Saudi has 3 points from todays match, and that we are in 4th place.

I totally agree with that. it doesn't matter at all at the end of the day, but i just can't help but wonder you know?

how many more coincidences can there be like this everytime the saudi's are in need of a win?

mind you, from the first half, UAE looked damn good - as soon as they scored two, they could not get it out of their half!

either way, it's an interesting discussion and as much as i don't want my mind to focus on the 'match fixing' business, it just can't help but linger there...

[The-Red]

When I was youger, circa WCQ 2002 days, I always would think about these possible theories.
But now, I am older, wiser, smarter, better looking, and I've realized, it really doesnt matter at the end of the day.
The only thing that matters is that Saudi has 3 points from todays match, and that we are in 4th place.

lol I was about to say the same thing be khoda Gen jan, except the better looking part

I totally agree with that. it doesn't matter at all at the end of the day, but i just can't help but wonder you know?
how many more coincidences can there be like this everytime the saudi's are in need of a win?
mind you, from the first half, UAE looked damn good - as soon as they scored two, they could not get it out of their half!
either way, it's an interesting discussion and as much as i don't want my mind to focus on the 'match fixing' business, it just can't help but linger there...

faraz jan I understand your frustration...but you want to know how I deal with it....here' it is...every time we are grouped with two arab teams, one of which is KSA, I always give KSA the 6 points...sometimes even without KSA and involving two Arab teams, I distribute the points b/w them in the most unfavorable way to Iran.....that's not to say that they always give in to each other...NO, they also have honor and national pride, unlike what most of us want to believe, they also want to win games, but of course, in some situations, the prefer to have an Arab team advance, then the Iranians or the Japanese.

point is, we know this everytime going into these tournaments, so we should keep that mind and get points accordingly, and not bring these excuses up everytime we fall behind Faraz jan.

[zzgloo]

Faraz jaan......
Lets not disrespect the hard work UAE players put in to thier final try,and the last possibility for them for the WC.....
After all , they are athelits and did thier best, and lost with respect.....
We all should let go of Arab conspiracies,all together.....
they will be less motivated against us...yet, will fight for thier honor.

[Essi]

Come on people. This Saudi team played with their heart. They did fight into the last minute just like they did in Tehran. You can see that the players really want to go to WC, that's why they work their a$$. They are currently better than us. Ma faghad baladim SHOAR bedim ke man inim, ma onim, ma gheyrat darim bla bla bla but look at the spirit of this saudi team and our team.

Dont shoot me but both team tonight played better than Iran.

[Paradigm]

I totally agree with that. it doesn't matter at all at the end of the day, but i just can't help but wonder you know?
how many more coincidences can there be like this everytime the saudi's are in need of a win?
mind you, from the first half, UAE looked damn good - as soon as they scored two, they could not get it out of their half!
either way, it's an interesting discussion and as much as i don't want my mind to focus on the 'match fixing' business, it just can't help but linger there...

I used to know and live as neighbors next to a guy here in California from KSA, in his late 30's or 40's, he was visiting during 2001-2003. After 8-0 loss to Germany in 2002 he told me that karma finally caught up with them because Saudi Arabia always cheated by buying the refs or fixing games. I am not joking, he told me just like that and this guy claimed he had one or two friends who played for their national team back then.

If you look at the footage of KSA's first goal, that was just a dive without any body contact and should not have been a penalty kick. Also notice how there was absolutely no protest by the UAE players. Pretty obvious IMHO.

[Martin-Reza]

Saudis played damn fast football. Switched between that game and Austria-Romania, which obviously wasn't nearly as fast.

We might have individual qualities, but we can't play fast combinations, that's probably why the UAE finds it a far easier task playing us.

Yet they, beside a few crackers, have a majority of very poor players. Their high rate of individual errors must simply make us beat them.

I can't say much about fixing. If I were a keeper and wanted to change the result of a game, this would be how I'd do it. But then again, he's just a UAE keeper...

[Doctor DOOM]

LOL.

you guys really think I'm saying leave the defense and lets attack with 8-9 players up front?
really?

I only say in selection we shd opt for players that add more to our offense than defense. like the use of a playmaker ( who can create things for us, instead a def mid) or wingers who can give width to the team, instead of playing 3 central mids, who usually converge to the center !! or having a second striker instead of the moronic 1 striker line up.
( THANK GOD ALL my arguments and debates were validated by two of the most knowledgeable experts, Mr's Hajrezaei and Cheraghpoor in the 90 program )

of course they all shd help in defense, and we shd secure the defense with good players , thus allowing our front players to act more freely and securely.

================

anyway, back to topic:

I think we all knew uae will lose to the saudis . not even allowing for "fixing the game", coz saudis are naturally superior to them, it was played in saudi and saudi wanted to keep their NEW position (thanks to our deficient strategy for the tournament and the game ).

so fixed or not, I think the result WAS rather expected.

[maij]

Fraz Jan...... I am not much of a conspiracy theorist either , but I will be damned if I believe that this match events was not......stage set!

In fact I would even consider it as insult to what little intelligence left in me after years of following football , to believe that KSA-UAE match was played in all fairness and within the spirit of the sport , something that the Arabs unfortunately have very little regards for or respect to....

They (the Arabs) make this prejudice so obvious , it just makes a mockery of the system....



But all this is irrelevant in the great scheme of things......Team Melli should have done the job themselves...rather than be in this dire situtaion and crying foul ................