First half:
I assume what a kid takes out of this half is very different from what someone who actually observes the game.
It is a good thing we are facing the main team of south korea, which provides a very RARE opportunity to see TM play against a decent team. Therefore, TM is forced to show its true capabilities in attack and defense.
ATTACK:
And true to form, we see in attack we are quite weak as when we have the ball we are either over-passing the ball between the defenders and within our half 90% of the time, and if we try to move into the Korean half, it is always through the age-old useless LOBS from defenders, which usually don’t end up in our favor! Beyond this the team has proven incapable of penetrating the Korean half with proper passing! So much that in long periods of the game the Korean keeper was just a spectator from afar!!!!!
Our goal also is not the result of some highly masterful tactics, rather it is a true GIFT from the opponent for failing to pass stronger which fell to Pejman Nouri who had the presence of mind to attack the player. This only proved ghotbi is a very lucky coach … perhaps by becoming a “seyed” recently
DEFENSE:
On the other side, our defense has been penetrated again and again. Both through aerial balls and crosses (corners included), where most of the first balls are headed by the Koreans inside our 18, and on the ground, especially from our left flank, they have done whatever they wanted to do, passing, overtaking, dribbling, one-twos, …. Etc!!!
We may end the half 1-0 up. But team performance wise, we are way WAY behind the opponents and this kind of play just doesn’t inspire any sort of hope for us
But it’s not all negative. The positive thing I saw was that the Koreans after the goal lost some of their composure and focus. They didn’t have the same smooth passing or penetration anymore. Koreans still haven regained their focus and the game is more balanced now. Which begs the question: are they so vulnerable to shock? This could play in our favor.
Could it be that they got surprised by the goal or falling behind? Whatever it may be, this could be exploited.
Haven’t watched the second half yet and will address it once I watch it.
But I suspect it will be a bit more balanced game with more Koreans attacking but TM looking for counters … naturally. If only we don’t pull back too much, allowing too much space.
Lets see.
************----------*************
Second half :
After watching the 2nd half, I must first say I am happy (sort of) that our defense didn’t buckle under that last 15-17 minutes of pressure by the Koreans. Yes, rahmati was called into action as well as a few more instances where their shots went wayward, but overall, we didn’t concede and that is good news.
But until this period, which is from minute 46-72/73, the game was a very scrappy football with lots of middle of the park sk!rmishes. nothing to write home about … except the two opportunities we got at minute 46 and the other shojaei shot. Both chances would have been more dangerous if they had taken a stronger strike at the ball.
Shojaei, very much like ghotbi, is a very lucky chap too. He had a very regular and quite forgettable game (like majority of his other TM games) except his goal. except this one instance, he was slow and in the second half, lost the ball on many occasions. Maybe if he wasn’t used on the left flank, he’d have been more efficient.
I really don’t know why ansarifard was brought out. It just doesn’t make sense as he wasn’t injured. Nor was he playing bad. So a very peculiar decision by ghotbi, who brought oladi who didn’t do half of what ansarifard did anyway!!!
Ando was very active, just like pejman. But again, having 3 defensive mids made the team very poor in creativity dept. . no wonder the team didn’t look very exciting going forward. The few chances we had were mere SPARKS rather than off rehearsed, coordinated moves.
Jalal hosseini did well on many occasions and actually prevented a goal in 1st half (don’t know how aware he was in that shot, though). So was nosrati on the right side. But we already knew this about nosrati that his best games are when he plays in the center or if not, then on the right side. His weakest performances were ALWAYS on the left side. So no surprises here.
TM still shows extremely poor in shooting and long rangers. And there seems no remedy for this basic foundation of football. What’s sad is that we have plenty of shooters like nekounam, nouri, … who CAN take shots, but don’t (due to some peculiar reason!)
Anyway, we got a win in south korea after so many years and lets hope we can build on this in asia cup, if we face the Koreans in quarters.
I assume what a kid takes out of this half is very different from what someone who actually observes the game.
It is a good thing we are facing the main team of south korea, which provides a very RARE opportunity to see TM play against a decent team. Therefore, TM is forced to show its true capabilities in attack and defense.
ATTACK:
And true to form, we see in attack we are quite weak as when we have the ball we are either over-passing the ball between the defenders and within our half 90% of the time, and if we try to move into the Korean half, it is always through the age-old useless LOBS from defenders, which usually don’t end up in our favor! Beyond this the team has proven incapable of penetrating the Korean half with proper passing! So much that in long periods of the game the Korean keeper was just a spectator from afar!!!!!
Our goal also is not the result of some highly masterful tactics, rather it is a true GIFT from the opponent for failing to pass stronger which fell to Pejman Nouri who had the presence of mind to attack the player. This only proved ghotbi is a very lucky coach … perhaps by becoming a “seyed” recently
DEFENSE:
On the other side, our defense has been penetrated again and again. Both through aerial balls and crosses (corners included), where most of the first balls are headed by the Koreans inside our 18, and on the ground, especially from our left flank, they have done whatever they wanted to do, passing, overtaking, dribbling, one-twos, …. Etc!!!
We may end the half 1-0 up. But team performance wise, we are way WAY behind the opponents and this kind of play just doesn’t inspire any sort of hope for us
But it’s not all negative. The positive thing I saw was that the Koreans after the goal lost some of their composure and focus. They didn’t have the same smooth passing or penetration anymore. Koreans still haven regained their focus and the game is more balanced now. Which begs the question: are they so vulnerable to shock? This could play in our favor.
Could it be that they got surprised by the goal or falling behind? Whatever it may be, this could be exploited.
Haven’t watched the second half yet and will address it once I watch it.
But I suspect it will be a bit more balanced game with more Koreans attacking but TM looking for counters … naturally. If only we don’t pull back too much, allowing too much space.
Lets see.
************----------*************
Second half :
After watching the 2nd half, I must first say I am happy (sort of) that our defense didn’t buckle under that last 15-17 minutes of pressure by the Koreans. Yes, rahmati was called into action as well as a few more instances where their shots went wayward, but overall, we didn’t concede and that is good news.
But until this period, which is from minute 46-72/73, the game was a very scrappy football with lots of middle of the park sk!rmishes. nothing to write home about … except the two opportunities we got at minute 46 and the other shojaei shot. Both chances would have been more dangerous if they had taken a stronger strike at the ball.
Shojaei, very much like ghotbi, is a very lucky chap too. He had a very regular and quite forgettable game (like majority of his other TM games) except his goal. except this one instance, he was slow and in the second half, lost the ball on many occasions. Maybe if he wasn’t used on the left flank, he’d have been more efficient.
I really don’t know why ansarifard was brought out. It just doesn’t make sense as he wasn’t injured. Nor was he playing bad. So a very peculiar decision by ghotbi, who brought oladi who didn’t do half of what ansarifard did anyway!!!
Ando was very active, just like pejman. But again, having 3 defensive mids made the team very poor in creativity dept. . no wonder the team didn’t look very exciting going forward. The few chances we had were mere SPARKS rather than off rehearsed, coordinated moves.
Jalal hosseini did well on many occasions and actually prevented a goal in 1st half (don’t know how aware he was in that shot, though). So was nosrati on the right side. But we already knew this about nosrati that his best games are when he plays in the center or if not, then on the right side. His weakest performances were ALWAYS on the left side. So no surprises here.
TM still shows extremely poor in shooting and long rangers. And there seems no remedy for this basic foundation of football. What’s sad is that we have plenty of shooters like nekounam, nouri, … who CAN take shots, but don’t (due to some peculiar reason!)
Anyway, we got a win in south korea after so many years and lets hope we can build on this in asia cup, if we face the Koreans in quarters.
... which rendered the rest of his views pretty unreliable 
),.....The very few chances we did have was due to thier defensive mistakes ( Bad intersepted passes, which Shojaee,Ando,Noori,and Ansarifard benefited ).....we had no organized attacks.......,nor did we have any organized defense.
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