No. I didnt watch the game and like the rest of you had to follow it on the radio.
so instead of any "observations", I got a few remarks .
the line up was:
which means the whole of first half we played with a very defensive midfield line up: ando, nekunam, pejman
having the trio of rezaei, shojaei and ansarifard in front of them.
1- from what I heard in the first half, a very large majority of the ball was passed between our defenders and def-mids. we heard the names aghili, hosseini, nekunam, ando and pejman way more than anyone else.
followed by hajsafi and heidari.
the names of ansarifard and rezaei very rarely came up, which showed how little we supplied them or used them!
this shows the frequently seen issue of keeping the ball passed around near our goal and in our half, more than doing something up in the opponents' half.
2- I wish I could have counted the number of times the 2 names of hajsafi and haidari were mentioned, to show how much of the width of the pitch used and how frequently.
this would indicate use of flanks and therefore stretching of the opponents' defenders.
3- another thing I picked up was angola played a more defensive and closed formation with lots of bodies behind the ball protecting their goal.
4- then by second half we saw replacement of 2 (of the original 3) def-mids with mobaali and Nouri, both of whom are forward-facing positive mids who could help with the team's offensive moves.
and throughout the second half we heard the names of mobaali, nouri and nekunam far more than any other names.
this indicated that this triangle (with neku backing the front 2) worked well and most probably took the ball to the opponents' half and applied excessive pressure on them. heard a lot of combinations between the 3 or one/two of them with khalatbari.
this also showed a lot of ball distribution by mobaali and nouri to all sides of the pitch. which is what the team desperately needed against qatar.
5- khalatbari seemed to have a great game. lots of attacks and a couple of nice moves and shots.
6- on the other hand I hardly heard much of a good comment about shojaei. so his poor games seemed to have continued.
good to see arash afshin given a chance to be an alternative to shojaei. maybe this will compel the lazy osasuna player to move his arse and get his act together.
heard shojaei's name when he had fouled the opponent, which underlines what I said in qatar game: he still hasnt learned how to battle for the ball without fouling the player!!!
7- the win shd be a morale booster for the team, especially since we didnt get any injuries too (and afshin seems to have recuperated as well).
so we step into the games with a better psyche than before.
8- but the change in the game from a defensive, negative one to a more positive, creative one (from 1st half line up to 2nd half line up) shd tell us something.
especially if the opponent decides to frustrate our team by playing a closed game with many players protecting their goal. something that I'm sure both uae and north korea will do, as they did the same in the WCQ's.
playing a negative and unimaginative/uncreative line up gets us nowhere and in a tournament that only WINNING matters, and often draws are as good as losses, then this shd be a waking up call for ghotbi
so instead of any "observations", I got a few remarks .
the line up was:
Originally posted by Martin-Reza
having the trio of rezaei, shojaei and ansarifard in front of them.
1- from what I heard in the first half, a very large majority of the ball was passed between our defenders and def-mids. we heard the names aghili, hosseini, nekunam, ando and pejman way more than anyone else.
followed by hajsafi and heidari.
the names of ansarifard and rezaei very rarely came up, which showed how little we supplied them or used them!
this shows the frequently seen issue of keeping the ball passed around near our goal and in our half, more than doing something up in the opponents' half.
2- I wish I could have counted the number of times the 2 names of hajsafi and haidari were mentioned, to show how much of the width of the pitch used and how frequently.
this would indicate use of flanks and therefore stretching of the opponents' defenders.
3- another thing I picked up was angola played a more defensive and closed formation with lots of bodies behind the ball protecting their goal.
4- then by second half we saw replacement of 2 (of the original 3) def-mids with mobaali and Nouri, both of whom are forward-facing positive mids who could help with the team's offensive moves.
and throughout the second half we heard the names of mobaali, nouri and nekunam far more than any other names.
this indicated that this triangle (with neku backing the front 2) worked well and most probably took the ball to the opponents' half and applied excessive pressure on them. heard a lot of combinations between the 3 or one/two of them with khalatbari.
this also showed a lot of ball distribution by mobaali and nouri to all sides of the pitch. which is what the team desperately needed against qatar.
5- khalatbari seemed to have a great game. lots of attacks and a couple of nice moves and shots.
6- on the other hand I hardly heard much of a good comment about shojaei. so his poor games seemed to have continued.
good to see arash afshin given a chance to be an alternative to shojaei. maybe this will compel the lazy osasuna player to move his arse and get his act together.
heard shojaei's name when he had fouled the opponent, which underlines what I said in qatar game: he still hasnt learned how to battle for the ball without fouling the player!!!
7- the win shd be a morale booster for the team, especially since we didnt get any injuries too (and afshin seems to have recuperated as well).
so we step into the games with a better psyche than before.
8- but the change in the game from a defensive, negative one to a more positive, creative one (from 1st half line up to 2nd half line up) shd tell us something.
especially if the opponent decides to frustrate our team by playing a closed game with many players protecting their goal. something that I'm sure both uae and north korea will do, as they did the same in the WCQ's.
playing a negative and unimaginative/uncreative line up gets us nowhere and in a tournament that only WINNING matters, and often draws are as good as losses, then this shd be a waking up call for ghotbi
.... any moment we'll get struck down by lightning now for this manifestation of utter recklessness 
!!!!
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