Do not expect many surprises in Branko's final 23

[50Toman]

Well guys, one of our brightest prospect isnt included in the squad.

What to say??

The chance to shine on a world stage is taken from him.

[yashar_fasihnia]

no brother, somebody needs to explain to me why Mobali was not invited? wasn't he one of Branko's favorits just over a year ago? he was invited to the team by him for the first time if I am not mistaken 3 year ago, now in the past year and since the incident with Daie, all of a sudden he has been the "bad boy"!
Something is fishy here, I have no intention to bring up old discussion or certainly don't want to talk about an issue that we surely don't have any control over now, but it's amazing how things get done around teammelli and we expect to play world class football and surprise the world too!
I hope that we do.

my friend,

1)no matter wat branko does, there is always a difference in taste and perspective between him, u, me and everybody in general. u cant expect branko to choose players based on somebody else's choice!

2)branko used to play mobali a lot only in the beginning. i clearly remember, even before the daei-mobali incident, branko put mobali mostly on the bench. best example is the asian cup 2004. against china in the semis, branko brought mobali in the wat, 117th or 118th minute, just for the penalty kicks! (interestingly, mobali missed that penalty, the only reason he came on the field and the only reason branko placed his trust in him and not any other player. he hit the bar) now im not saying just cos he missed a penatly he should be penalized with him or branko should lose faith in him, all im saying is that branko never played him much anywayz even before the daei incident!

3)mobali was a favorite of branko but so was alavi, kameli mofrad, rahmati. but he striked all of them off too, this is way more than enough to prove branko doesn choose based on his "personal preferences".
now if he didnt invite 1 particular player for watever reason, u cant blame him. if van basten can strike off makkay and seedorf, if lavolpe can strike off blanco, if vieri and morientes can be left of the national team, so can mobali for watever reason it is! besides, even if there does exist a problem with mobali and whoever, wat makes u so sure that mobali isnt at fault and is completely innocent?

now dont get me wrong, i really like mobali and his talent. i always wished he would play for esteghlal next to jabbari, but i respect the coach's opinion more and if he feels that karimi shouldnt be invited, i respect it, forget about mobali!

P.S. this thread is about surprises of branko and TM players, not why mobali wasnt included

[Behrooz]

Mobali was given enough time in TM but did not satisfy the coach. The problem was also a surplus of talents in midfield position.

Had Mobali stayed in Iran, he probably would have had a better shot at a TM spot.

We have enough talents in midfield to compensate for Mobali's absense.

[The-Red]

my friend,
1)no matter wat branko does, there is always a difference in taste and perspective between him, u, me and everybody in general. u cant expect branko to choose players based on somebody else's choice!
2)branko used to play mobali a lot only in the beginning. i clearly remember, even before the daei-mobali incident, branko put mobali mostly on the bench. best example is the asian cup 2004. against china in the semis, branko brought mobali in the wat, 117th or 118th minute, just for the penalty kicks! (interestingly, mobali missed that penalty, the only reason he came on the field and the only reason branko placed his trust in him and not any other player. he hit the bar) now im not saying just cos he missed a penatly he should be penalized with him or branko should lose faith in him, all im saying is that branko never played him much anywayz even before the daei incident!
3)mobali was a favorite of branko but so was alavi, kameli mofrad, rahmati. but he striked all of them off too, this is way more than enough to prove branko doesn choose based on his "personal preferences".
now if he didnt invite 1 particular player for watever reason, u cant blame him. if van basten can strike off makkay and seedorf, if lavolpe can strike off blanco, if vieri and morientes can be left of the national team, so can mobali for watever reason it is! besides, even if there does exist a problem with mobali and whoever, wat makes u so sure that mobali isnt at fault and is completely innocent?
now dont get me wrong, i really like mobali and his talent. i always wished he would play for esteghlal next to jabbari, but i respect the coach's opinion more and if he feels that karimi shouldnt be invited, i respect it, forget about mobali!
P.S. this thread is about surprises of branko and TM players, not why mobali wasnt included

No doubt that he has a different view and he is the one who chooses the players and not me and you, and yes even before last year, Mobali was mostly used as a sub, mostly an effective sub though, I never forget the game against Joran in Tehran when the game was leveled at 1-1, Mobali came in min 60 or so, he assited a goal and scored a beauty from outside the box to help TM win that match 4-1,,,you see we can both use examples of when he was effective, or when he wasn't (china game as you pointed out), but that is not the point,,,just looking at Mobali's current performance, most people, whether into football or not, certainly expected a player such as Iman to be in Branko's list specially after having 2 middlefilders out due to injury just last week, which almost assured us all that he will be selected.....now regardless of Mobali's past with Branko, which has been positive for the most part, he should have been invited just based on his current performance,,,
of course none of us are seeing things the way branko see them and he has the final word, at this point, as a TM fan I have no other option other than respecting his final call, but the circumstances, the events that took place last year and the overall situation certianly hints that there are other reasons why mobali has NOT been selected for Germany...again I pray to God that daie or anyone else has nothing to do with it for the sake of TM, but if some day it comes out that this selection was pre-organized by an outside force,,,who is responsible? Branko won't be around to answer then, he will be hired by some team or club somewhere else and we will be wondering if other selections have been fair.

[yashar_fasihnia]

No doubt that he has a different view and he is the one who chooses the players and not me and you, and yes even before last year, Mobali was mostly used as a sub, mostly an effective sub though, I never forget the game against Joran in Tehran when the game was leveled at 1-1, Mobali came in min 60 or so, he assited a goal and scored a beauty from outside the box to help TM win that match 4-1,,,you see we can both use examples of when he was effective, or when he wasn't (china game as you pointed out), but that is not the point,,,just looking at Mobali's current performance, most people, whether into football or not, certainly expected a player such as Iman to be in Branko's list specially after having 2 middlefilders out due to injury just last week, which almost assured us all that he will be selected.....now regardless of Mobali's past with Branko, which has been positive for the most part, he should have been invited just based on his current performance,,,
of course none of us are seeing things the way branko see them and he has the final word, at this point, as a TM fan I have no other option other than respecting his final call, but the circumstances, the events that took place last year and the overall situation certianly hints that there are other reasons why mobali has NOT been selected for Germany...again I pray to God that daie or anyone else has nothing to do with it for the sake of TM, but if some day it comes out that this selection was pre-organized by an outside force,,,who is responsible? Branko won't be around to answer then, he will be hired by some team or club somewhere else and we will be wondering if other selections have been fair.

1)yes i clearly remember mobali's 35 meter freekick into jordan's goal. it was a beauty! but the example i cited of mobali was more recent. i myself said in the beginning, branko invited mobali and used him a lot but gradually, he was demoted to the bench. this can be see in his last performances before the daei-mobali incident.

2)whether mobali is left out for technical reasons or not, again i ask u,
-how can u be so sure mobali has been innocent in all these matters? has everything regarding mobali been branko's fault?
-was branko the actual person who didnt invite mobali? remmeber, iran has a lot of mafias and "dasthaye poshte parde", now maybe branko has a lot of freedom to choose his players but u cant deny the fact that there can be interferrence from higher authorities whenever required.

3)being on form isnt the only criteria for being invited to a national team. otherwise, hossein kazemi should have been in that list too, but he too just liek mobali was in the reserved list because branko had better alternatives for them. maybe branko doesnt find mobali suitable for his plans, remember, iran has physical advantage over mexico and portugal (infact most countries of the world), and mobali doesnt provide this advantage to the team, neither in height, nor in body strength!


all that matters now is that the decision has been made, and nobody can change it. u approve 22 players in that list, u miss 1. so are u gonna sacrifice all thsoe 22 players for just 1 bench warmer who would probably return from germany with 0 minutes of game play?

less than a month left for the worldcup, TM and staff are trying hard to make us people happy and to satisfy our expectations, shouldnt they expect the same from us?

[The-Red]

again, all the events taking place since the controverisal tackle and the argument hints otherwise. I hope you are right and I am wrong, but again all we have is what we see, read and hear from the media, players and coaches + team melli players performance.