I am not going to base my judgment too much on our team's performance today (kuwait vs iran). mostly due to the horrible pitch. Although that doesnt mean I'm not going to say CQ's selection (as usual) is unbalanced and weak as we just didnt have any height up front to give us an added dimension for attacking. he seems to have picked way too many iranian traits in his stay here; one particular one is lajbaazi & stubbornness even at the face of being proven wrong.
anyway, as I was saying, today's game wasnt as disheartening as some would put it. kuwait isnt a bad side. they certainly arent any lower than qatar. noway. I put them squarely equal. so with a quality pitch and hopefully a balanced selection and line up, I think we can get the 3 points in qatar.
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besides, the other results of the day arent as tragic as some make them out to be either.
lets face it, we knew from way before that chances of lebanon (of all the teams in our group) shaving off points in tashkent is almost nil. they are the weakest of all teams in our group. and if at all uzbeks lose points, it was always going to be against koreans in seoul and perhaps even qataris. so the fact that they got the 3 points today shdnt make us lose hope.
in fact I take encouragement that they failed a massive chance to add to their goal difference against the weakest side of the group. it would have been much harder for us if they had won by 2-3 goals.
so that's one positive.
the second positive from the uzbek game is the abysmal quality of their performance. they struggled against a lebanon that couldnt string more than 2 passes together and looked like headless chickens. imagine what south korea will do to them in seoul if they play at the same level. I take heart from this since they, like us, are inconsistent. and you may see the same uzbek team in seoul. which almost guarantees 0 points for them.
the next positive is with qatar losing today, at least they wont become a sar-e shaakh for us and add to the hurdles in FRONT of (or above) us.
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other hopeful points: heidari-dejagah duo are clicking and they seem to have each other's rhythm. That's good since we need these two to be at tip-top shape for the qatar game.
but this means with a great right flank that can easily pull away defenders and scatter them,. we NEED a tall center forward for crosses. ghazi, salehi, naneh-sakineh ... whoever. I just want a tall chap, physical enough to tangle with the defenders and be able to hold the ball for a milisecond or so. if CQ, for all his years of experience and fame chooses to ignore this fact, then there's something wrong with him. we simply can not DENY our team of a valuable route to goal scoring.
and at the cost of whom? or what kind of players? Oladi? Rafkhaei? It just doesnt make sense. the guy tried abbasfard for f**ks sake. abbasfard who is nowhere near ghazi nor salehi. why cant he pick a superior player of the same style?
Nekounam has turned into a very run of the mill, ordinary player (who only occasionally does something worthy of mention). I think the kuwait game was perfect time to test Ebrahimi. and once again, CQ missed the chance.
today we needed energy and lots of running in the middle. and that was absent. both nekounam and jabbari showed lack of stamina to run hard for 90 minutes and keep their performance at level for the entirety of the game.
I dont know if we'll get a chance in between now and the qatar game. but I really hope CQ (for once at least) shows a little guts and tries/tests a younger player. afterall, is he going to send Davari into that game without a test? why didnt he test these lads today?
today's game was the perfect chance to try some of these guys.
either way, I think we're not too far from what we expected to be a week or month ago. we know we have to win in qatar and then win lebanon in iran.
a win by korea against uzbeks at the same time gives us the perfect opportunity to overtake them at the last moments of the campaign.
if they get another 3 points (lets assuem they lose to korea and win qatar) and I really doubt they'd be able to win qatar by a large margin. GD+1 at best. that makes their GD +1.
if we win qatar and lebanon (hopefully by a healthy margin. at least 2-3 goals), then all we'd need to overtake uzbeks is a draw in seoul.
and I must say seeing how korea played today, I'm guessing getting a minimum of 1 point isnt going to be a difficult task for us.
that's why the key game for us is the away game to qatar. and if we, willingly, remove an option (tall, physical player) from the table due to our own lajbaazi and stubbornness and go into the game with only ONE PLAN (seems to be CQ's trademark. he just doesnt have plan B's during a game!!!), then we might as well kiss direct qualification goodbye.
but if we win qatar, we'd get a boost and defeat lebanon by a healthy margin. well ... who knows ... it could all be settled by the time we hear the whistle in seoul.
Our fate is still in our hands. although CQ's dropping of a few balls has made it somewhat more difficult that it needed be.
anyway, as I was saying, today's game wasnt as disheartening as some would put it. kuwait isnt a bad side. they certainly arent any lower than qatar. noway. I put them squarely equal. so with a quality pitch and hopefully a balanced selection and line up, I think we can get the 3 points in qatar.
***********
besides, the other results of the day arent as tragic as some make them out to be either.
lets face it, we knew from way before that chances of lebanon (of all the teams in our group) shaving off points in tashkent is almost nil. they are the weakest of all teams in our group. and if at all uzbeks lose points, it was always going to be against koreans in seoul and perhaps even qataris. so the fact that they got the 3 points today shdnt make us lose hope.
in fact I take encouragement that they failed a massive chance to add to their goal difference against the weakest side of the group. it would have been much harder for us if they had won by 2-3 goals.
so that's one positive.
the second positive from the uzbek game is the abysmal quality of their performance. they struggled against a lebanon that couldnt string more than 2 passes together and looked like headless chickens. imagine what south korea will do to them in seoul if they play at the same level. I take heart from this since they, like us, are inconsistent. and you may see the same uzbek team in seoul. which almost guarantees 0 points for them.
the next positive is with qatar losing today, at least they wont become a sar-e shaakh for us and add to the hurdles in FRONT of (or above) us.
************
other hopeful points: heidari-dejagah duo are clicking and they seem to have each other's rhythm. That's good since we need these two to be at tip-top shape for the qatar game.
but this means with a great right flank that can easily pull away defenders and scatter them,. we NEED a tall center forward for crosses. ghazi, salehi, naneh-sakineh ... whoever. I just want a tall chap, physical enough to tangle with the defenders and be able to hold the ball for a milisecond or so. if CQ, for all his years of experience and fame chooses to ignore this fact, then there's something wrong with him. we simply can not DENY our team of a valuable route to goal scoring.
and at the cost of whom? or what kind of players? Oladi? Rafkhaei? It just doesnt make sense. the guy tried abbasfard for f**ks sake. abbasfard who is nowhere near ghazi nor salehi. why cant he pick a superior player of the same style?
Nekounam has turned into a very run of the mill, ordinary player (who only occasionally does something worthy of mention). I think the kuwait game was perfect time to test Ebrahimi. and once again, CQ missed the chance.
today we needed energy and lots of running in the middle. and that was absent. both nekounam and jabbari showed lack of stamina to run hard for 90 minutes and keep their performance at level for the entirety of the game.
I dont know if we'll get a chance in between now and the qatar game. but I really hope CQ (for once at least) shows a little guts and tries/tests a younger player. afterall, is he going to send Davari into that game without a test? why didnt he test these lads today?
today's game was the perfect chance to try some of these guys.
either way, I think we're not too far from what we expected to be a week or month ago. we know we have to win in qatar and then win lebanon in iran.
a win by korea against uzbeks at the same time gives us the perfect opportunity to overtake them at the last moments of the campaign.
if they get another 3 points (lets assuem they lose to korea and win qatar) and I really doubt they'd be able to win qatar by a large margin. GD+1 at best. that makes their GD +1.
if we win qatar and lebanon (hopefully by a healthy margin. at least 2-3 goals), then all we'd need to overtake uzbeks is a draw in seoul.
and I must say seeing how korea played today, I'm guessing getting a minimum of 1 point isnt going to be a difficult task for us.
that's why the key game for us is the away game to qatar. and if we, willingly, remove an option (tall, physical player) from the table due to our own lajbaazi and stubbornness and go into the game with only ONE PLAN (seems to be CQ's trademark. he just doesnt have plan B's during a game!!!), then we might as well kiss direct qualification goodbye.
but if we win qatar, we'd get a boost and defeat lebanon by a healthy margin. well ... who knows ... it could all be settled by the time we hear the whistle in seoul.
Our fate is still in our hands. although CQ's dropping of a few balls has made it somewhat more difficult that it needed be.
