Iran vs. Bulgaria - [Game Thread] | Friendly | Thursday, September 7th

[diz]

Training pics, including ARJ, Taremi, and Saman

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cw0wR2prLAA/

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cw0ntBRLz0n/

https://www.instagram.com/p/CwzuxdEtEJu/

[Team Melli Fan]

Game will be broadcast on Fox Soccer Plus in the US

https://www.livesoccertv.com/match/4...garia-vs-iran/

US: Fox Soccer Plus
Canada: DAZN
UK: Viaplay UK
Sweden: Viaplay Sweden
Germany: DAZN
Ireland: Premier Sports 2

[Rooyintan]

The training pitch looks horrible.
hope the boys don't get injured

They trained in Lokomotiv Stadium (Plovdiv) which is different to match's venue.

[Rooyintan]

The referee is going to be Lazar Lukic from Serbia. Looks like he has not refereed national team matches before, only club competitions.

https://www.soccerway.com/referees/lazar-luki/145104/

https://www.transfermarkt.com/lazar-...dsrichter/2064

So far the only Serbian who refereed Team Melli matches was Milorad Mažić who denied Dejagah a legitimate penalty in 2014 WC with Argentina. He also refereed Russia vs Iran friendly match in 2017.

As far as less experienced referees go, the Russian Kiril Levnikov who refereed Iran vs Uzbekistan at 2023 CAFA Nations Cup final was a bad experience for Team Melli since the referee could not calm situations in the match.

For the match with Bulgaria, I say weather and referee are big concerns.

Bulgarian media really focused on Majid Hosseini's absence due to injury, some of their media even were surprised that Omid Ebrahimi is not in the Team Melli squad. They are also aware of Haji Safi having the most caps and Taremi being the most goalscorer among the players in the squad. I am also impressed with their press knowing that Iranians are Persians, from my experience many people from Eastern Europe specially Balkans think Iran is Arab-speaking and Iranians are Arabs.

[PSGman#19]

The referee is going to be Lazar Lukic from Serbia. Looks like he has not refereed national team matches before, only club competitions.

https://www.soccerway.com/referees/lazar-luki/145104/

https://www.transfermarkt.com/lazar-...dsrichter/2064

So far the only Serbian who refereed Team Melli matches was Milorad Mažić who denied Dejagah a legitimate penalty in 2014 WC with Argentina. He also refereed Russia vs Iran friendly match in 2017.

As far as less experienced referees, the Russian Kiril Levnikov who refereed Iran vs Uzbekistan at 2023 CAFA Nations Cup final was a bad experience for Team Melli since the referee could not calm situations in the match.

For the match with Bulgaria, I say weather and referee are big concerns.

Bulgarian media really focused on Majid Hosseini's absence due to injury, some of their media even were surprised that Omid Ebrahimi is not in the Team Melli squad. They are also aware of Haji Safi having the most caps and Taremi being the most goalscorer among the players in the squad. I am also impressed with their press knowing that Iranians are Persians, from my experience many people from Eastern Europe specially Balkans think Iran is Arab-speaking and Iranians are Arabs.

Only Eastern Europe? Almost all the world think that

[Rooyintan]

Only Eastern Europe? Almost all the world think that

In my experience, many Swedish and Greek people were well aware that Iranians are not Arabs. Occassionally, some Indian, Pakistani and British would also know that Iranians are not Arabs.

Other Europeans(in particular Germans, Austrians, Italians, Dutch, Russian, Ukrainian and Former Yugoslavia), Australians, New Zealanders, Latin Americans, East Asians, South East Asian, and surprisingly Turkish people were the ones who mostly I came across who thought Iranians are Arabs.

[Nokhodi]

Balkan people in my experience, generally think we’re Muslims and therefore Turks.

[PSGman#19]

In my experience, many Swedish and Greek people were well aware that Iranians are not Arabs. Occassionally, some Indian, Pakistani and British would also know that Iranians are not Arabs.

Other Europeans(in particular Germans, Austrians, Italians, Dutch, Russian, Ukrainian and Former Yugoslavia), Australians, New Zealanders, Latin Americans, East Asians, South East Asian, and surprisingly Turkish people were the ones who mostly I came across who thought Iranians are Arabs.

Swedish I guess he has to do with the large Iranian Diaspora and Greek because of their particular history with Persia. And I guess many Greek should think Persia is just a different form of arab.

About the rest, the world look "west" (toward US and west Europe) and turn the back to what happens in their east or south. The propaganda of US and our own internal situation do the rest hand in hand.

[Rooyintan]

Balkan people in my experience, generally think we’re Muslims and therefore Turks.

In my experience, since many of them saw many Turks were used to hearing Turkish language, so if they ever saw Iranians would think they are Arabs since the language sounds different to Turkish

[Rooyintan]

Swedish I guess he has to do with the large Iranian Diaspora and Greek because of their particular history with Persia. And I guess many Greek should think Persia is just a different form of arab.

About the rest, the world look "west" (toward US and west Europe) and turn the back to what happens in their east or south. The propaganda of US and our own internal situation do the rest hand in hand.

Germany, Netherlands, Austria, France there are many Iranians there so the numbers didn't help. I just think Swedish and Greek are more worldly or well knowledgeable when it comes to culture, history and geography.

[PSGman#19]

Germany, Netherlands, Austria, France there are many Iranians there so the numbers didn't help. I just think Swedish and Greek are more cultured or well knowledgable when it comes to culture, history and geography.

About Germany etc.. I think they are much more other immigrants there (turkish,moroccan..) and more vocal ones than iranians. So outside Iranian Diaspora hub (cologne region ?), it is hard to hear from Iran from another perspective.

About France, the number of Iranians is very low compared to Sweden, Germany, there is no hub of diaspora and most of them are invisible

[fairplay]

I have been to Bulgaria, it is a very green and a beautiful country, people are nice and very matter of fact, they mostly thought I was Bulgarian or Armenian, people mostly liked Iran, some even said historically, Iran was in their side, not sure what they were exactly referring to?

[Nokhodi]

I have been to Bulgaria, it is a very green and a beautiful country, people are nice and very matter of fact, they mostly thought I was Bulgarian or Armenian, people mostly liked Iran, some even said historically, Iran was in their side, not sure what they were exactly referring to?

.
They know we fought against the Ottomans so they appreciate that. They were ruled by the Ottomans for almost 500 years so they are very sensitive to that issue, understandably.

[fairplay]

.
They know we fought against the Ottomans so they appreciate that. They were ruled by the Ottomans for almost 500 years so they are very sensitive to that issue, understandably.

Yes I went to some of their historical galleries, and they were showing some of the attrocities Ottomans did to their country and people

[Ghermez Agha]

US: Fox Soccer Plus
Canada: DAZN
UK: Viaplay UK
Sweden: Viaplay Sweden
Germany: DAZN
Ireland: Premier Sports 2

thanks! I just called Fios and added in Fox Soccer Plus for $15 for one month….very well worth it even to watch 1 TM game without head ache and hassle and in HD 😁

also for any of my fellow ghomarbaaz’s in the US….Iran money line is at -115 on fanduel which is actually a major down swing from being +125 last night! I was going to hammer us with the value being there but idk about it anymore