Friendly matches before Asia Cup

[Rooyintan]

Historically, these were Team Melli's final friendlies within the one month+ prior to the kick off of Asia Cup:

1980: 2 x UAE
1984: -
1988: -
1992: 2 x Cameroon, 1 x Kuwait
1996: Kuwait, Lebanon, Turkmenistan
2000: Georgia, Austria, Qatar
2004: WAFF Championship (1 x Lebanon, 2 x Syria, 1 x Iraq)
2007: WAFF Championship (2 x Iraq, 1 x Palestine, 1 x Jordan), Jamaica
2011: Qatar, Angola
2015: Iraq
2019: Palestine, Qatar

This time there is talk about Japan and possibly Indonesia, however nothing is guaranteed.

Who do you guys like to see as final friendlies prior to the AC?

China is gonna play Sweden, South Korea is gonna play Iraq. So China and South Korea will not be available.

If Japan and Indonesia do not happen. I would like to see North Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Taiwan, Macau.

From Europe, it would be nice to have Romania, Slovenia, Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Finland, Belarus, Latvia, Estonia, Luxembourg.

From Africa, Burundi, Benin, DR Congo, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Mali, Guinea, Uganda, Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Zimbabwe, South Sudan.

[Pluto2000]

Kazakhstan could a nice one imo, they're playing very nice in Europe right now.

Algeria/Tunisi is also good. They're speedy and technical, good to expose TM weaknesses

[Kavian]

The way things are going it will be Hamas and Hezbullah

[oracle]

China.......

[Ardalan]

Ozbakestan, teame omide Sierra Leone va Honduras.

[milad_b]

Agha forget the african and european teams! We should play east asian and ASEAN teams. For some reason japan or even south korea always find it hard to play against East asian and ASEAN teams. Maybe they have the same feeling as us when we play arab teams but they always flop against them.

Japan smashes big teams like ghana , paraguay but then ends up drawing china and vietnam . I feel like we haven't prepared for any east asian teams. The only east asian team that we're getting right now is hong kong.

I think ideally China and Japan friendly would be great for our preps against South korea. If not i'll still take China and Vietnam Please. They are totally duable and not out of reach.

Really ideal games would be Japan and Australia, but we all know its not gonna happen.


So please forget about the stupid african teams or some lower tier european teams that are totally irrelevant to us at this stage.

[oracle]

If qatar flops and China wins the group
China has history of making ac tournaments run.

84 semi
88. Semi
92. Semi
96. Qf lost pk ksa Champs
2000 semi
2004 semi
2007 DNA even in their worst ac performance they pulled a 2-2 with iran.
2011 DNA
2015 qf. Lost to Champs
2019. Qf. Lost to iran.

China will have easy way to semi
If qatar flops and wins the group
then they play easy match vs 3rd place team
And in qf most probably winner of Oman vs jordan or even easier opponent.

SO CHANCE OF TM
PLAYING S.K,,CHINA, JAPAN QF, SEMI AND FINAL is there.

And like milad said tm has had 0 prep for east Asian teams.

[teammelli91]

^ They went to the final in 2004. But regardless, next to that I would put into parenthesis —> (sketchy ass refereeing in the semis vs. Iran)

[DRCha]

I have a strange feeling that this Asian Cup might get delayed because of the possibility of WWIII.

[oracle]

I have a strange feeling that this Asian Cup might get delayed because of the possibility of WWIII.

Already one delay due to covid.
now war?

Ceasfire 🔥 until final
then start fighting again.

Putin delayed Ukraine War so China can host Olympic in peace.

[Rooyintan]

The way things are going it will be Hamas and Hezbullah

How about Islamic Jihad, Houthi, Shahd al-Arabi, Fatemiyoun, Basij?

[oracle]

the second wcq round 2 is away to uzbk...
That's good prep match for ac.

[Iran_19]

We need to play east asians, if sk or japan are not possible IR should arrange friendly with their buddy China!


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[Rooyintan]

Russia wanted to play Team Melli in friendly hosting them, FFIRI did great putting them in their place, after their several footballers trash talking Iran after March friendly and then their Head Coach's snubbing invitation to CAFA Nations Cup.

The reality is Russia chased China PR, Indonesia, UAE, Kuwait, Brazil, DPR Korea for friendly match for June, September and October, none of them said yes.

Russia is now negotiating with Senegal, Tanzania, Sudan, Seychelles, Zanzibar. Reality no one apart from African teams are willing to play Russia

https://eprimefeed.com/latest-news/i...gazeta/403335/

In my opinion, friendly match with Ukraine (TM only played them once in 2002), Kazakhstan (TM never played them as UEFA member), Belarus (Team Melli has never defeated them), Georgia (TM only played them once in 2000), Armenia (TM only played them once in 2010), Latvia, Estonia, Moldova (TM never faced these three) would be more interesting for Team Melli and Iranian football fans.

[Rooyintan]

Ghalenoei apparently several times rejected friendly match offer from South Korea. Is it bad memories from 2007 Asia Cup exist or is it because of TM losing to South Korea 2:0 during Skocic era, so Ghalenoei is scared to have defeat in his so far undefeated record for 2023?

Although he was brave to accept friendly with Bulgaria. Other teams he was willing to play were (he liked the idea of Russia, Kenya, Belarus, Oman, Kuwait be invited to CAFA Nations Cup), he also was excited for facing Jordan and Qatar, during his time as coach this year FFIRI tried to arrange friendly matches with Iraq, Lebanon, Oman, Kuwait, Indonesia, Cape Verde, Cameroon, Angola, Nigeria, Senegal, Ghana, South Africa, Equatorial Guinea, Uganda but eventually Angola was selected.

So it seems Ghalenoei is perhaps just uneasy about facing South Korea. He has no problems facing teams like Senegal, Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Japan or European national teams.

https://alborzvarzeshi.com/News/d?id...20802063426918