Iran vs. Uzbekistan - [Match Thread] | World Cup 2026 Qualifier | November 21st |

[Pluto2000]

Genuine question, why was Omid called up instead of Vahid Amiri? I KNOW he's old, but watching him play in PP he still has pace, technique, and intelligence, and is like 2 years younger than Omid. Why was he ever dropped? Honestly Amiri playing at left back might be a really good stop gap solution for this team who keeps conceding on goals from left crosses. Or even a temporary Ghoddos-Amiri partnership in this 4-4-2 this team loves to play while we figure out what to do about CDM position.

Honestly the only young CDM outlook we have right now is Yadegar Rostami, its where he plays with Pogon B team right now and also vs Gent last month. He is still a bit raw and inexperienced but I HOPE someone can give the kid a try in that position. He's getting taller every month too

[oracle]

Genuine question, why was Omid called up instead of Vahid Amiri? I KNOW he's old, but watching him play in PP he still has pace, technique, and intelligence, and is like 2 years younger than Omid. Why was he ever dropped? Honestly Amiri playing at left back might be a really good stop gap solution for this team who keeps conceding on goals from left crosses. Or even a temporary Ghoddos-Amiri partnership in this 4-4-2 this team loves to play while we figure out what to do about CDM position

He been injured...they rushed him back ang got I injured after 10 minutes...he will be in ac roster, he will heal by then...he be perfect lb against s.k

[Hosseini]

No VAR this round of qualifiers...

[KhumoUzbek]

Hahahaha. Perhaps. Although this curse was only with Queiroz.
Funnily enough we never had Uzbekistan in any of our qualification groups until World Cup 2014 campaign.
I really think Uzbekistan's best chance to qualify was 2002. Unfortunately both Iran and Uzbekistan messed those campaigns up very badly.

It's true, after 2014 campaign, we face each other almost every year, even 2-3 times, under CAFA, WC qualifying, friendlies, etc. It seems to me that someone in the AFC/FIFA is doing it on purpose) . I won't be surprised if in the next round we'll be in the same group again, with South Korea joining us.

I think our best chance was in 2006 WCQ where we met Bahrain in play-off. They won due to away goals. Highly controversial result as Uzbekistan's 1-0 win was annulled due to japanese ref's mistake for penalty against Bahrain which he cancelled after and gave a freekick to them instead, replayed match ended with 1-1. Bahrain eventually managed to lose intecontinantal play-off to Trinidad and Tocago 2-1. The second best chance was in 2014 WCQ where we lost to South Korea in goal difference (we all remember well this campaign, don't we).

[Ali.Karimi79]

Beiranvand is nuts. Pulling Mirzapours out of nowhere. Martike kar mide daste TM.

[oracle]

Beiranvand is nuts. Pulling Mirzapours out of nowhere. Martike kar mide daste TM.

He said he is doing revolution in Iran football by his feet work.
he said head coaches in froninoffensive other players tell him don't do it,but in private they tell him keep doing it.....

[Keshwardoost]

He said he is doing revolution in Iran football by his feet work.
he said head coaches in froninoffensive other players tell him don't do it,but in private they tell him keep doing it.....

my oppinion, he isnt bad with footwork. Yes i saw that recent dribble attempt of his, but except that.. 😅

[DR Strangemoosh]

I want Niazmand as number one

Sent from my Pixel 7 Pro using Tapatalk

[oracle]

my oppinion, he isnt bad with footwork. Yes i saw that recent dribble attempt of his, but except that.. 😅

He is head and shoulder above all current goalies.
and he keeps in shape....goalies mature at 30,
Wc26 definitely starter...ac 27 on the squat.

[Pluto2000]

He is head and shoulder above all current goalies.
and he keeps in shape....goalies mature at 30,
Wc26 definitely starter...ac 27 on the squat.

Eh he is decent at club level but I can't remember last time he was impressive for team melli. I feel like he makes too many sootis with his dribbling and getting injured and not directing his defenders well

[Pluto2000]

Okay so, I rewatched the game. Our issue is still the same: lack of pace and defensive transition. It seems like almost every goal we have conceded with GN has been because of two reasons: wingbacks are too far up in press and do not have the speed to run back. If you watch the first goal we conceded Ramin was so far up the pitch that he couldn't defend and he gave up running back because he knew they would score that goal. I saw Milad lose almost EVERY 1v1 challenge. It seems like Shoja and Kanaani seem like they are too SLOW to also run back.

According to Arya from Gol Bezan, Manicone is primarily in charge of defense...but something is NOT working out when it comes to defensive transitions. It could be GN not listening to Manicone but I don't know. I actually didn't even mind Karimi, he just wasn't the right player next to Eza and they do not compliment each other well.

From rewatching, HONESTLY the most clear solution to me in order to make our defense better is to drop Shoja and completely drop Milad. Majid Hosseini has much more pace, and distribution and seems to me like he is a CLEAR starter over shoja who is old and slow. Likewise, Hazbavi is 100% faster than Kanaani. Therefore I would like to see a Hazbavi and Majid CB pairing.

In general GN needs to:
1. Tell Ramin to stop running high up like he is a forward winger, his main is defense. Yes it works out on offense but we get caught up on counters. Dude needs to not be in enemy corner when we lose the ball.
2. Start more CBs with better pace and distribution than Shoja, both Majid and Hazbavi have much more speed than Shoja.
3. Play Moharrami at LB, yes he is right footed but he has played LB in champions league at club level, he can do it. Use Hardani as back up RB.
4. MAKE THE RIGHT SUBS; Karimi is not even a bad player, KARIMI AND EZA JUST DON'T COMPLIMENT EACH OTHER. The proper play would have been to bring in Hosseinejad and keep in Azmoun.

ON THE BRIGHT SIDE:
GENERAL PLEASE START TORABI ON LEFT WING MORE. Yall don't realize the type of magic that was happening with that Torabi/Taremi/Ghoddos triangle on left side. We had some crazy tiki taka pressure with those three. ALSO Mohebi as RW works really well...he ran up and down a lot and made a lot of space for Azmoun, we never see JB do that.

I REALLY wanna continue to see Torabi LW though, that was beautiful

[oracle]

Eh he is decent at club level but I can't remember last time he was impressive for team melli. I feel like he makes too many sootis with his dribbling and getting injured and not directing his defenders well

I don't know pluto
u want both biravand and saeed benched😀....

[arj42]

Okay so, I rewatched the game. Our issue is still the same: lack of pace and defensive transition. It seems like almost every goal we have conceded with GN has been because of two reasons: wingbacks are too far up in press and do not have the speed to run back. If you watch the first goal we conceded Ramin was so far up the pitch that he couldn't defend and he gave up running back because he knew they would score that goal. I saw Milad lose almost EVERY 1v1 challenge. It seems like Shoja and Kanaani seem like they are too SLOW to also run back.

According to Arya from Gol Bezan, Manicone is primarily in charge of defense...but something is NOT working out when it comes to defensive transitions. It could be GN not listening to Manicone but I don't know. I actually didn't even mind Karimi, he just wasn't the right player next to Eza and they do not compliment each other well.

From rewatching, HONESTLY the most clear solution to me in order to make our defense better is to drop Shoja and completely drop Milad. Majid Hosseini has much more pace, and distribution and seems to me like he is a CLEAR starter over shoja who is old and slow. Likewise, Hazbavi is 100% faster than Kanaani. Therefore I would like to see a Hazbavi and Majid CB pairing.

In general GN needs to:
1. Tell Ramin to stop running high up like he is a forward winger, his main is defense. Yes it works out on offense but we get caught up on counters. Dude needs to not be in enemy corner when we lose the ball.
2. Start more CBs with better pace and distribution than Shoja, both Majid and Hazbavi have much more speed than Shoja.
3. Play Moharrami at LB, yes he is right footed but he has played LB in champions league at club level, he can do it. Use Hardani as back up RB.
4. MAKE THE RIGHT SUBS; Karimi is not even a bad player, KARIMI AND EZA JUST DON'T COMPLIMENT EACH OTHER. The proper play would have been to bring in Hosseinejad and keep in Azmoun.

Speaking of Gol Bezan, I really like Sahand and what he has to say. I really really appreciate his commentary. Arya knows his stuff and is the head huncho of the crew but seeing Sahand once in a while is great. Really thoughtful comments from him on this pod you’re referring to. If you see this, keep it up

[Pluto2000]

I don't know pluto
u want both biravand and saeed benched😀....

Im harsh on ezatolahi but to me his not the main problem with team melli. Eza always shows up for big games and plays 10x his level. I think when it comes to Beiranvand however he is clearly worse than post 2019 AC. I don't know what happened to Beiro in Europe, but since then he just feels like he has low confidence. He gets scared more easily when it comes to dribbling the ball, or making mistakes like crashing into Majid or crashing into Eza or even making stupid mistakes like being way out of his box like that one game in PP a month ago.

I will say this: Beiro is also not the issue in TM. Neither is Eza. The team relies too much on Eza when we need more CMs near him so he doesn't get bunched up. I'm in favor of benching Eza if we find another alternative but we know that's not happening.

The issue is our backline is SLOW. Ramin out of place all the time, Kanaani and Shoja too slow to run back and distribute badly, and Milad/HJ can't win 1v1 in their zone. If we get serious about fixing back 4 line, and give Hosseinejad enough time to grow as Saman replacement, we have AC winning quality.

[Pluto2000]

Speaking of Gol Bezan, I really like Sahand and what he has to say. I really really appreciate his commentary. Arya knows his stuff and is the head huncho of the crew but seeing Sahand once in a while is great. Really thoughtful comments from him on this pod you’re referring to. If you see this, keep it up

He had a lot of good commentary, I hope Sahand comes on more often. I like that Arya is back too in recent podcasts. Generally most other commentators on the podcast don't add much though . Gol Bezan front 3: Sina, Arya, Sahand