Iran vs. Hong Kong June 6th WCQ Match Thread

[Keshwardoost]

Highlights

[Nokhodi]

I think this is inevitable playing against a team that bunkers down.
We need to constantly push forward against those teams and it leaves us exposed.

We will play completely differently versus the major teams.

I also have to say Hong Kong scores really nice goals against us.

In the 2022 qualifiers they also scored a world class against us, despite having only one chance.

[Ahmad_DC]

Khalilzadeh was playing very soft and was at fault for both goals. Hazbavi's ball distribution was very poor. Absence of Kanani and Ezatollahi on the dead ball situations was very noticeable.

[webmaster]

This Iran team is like Swiss cheese. And who are all these new people in the back? Have they even been tried before?

For example Arya Yousefi needs more friendlies so he doesnt mess up in a wc qualifier.

Do we even have a headcoach?

The future of our football is not brighter than the future of the country indeed.

[Hosseini]

Watched the highlights and just burst out laughing at the goals we conceded. Our defense is like piss watery shooleh zard

GN is poor man's Skocic tactically lol

[Pluto2000]

This Iran team is like Swiss cheese. And who are all these new people in the back? Have they even been tried before?

For example Arya Yousefi needs more friendlies so he doesnt mess up in a wc qualifier.

Do we even have a headcoach?

The future of our football is not brighter than the future of the country indeed.

The kicker is that Yousefi is not even a RB lol, he's a LW/RW that Morais played at RB due to injuries at Sepahan and GN decided he wanted to make him permanent RB

[BacheLot]

This team has a humbling coming soon either next game or in r3 when opponents quality increases. For a team that tied Syria 1-1, conceded 2 from UAE, conceded 3 from Qatar, and now conceded 2 from HK I'm a bit worried for what's gonna happen when we actually face a team like Saudi or Iraq

our boys usually level up to that of their opponents..!
Now only if GN dared to start with somewhat similarly experimental line-up, I can see us losing @ Azadi otherwise highly doubtful the likes Uzeks could even manage a draw against us ..!?

what’s worrying for time being is that it’s really hard to discern any sorta Shape or Team Tactical stance or strategy with GN’s TM so far ..! especially so on defensive side ..!
that fist goal conceded today was a brilliant one timer finish but still that joojeh RB rid big time & no excuse for looking so soorakh & conceding so easily from a CK ..!:/
our D looked awfully dodgy on most all other set piece deliveries into our box too even on those hopeful long throws..!

years of gross neglect of our Omid TMs by the corrupt IFF & fast aging of our golden generation footballers is beginning to finally show its negative side effects & with hardly any friendlies in the plans, it’ll likely come to bite us hard in that Azzz ..!:/

Still hard to fathom we wouldn't someway somehow still qualify for this upcoming expanded WC ..!
we definitely must step up the quality of our coaching crew before the tourney though ..!

[mahestan]

Defense let up big time but both of those goals should've been saved by Niazmand. Horrible goal keeping on his end. Hosseini is much better. Whoever is putting the blame of the England 6-2 on Hosseini needs to get their eyes checked. We kept a clean sheet against Wales because of Hosseini who had two great saves, one specially critical during the first 10 minutes of the game which if it had gone in, would've completely change the tempo. At this point TM staff need to make the change from Beiro to Hosseini and stick with him.

Head coach wise, GN had a redemption moment with the win against Japan, but after that it's been blunder after blunder. At this point might as well bring back Skocic than have GN head the ship. At least Skocic had somewhat of a strategy. GN just lets Jesus take the wheel.

[oracle]

Winners of tm vs hongkong are

1.biravand
2.hardani
3.kananizadegan
4.pag
5.saeed

[Prowess]

A different take here: I don’t think this game necessarily spells doom & gloom for team melli or we should necessarily go after GN with pitchforks & torches.

We had new defenders on the pitch (Yousefi, Jalali, Hazbavi) and this was a game to experiment some new players.

In my opinion, I really do not care if we win ugly against the minnows as long as we perform against better opponents in important games.

Our inability to qualify for the next round has always been us coming up short against more superior teams (Bosnia WC 2014, Portugal WC 2018, and USA WC 2022). If we want to break this trend, we need to step up against superior teams at critical junctures.

That’s why our victory against Japan in the quarterfinals was so historical & monumental.

GN has his shortcomings for sure, but let’s see how we play against a much better team in Uzbekistan.

[Damavand]

[Keshwardoost]

Fans respond as the home team test higher-ranked Iran at Hong Kong Stadium. Photo: Sam Tsang


Fifa World Cup 2026: Hong Kong pay penalty but debut strikes lift mood in loss to Iran

Soft spot-kick turns tide for Iran in Fifa World Cup qualifier, but Hong Kong show guts with new boys Timmy Ma and Anthony Pinto on target.



Published: 10:04pm, 6 Jun, 2024

Hong Kong football christened two new heroes on Thursday night, but Wolfgang Luisser’s first game in temporary charge ended in a controversial 4-2 World Cup qualifying defeat at home to Iran. Timmy Ma Hei-wai adeptly swept home a cross from Tan Chun-lok after 15 minutes of his senior international debut. Anthony Pinto was even quicker off the mark, dispatching a low effort past Payam Niazmand only two minutes after replacing Ma in the second half.

Ma’s stunning introduction was sandwiched by a pair of penalties from Mehdi Taremi, the second awarded after Yapp Hung-fai appeared to legally dispossess the striker in the box. Taremi, on the verge of a transfer from FC Porto to Inter Milan, chipped in a Panenka kick before completing a hat-trick 11 minutes after half-time. But Pinto, released by English League One club Bolton Wanderers, soon fired home to give Hong Kong hope.
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Yapp Hung-fai dives to meet Mehdi Taremi in the incident that led to the second penalty. Photo: Sam Tsang
Yapp Hung-fai dives to meet Mehdi Taremi in the incident that led to the second penalty. Photo: Sam Tsang

Sardar Azmoun finally killed off the hosts when he escaped the attention of Leon Jones to slip home Iran’s fourth with 25 minutes left. There were no complaints about the first penalty. Jones, another full Hong Kong debutant, used his arm to block a floated 11th-minute cross from Mehdi Ghayedi. Taremi ignored the howls to place his penalty into the bottom-left corner.

There was a 137-position gulf between the teams in the Fifa world rankings, but after a slow start, the hosts gave as good as they got on a stirring night at Hong Kong Stadium.



They had an early let-off when Helio Goncalves deflected a Taremi strike onto the crossbar. Iran sustained the attack, and Azmoun’s volley had Yapp tumbling to his left to tip behind. Hong Kong’s anaemic opening gave way to a gutsy, ambitious performance, sparked when Tan stole possession on the quarter-hour. The midfielder was allowed to progress down the left, and measure a delivery to the near post, where Ma arrived from the opposite flank to steer a finish across goalkeeper Niazmand. Eastern attacker Ma was so far out of the international reckoning until recently that he did not make the squad for the under-23s’ Asian Games campaign last September.

Yapp needed a strong hand to beat out an effort from Azmoun, but Iran’s discomfort was laid bare when Amin Hazbavi sliced a panicked clearance past a post. The visitors were given a break, however, when Qasim Matar Al-Hatmi, the referee, awarded a spot-kick for a foul by Yapp. The goalkeeper seemed to make clean contact with the ball as he dived at Taremi’s feet in the 32nd minute, but Hong Kong’s protests were waved away. Before kick-off, the home fans had hoisted a banner emblazoned with images of Jorn Andersen, accompanied by the words “thank you”, in tribute to the Norwegian, who last week resigned as head coach.


Fans unfurl a banner to thank Jorn Andersen, the former head coach. Photo: Sam Tsang
Fans unfurl a banner to thank Jorn Andersen, the former head coach. Photo: Sam Tsang

And their backing created a wall of noise throughout as their team, in keeping with the progress made under Andersen, battled to recover from Taremi’s second penalty. Songs stuck in the throats of most of the 9,992 crowd when the dead-eyed Taremi angled a sidefooted shot into the corner to claim the match ball. Pinto pounced on ponderous efforts to clear and caressed a first-time left-foot shot inside Niazmand’s right post, but Azmoun extinguished any comeback hopes. This was a night, however, that will be recalled for Luisser’s impressive first audition for the job, and the birth of two new Hong Kong stars.



Paul McNamara

[Keshwardoost]

FOOTBALL
Hong Kong arrests 3 for ‘insulting’ anthem at Fifa World Cup qualifier
Agence France-Presse / 02:45 PM June 07, 2024




Hong Kong Iran Fifa World Cup qualifiers
FILE– Hong Kong’s starting eleven stand up for the national anthem before the start of the Qatar 2023 AFC Asian Cup Group C football. (Photo by HECTOR RETAMAL / AFP)


Three people were arrested for turning their backs and remaining seated when China’s national anthem was played prior to Hong Kong’s home World Cup qualifier against Iran, police said Friday.


Football fans in Hong Kong used to boo the national anthem as a show of political discontent, but the government in 2020 banned the practice as part of a wider crackdown following huge democracy protests in the city.


At Hong Kong Stadium on Thursday police said two men and a woman were arrested because they “turned their backs toward the pitch and did not stand for the playing of the national anthem"


“Police stressed that anyone who publicly and intentionally insults the national anthem in any way commits a crime,” a statement said.


The three arrested were between the ages of 18 and 31. If convicted they face up to three years in jail and a fine of HK$50,000 ($6,400).




Hong Kong, whose hopes of reaching the next stage of qualifying for the 2026 World Cup were already over, went on to lose the game to Iran 4-2.




Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China but competes in its own name in many international sports, including football.


During the politically tumultuous 2010s, the Hong Kong team became a vessel for civic pride and occasionally anti-government sentiment.


At the time, the Chinese national anthem was routinely drowned out by boos before Hong Kong matches, enraging local and mainland officials.


Soon after Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on Hong Kong in 2020, the finance hub passed a separate local law criminalizing insults towards the anthem.

[Kavian]

Not TM Material:
Hezbavi, Yousefi, Moghanlou, Gholami, Noorafkan

[Nokhodi]

Not TM Material:
Hezbavi, Yousefi, Moghanlou, Gholami, Noorafkan

Hazbavi, Gholami, and Yousefi have less than 10 caps combined...

You don't think they deserve more time?