AFC U20 Asian Cup 2025

[The]

Against my nature, here are the positives in my eyes:
- Andarz has the potential to be the best FB/WB in the history of Asian football l
- Shekari can be starting TM material after the 2026 WC if he gets proper coaching.
- We took the best footballing county in Asia to Pens
- Moredi has the physical profile to become a very good striker.
- We did well considering how underfunded and mismanaged out youth football is.
- We lost two of our stars to injury, and things could have been different with them on the pitch.



All that said, unfortunately Sorkhabi clubs and our TM will still prefer giving absolute useless garbage playing time instead of giving the youth a chance.

[diz]

Japan dominated us. We were lucky to get to PKs (and lucky to have Arsha).

Japan was clear winner in possession, passes, passes completed, shots, shots on target, shots inside the box, shots outside the box, and passes inside the final third (source: FlashScore).

they even did better in the majority of aerial duals based on the ones I observed.

the only silver lining is that we have a replacement for our senior citizen goalie when he is ready to move into assisted living.

Lastly, huge shout out to our women fans who cheered the entire match and could be heard even over the Japan drums. They are our better half and we don’t even let them cheer our men at home. smh

[Iran_19]

I only watched the highlights but seems Japan totally dominated us. And if it wasn’t for Shakouri and D, score could have been terrible!
talking about PK! We lost almost all PK in last 40 years vs big Asian teams!
Abdi in his post game interview said: it was PK and we could have done nothing!
i am sorry, but coaches analysis PK takers and keepers of opponents for days before such a crucial game!!

[IranPowned]

Hossein abdi is a shit coach. Hopefully he will get replaced by a good coach

[Nokhodi]

I only watched the highlights but seems Japan totally dominated us. And if it wasn’t for Shakouri and D, score could have been terrible!
talking about PK! We lost almost all PK in last 40 years vs big Asian teams!
Abdi in his post game interview said: it was PK and we could have nothing!
i am sorry, but coaches analysis PK takers and keepers of opponents for days before such a crucial game!!

like all Japanese teams they dominated possession but we had some very good chances that our boys absolutely f***ed up on.

[Pluto2000]

Hossein abdi is a shit coach. Hopefully he will get replaced by a good coach

Who are you gonna bring in to coach Iranian U20 that's more qualified? Do you know a coach that wakes up and goes: "Oh wow I sure love to coach Iranian youth football that has no infrastructure and doesn't have any pay!"

Dude got his EUFA Pro license in La Liga and dropped a cushy job there to come serve our country and take us to a place where we competed with teams like Brazil, England, Uzbekistan, and even took teams like Japan to penalties after almost 8 years!

He's the one created this team from scratch, found all these players in the dehat of the country 4 years ago, and you want him replaced? With who??

[Iran_19]

like all Japanese teams they dominated possession but we had some very good chances that our boys absolutely f***ed up on.

I don’t know from the highlights, it seems Shakouri big time saved us until PK

[PEJ]

Efran’s penalty was absolutely nuts. His run up was like from the other end of China and he literally was trying send that ball back to Iran. The 2nd guy wasn’t much better with his penalty. The best penalty takers are usually the ones who place the ball, not try to kick it as hard as they can.

[Pluto2000]

I don’t know from the highlights, it seems Shakouri big time saved us until PK

He did. Shakouri man of the match to be honest. He had multiple crazy saves, including a really crazy freekick save. TBH if it was Beiranvand it would have been 6-1 at full time . Haven't seen that dive to save balls like that in 5 years from any keeper in TM. They usually fall to their knees or look confused

[oracle]

This team was special and well coached.
Just had a bad draw and it got worsed by Japan tie with syria.
This team would of killed Korea and would of made it to final to face Japan.

We take the champs to pks .
And iran players missed pks really what a shock.

Abdi asap need to get promoted to u23 team.