Friendly game: Iran vs. South Korea @ Azadi, Tehran: 18-11-2014

[arash123]

I disagree that Iran played rock solid defensively.

But seriously, dameh Haghighi garm

[Karimi 8]

My conclusion

- It was a story of two halves, and for hte most part, the second half was fairly boring.
- The tension at the end showed that we cannot have just a friendly game with korea

Player wise:
- Haghighi's confidence is very admirable and he was solid all game, perfect performance by him.
- After going ot Qatar and barely playing I am just glad to see Dejagah play a full 90, and start to get his fuel back. Nice dribbles by him (sometiems too many.. in our own end..) cheecky way to rub in the victory with his yellow card and back heel before that
- Heydari cannot play RB hopefully this will never happen again, Ghafouri played well instead of him
- I am not just picking on shojaei to make him a scapegoat, he was actually terrible. I hope he doesn't play again a waste to have our CAM as him
- Azmoun with his first TM goal well done to him (although it would have felt better if it was nekounam scoring again, nostalgia )
- I think the sadeghi-hosseini duo is out best, although it may have been duo to the fact taht heydari was beat very often forcing montazeri out of position (hope he is okay and didn't get a concussion on a side note)
- Hosseini was solid as always
- Ando ran non stop but didn't have a great performance
- Nekounam didn't play one of his signature long balls all game
- Hajsafi really surprised me he was the best he has ever been as LB (although i still think he should play LW)
- Didn't see much from ebrahimi and rafaei
- Jahanabakhsh was amazing in the first half, and kept up his pace in the second surprised he got taken off
- Reza was too aggresive, he is a bit out of form it appears (obviouslly)

Player of the match : Haghighi
Other notable performances : Hajsafi and Dejagah (and could have been JB if he stayed on) + Cant ignore the fact that Azmoun scored!
Notabely poor performances : Shojaei (terrible in all aspects) and Heydari (he had one good cross but was really poor at RB)

We ddin't have much of tactic this game other than absorb pressure and counter attack. I cannot stand how many fouls we commited, shows that team was tired to result to them. Not much on teh attacking front. There is a lot of work to be done, but i think this friendly did a good job showing areas where we need to focus on (and adding a victory is a huge moral boost for the team).
Well done to our boys, 3 in a row is a great accomplishment Korea must be burning.

[irani8perspolis]

meanwhile the usual Korean butthurt show has started on big soccer forums

http://forums.bigsoccer.com/threads/...013445/page-11

[OFFSIDE_1]

Man of the match was definitely Haghighi for me. Some amazing saves by him that saved our team.

agreed. Best player on the pitch and so happy to see a GK with guts.

[BacheLot]

Because our wins are coming from chance, not strategy.

wrong..!!
its been the same strategy the last 3 games vs SK and 3 Wins..!! one with a man down at that..!!

you gotta give it to CQ..! He understands the game Statistical Probabilities of Football and almost always simply plays to tactics that bears the highest percentage of winning based on the cards he has to play with..!!
it certainly aint pretty to watch and if we were to concede 1st, his chosen game tactics are very likely to go to complete shittsss ..!! but thats Classic CQ football..!!

[mistermo]

TM played much better with IPL players than with Shojaie, Gucci...

[teammelli91]

Their current coach needs to know what a piece of shit manager his team had back in 2013.

Do not ignore and walk away from Sir Carlos Queiroz lol.

The 1-0 curse is real! Suble Suble!

[Autreen]

We're fans of of the IRANIAN national team. We're not here to be objective.
The instigators this game were the Koreans. Looking to get even since July 2013. Looking for any excuse.

Is this going to turn into who is more committed to the team bullshit instead of what you know in your heart is morally right and wrong? I don't want to be delusional about everything just because I support the team. I wasn't fond of how Dejagah behaved as a sportmans nor was I fond of how many times Iran fouled their team.
That being said south korea don't have a very innocent history when it comes to fouling

[Abbas85]

To be fair to them, one of our players was behaving like a cunt and the goal was questionable. It's not a good look for the national team. Then again the IFF is looking to snuggle up with Japan so maybe pissing off Koreans is a great look ;^)

Korean Football Forum is that way --->

[Nokhodi]

No the Korean keeper had hands on it first. Was it fully in his grasp? Was Azmoun knocking it out of his hands? Was Azmoun hitting the GK more than the ball? From the angle we saw these are grey answers. My first instinct was that Neku scored and that it didn't matter but once it became clear it was Azmoun who made it the goal I am not so sure.
That being said I'll celebrate the goal and I'm happy for him, that's the ref's problem not ours. What happened afterwards though...

Keeper wasn't really touching the ball and he certainly didn't have full control.
No foul.

[sirvan]

Good result! For the next game could CQ please keep Shojaei on the bench? I believe Azmoun or Rafiei are much better in that position.

[arasradio]

I'm being objective. If this was Iraq and not Iran you were watching you wouldn't find this behavior to be so endearing you'd be crying about how Arabs are cheaters as usual which is what the Koreans are probably saying about us

With all respect, you're not objective bro. You're just TOO NICE. Since the beginning of Iran-Korea rivalry; ugly scenes have occurred. In Asian Cup we all saw how the Korean player beat our player on the bench. Koreans are known sore losers. In rivalry there is no fear and retreat. Good for our lions to fight the psychological war at its best and win the match. CQ's balls seem to be so hard to crack for Koreans and he wins all arguments. With a coach like this, we can do what we haven't done since 1976. As an Iranian at any given time, I'm behind my team whether on the pitch or on the sore losing psychological battle.

Do not forget the bottles hitting our players in Seoul by the same people you claim to be NICE.

[webmaster]

watch the great goal:

[MR.S]

I would like to see us play with two strikers upfront with Gucci and Azmoun. In a 4-4-2
-----------------Haghighi----------------------
-------Montazari--Hosseini---------------
Heydari-----------------------Hejsafi-------
------Teymorian----Nekounam----------
Dejagha-------------------Jahanbaksh---
---------------Azmoun---------------------------
----------------------Gucci-------------------------

[Autreen]

Korean Football Forum is that way --->

I don't want to hear you people whine when Arabs start thugging against our team then. I want you to call them gangsters and say our players are butthurt when they complain. Fucking PFDC...