POST-MATCH DISCUSSION | vs. Bahrain - Asian Cup 2015

[OFFSIDE_1]

Having Haghighi in goal is such a relief. Going from the Mirzapour days where every goal kick was an adventure, to Rahmati, where every long ball gave me a heart attach, it is so refreshing to see a strong presence in goal. The box is his and he makes it known it's his.

Ghafouri played amazing. Little experience and yet, he started to click with Dejagah mid-way through the game.

Hajsafi and Shojaei were solid. In the case of Shojaei, he had a number of nice passes, BUT, also he drew a number of fouls. These don't show up in the stat sheet, but it tells you one thing and that is, if the opponent can't stop you legally, they have to foul you.

Gucci was not as active and maybe some of that has to do with the league he plays in, but he will come through for us when it counts.

Dejagah was the MVP. Just follow his game and you see that everytime he touched the ball, he pulled 2 or 3 bahrainis towards him. That is your opponent showing respect.

a few notes, I don't think we should focus too much on pass consistency stats given that our style is not geared towards having a beautiful and fluid passing game. Sure, we have some room to improve, but to say that bahrain at times controlled the game because of more passes or longer ball possession is wrong. We do not have a pure passer like jabbari or bagheri in the lineup. Our strength is our physical play. We disrupt the opponent's game. That is our game plan. We are not a finesse team and we should certainly not expect a beautiful stat sheet when it comes to our passing game.

The one area where we need to improve is our set plays. Too many wasted corner kicks or free kicks. We also need to cut down on some of the long balls. Not having Montazeri in the lineup did not help.

This team will improve and will use the bahrain, qatar and uae games as our preparation games for the quarter finals. Every team will bring their A game when they play against Iran. The fan support is great for us, but it also motivates our opponents. So don't expect the same crappy play we saw from qatar against uae. it will be a different game

[Abtin]

^agree, they wasted way to many corners and free kicks. Also they must stop being in off side, and Dejagah should DEFINITELY had scored that huge chance he had with the goalie. Other wise, Iran controlled the game after 10-15 mins, from defence to attack.

[alaph]

Having Haghighi in goal is such a relief.

I recall days that i was clowned at for even saying haghighi! lol
Everyone was on Davari's nut-sack and if not him, then ahmadi!
Im so happy for him

[OFFSIDE_1]

^ i know mate. I am fully aware of what you wrote and totally agree with you.
Still interesting to know these stats. For example: Everyone praises Ashkan for his performance while his accuracy was the worst.

The high accuracy among our defenders is actually the best part for me. I remember players like ostad asadi lol. Imagine his stats

actually I think the one player that had worse accuracy than ostad asadi was mirzapour .... imagine that

[OFFSIDE_1]

^agree, they wasted way to many corners and free kicks. Also they must stop being in off side, and Dejagah should DEFINITELY had scored that huge chance he had with the goalie. Other wise, Iran controlled the game after 10-15 mins, from defence to attack.

Yeah the offside calls are frustrating to see, although I am not a fan of teams that use the offside trap as the only way to defend. Eventually someone on the defensive line will screw up, or worse, the refs will miss one and that will be the end of it. For corner kicks, neither Dejagah, Shojaei or Ando got it right. That is one area we sorely need to improve

[aenima_8]

"Asian Cup daily: Iran the new home favourites

Something to cheerWhat we learnedPhoto of the day


Fashion watchhttp://www.theguardian.com/football/...daily-round-up

[Omids]

It was interesting to hear the Australian commentators on Fox really praise Iran throughout the game. To be fair they also praised Bahrain for taking the game to Iran. They compared Iran to Japan a few times and the expert commentator (Harper) observed that Iran's passing is intuitive and natural while Japan's is more mechanical and staged. Saying that it is much harder to defend against Iran's brand of passing. I found that to be an interesting observation.

[Tehranto]

It was interesting to hear the Australian commentators on Fox really praise Iran throughout the game. To be fair they also praised Bahrain for taking the game to Iran. They compared Iran to Japan a few times and the expert commentator (Harper) observed that Iran's passing is intuitive and natural while Japan's is more mechanical and staged. Saying that it is much harder to defend against Iran's brand of passing. I found that to be an interesting observation.

Heard that comparison too. Interesting what others think of our game.

[Bi-honar]

It was interesting to hear the Australian commentators on Fox really praise Iran throughout the game. To be fair they also praised Bahrain for taking the game to Iran. They compared Iran to Japan a few times and the expert commentator (Harper) observed that Iran's passing is intuitive and natural while Japan's is more mechanical and staged. Saying that it is much harder to defend against Iran's brand of passing. I found that to be an interesting observation.

GREAT point. I noticed that too, saying that Iran and Japan are the only two teams in Asia with that beautiful type of passing and transition with Japan being more methodical and Iran being more intuitive in the build up.

[persiangodfather]

Did IRIB show all the sexy mexy persian girls in the crowd?

[ali alipour]

Did IRIB show all the sexy mexy persian girls in the crowd?

no they had one shot of a big ir flag with a few fans around it and kept on showing that. Only girls they showed was with hijab.

[Bi-honar]

This is what some of the foreign press had to say about the game:

* The ABC called Ehsan's goal a "brilliant strike, while the Guardian called it the "early goal of the tournament contender"

* Sydney Morning Herald: Iran good, but their raucous fans even better

* Saudi Gazette: Iran begin Cup in style

* Herald Sun also called Ehsan's shot "a world-class volley"

[OFFSIDE_1]

Eurosport 2 should be kicking themselves for showing the qatar-uae game instead of Iran-bahrain game. What was the attendance for the qatar-uae game? 5,000 ?

[webmaster]

those who noticed there was an Iranian fan's drone flying over the stadium. it was nice to see :-) here is a shot:

[Camran khan]

those who noticed there was an Iranian fan's drone flying over the stadium. it was nice to see :-) here is a shot:
[ATTACH]15458[/ATTACH]

There is no Iranian flag on that drone bro, that drone was used to take pictures I think.