With 2 games played, how do you rank the teams so far?!

[FF187]

For me UAE game will proove whether we can go all the way or not. ..Australia and Japon are other animals than qatar and bahrain....

[Bi-honar]

Two things I would take into account re: Japan and Australia guys:

1 - Like ZJ said, the teams in Japan's group are much weaker than those in our group. Iraq, a team we beat with our inexperienced "B" team, will 99% finish 2nd in this group with 6 points. But more importantly, Aguirre said after the Iraq game that his players were fatigued! If they're fatigued after playing only 1 game, against the absolute weakest team in the tournament and a game you won 4-0, how are they going to feel in the 4th or 5th game against progressively stronger opponents?!

2 - Australia have put on two convincing performances so far, but let's not forget the teams they've played are not exactly the beacons of excellence or consistency. Just in the last year Kuwait has lost to China 3-1 and to Oman 5-0, so Australia beating them 4-1 is not IMHO a reflection of Australia's strength as it is Kuwait's weakness. And the same goes for Oman, a 3-1 loss to Qatar and 4-1 to China just in the past couple of months. These results don't mean they're bad teams, but they do mean they're very inconsistent and can easily lose focus and come undone under pressure, which is obviously what happened playing in a hostile atmosphere against the host.

So, I think all the teams, including the 1st tier teams have their problems and weaknesses, just like TM does - we are obviously far from perfect in offense. Australia is the only team that hasn't really been tested, but I suspect we'll have a better idea tonight when they play a Tier 2 team (for those who are putting TM in Tier 2, this would be like a game against Iran).

[khodam]

I have a feeling Iran will change its game when in the elimination rounds. We still ha end shown off Jahanbakhsh.

[persianfire]

I disagree. I think both groups are as awful as each other. Overall, the quality of Arab teams are in an all-time low, and no wonder the two groups with the most Arab teams are the ones with least quality. Qatar especially, are even worse than Bahrain.

Maybe it's just me. But I have high standards for our TM. We looked like world beaters in the group stage in 2011, but absolutely stank the place out in the QF.
On the other hand, in 2004, we were very lucky to qualify from our group, but completely took our game up a notch in the knock-out round.

Right now, I think our performances are somewhere in between 2004 and 2011 group stage. As long as we can elevate our game against tougher opponents we'll be fine. I think our style suits tougher opponents actually. I was worried about the group stage due to our lack of preparations and rustiness, but thankfully we've managed to get through. I'm cautiously confident.

I am still adamant that we MUST rest a few of our key players vs. UAE. Let's use the whole squad and keep the team fresh. Like of Ando and Dejagah especially need rest. I'd love to rest Nekounam too, but that'd be too much changes in midfield. Let's learn from the Bosnia debacle, it's a long tournament, and if we want to win it, we'll have to beat Japan/Australia at one point. Be it QF or Final.

Frankly for me, Asian Cup is either winning or not winning. That's why I don't get this whole "WE MUST AVOID JAPAN AT ALL COST" mentality. It's an Asian Cup ffs. Reaching semi-final is no achievement.

Even with a few rotated players, fresh and wanting to show their worth to CQ, we should be able to beat UAE. They are piss poor defensively, and ours is the best in the tournament. I hope CQ rotates Ashkan and Ando especially. Because those 2's game absolutely relies on stamina, handwork and energy. We need them fresh for the all important KO games.

If you know Asian Cup is either winning or not winning, we should choose an easier path to save our energy until the final.

[elnino99]

^ I agree Bihonar jaan. I think the quality of the competition, outside the top teams is very poor. I, however, don't think we should put much emphasis on friendly games results. Qatar were hyped to be the next Brazil based on their friendlies, but they've been absolutely shocking so far. I usually shit the bed when we're a goal up in the last minutes, but against Qatar, despite gifting them possession towards the end, I was never really worried we'll concede (that offside header aside). The goalkeeping quality of Qasim in that UAE game was as he'd just been paid to throw the game. A bit like North Korean defending vs. Saudi.
China drew Palestine in a friendly and got their asses handed to them in Beijing vs. Thailand 5-1, but they've been good so far. Friendly results are irrelevant when the real thing starts.

I'm not sure why AFC have decided to expand the tournament to 24 teams. The quality of Asian football really is on a decline and no wonder they were by far the worst performing confederation at the WC. You just have to look at this tournament to see how awful teams are, bar a few.

The infrastructure is all wrong, and the whole fact that the Asian Champions League is played over 2 seasons is a total joke. Until AFC adopts to the rest of the world standards, I don't think it'll grow.

It of course hurts that a few of the teams that could have added a bit more quality to the tournament have decided to sack off AFC for UEFA (Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Israel, etc)

[whizland2000]

I think its Japan, Australia, South Korea in that order and then everyone else...

[Kiarash]

I think its Japan, Australia, South Korea in that order and than everyone else...

What has South Korea done better to be ranked higher than us currently? I rate China higher than South Korea now, tournament-wise. They have had 2 excellent game so far, Koreans all but exciting and convincing.

[whizland2000]

South Korea plays nice and organized football. We play disorganized football and hope we can counterattack and win games.

[Kiarash]

South Korea plays nice and organized football. We play disorganized football and hope we can counterattack and win games.

We are by far more effective than South Korea.

[Keano]

Unlike what many of you folks think, our group is probably the toughest group in the tournament, Qatar, Bahrain aren't necessarily weak teams, on the contrary they're quite decent, and UAE of course prior to the tourney all who followed football and in particular Middle East football would have already known that UAE is actually one of the top 4-5 teams of this tournament, and they've already proven that by the 2 consecutive wins, too bad they will get punished by TM on Monday though!

Japan indeed is in one of the easiest groups, if not the easiest. Their toughest match against their usual black cat (Jordan) is yet to be played and once they reach the next round, they will feel the real competition.

Even prior to the Asian Cup, many experts (All foreign experts) called our group "group of death"

I believe Australia, Japan and Iran are the main chances of claiming the Championship title!

Korea, China/Uzbekistan come next. As for the rest, I believe only luck factor can be decisive!

We play disorganized football and hope we can counterattack and win games.

Are you sure about that?

[Bi-honar]

^ I agree Bihonar jaan. I think the quality of the competition, outside the top teams is very poor. I, however, don't think we should put much emphasis on friendly games results. Qatar were hyped to be the next Brazil based on their friendlies, but they've been absolutely shocking so far. I usually shit the bed when we're a goal up in the last minutes, but against Qatar, despite gifting them possession towards the end, I was never really worried we'll concede (that offside header aside). The goalkeeping quality of Qasim in that UAE game was as he'd just been paid to throw the game. A bit like North Korean defending vs. Saudi.
China drew Palestine in a friendly and got their asses handed to them in Beijing vs. Thailand 5-1, but they've been good so far. Friendly results are irrelevant when the real thing starts.

I'm not sure why AFC have decided to expand the tournament to 24 teams. The quality of Asian football really is on a decline and no wonder they were by far the worst performing confederation at the WC. You just have to look at this tournament to see how awful teams are, bar a few.

The infrastructure is all wrong, and the whole fact that the Asian Champions League is played over 2 seasons is a total joke. Until AFC adopts to the rest of the world standards, I don't think it'll grow.

It of course hurts that a few of the teams that could have added a bit more quality to the tournament have decided to sack off AFC for UEFA (Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Israel, etc)

I totally agree that the results of friendlies should be taken with a grain of salt bro, but not when you lose that badly against a pretty weak opposition. That shows serious problems in your defense or concentration. When did China lose to Thailand 5-1 btw? The last time they played, China beat them 3-0. In fact, they were unbeaten for 8 games coming into this tournament (10 now).

Also, I don't know if Qatar were hyped to be the next Brazil, but they had been the best and most consistent team from the WAFF, reaching the final round of WCQ twice in a row (which is quite an achievement) and the quarterfinals of the AC last time. They obviously came into the tournament very cocky and high on themselves having won the GC (hence the curse of the GC ) and after Burhan gifted UAE with a couple of VERY easy goals, having taken the lead 1-0, they just lost concentration and had a complete meltdown. And in the 2nd game, they were facing Asia's arguably best defense and third best offense - a monumental hole to dig out of IMHO. Still, if you put them in a round-robin tournament with other WAFF teams right now, I guarantee that they will finish in the top 3 - 9 out of 10 times.

And I'm 100% with you on the 24 teams. In the history of all the dumb decisions by the AFC, this is definitely one of the dumbest ones. Not only that means we're going to have another 9 Palestines in the Cup next time it also means that 4 of the 1st placed teams will face 3rd placed teams and the other 4 will face stronger 2nd placed teams, unless they split it into 8 groups of 3 in which case the bottom 8 teams which should have not be included in the 1st place will be eliminated and it's already off a knock-out round for all the good teams.

[whizland2000]

yes I am.

[Bi-honar]

Maybe we should have ranked the teams in order of offense and defense, or maybe we can still do so, at least for the top 3-6 teams. My ranking (compared to other teams in the top 6, i.e. 1 means 1st, 3 means 3rd, etc.) would go something like this:

Iran: Defense 1, Offense 3
Japan: Defense 2, Offense 2
Australia: Defense 4, Offense 1

South Korea: Defense 3, Offense 6
China: Defense 5, Offense 5
UAE: Defense: 6, Offense 4

[Bijans]

I think We played B+ game against Bahrain and a B- game against Qatar. Overall it has been a solid B.

I think Australia and Japan have the best teams in the tournament and then Iran and S.Korea. UAE, Saudi and China are a step behind Iran.

[Bi-honar]

I think We played B+ game against Bahrain and a B- game against Qatar. Overall it has been a solid B.

I think Australia and Japan have the best teams in the tournament and then Iran and S.Korea. UAE, Saudi and China are a step behind Iran.

Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude, kojayee to? I was starting to get worried and was going to call you this weekend. I still will.