Ok, thats enough! I'm going to piss in the Punchbowl

[Rumez]

I like the OP's intention to bring our attention inward.
We Iranians tend to blame others for all the misfortunes we suffer.
Like moaning about IR regime and Arabs' involvement in some indirect way through an invasion 1380 years ago and the religion for example!
But it was an Iranian revolution by our own people anyway!

Yes, the ref made a bad call, but can we also argue that IFF sucked in conducting a professional league in the past 4 years and sucked at providing preparations for TM before these games?
And maybe those thing would've given us the slight edge we needed to get past Iraq despite the red card??
Is it not shameful that a war-torn Iraq with one third of its territory occupied by ISIS can manage more friendlies than us??

Aren't these points as relevant or more relevant than a bad call by a ref??
I think my points are way more important, because these were things that were in our control!
A ref's decision is not under our control and we can feel unfortunate to be at receiving end of it, but how can we justify years of negligence and mismanagement that resulted in an ill-prepared TM?

[Rumez]

Another point to make:
No matter what we do now (pursuing a ban for Williams, posting insults on his Facebook, commiserating about it...) will not help our team.
What will help our team is making sure we do "all that we can" to prepare our players and the team for a stronger future!

[OFFSIDE_1]

Then I come across this little news bit and it made our game even more poignant and depressing.
شکست تلخ مارسی در مقابل نیس 10 نفره
مارسي در هفته 22 لوشامپيونه، فرصت پيشي گرفتن از ليون و پس گرفتن صدر جدول را با شکست 2-1 مقابل تيم نيس از دست داد.
Even more depressing is that some people think just because you lose a man, you automatically are stripped of the ability to win in normal time!!!!! For this to happen, you have to have self belief and a sound attacking strategy.
I'm not sure if we had these!

for every one example you post of a team that wins with 1 man down, we can give you 100 examples of the opposite happening. To expect a team to attack while being one man down for 85 minutes in such hot weather is unrealistic. Also you do realize that we came from behind, not once, but twice, so I don't know what point you are trying to make.
and by the way, this same Iranian team beat Korea while being down by 1 player. I think this example has been given to you for, um I don't know ... maybe 16 times.

[alaph]

This post pissed me off bad. Ekbatan if this game was not the definition of gheyrat then you have no clue.

10 men for that long and we kept coming back. Players running themselves into the ground.

I couldn't have been more proud of the performance last night and the crowd as well. I have never ever been a part of something so amazing.

We just showed so much heart. No gheyrat you say. What a fucking joke of a comment. Learn the definition of it.

I never said anything about gheyrat. All i said is that our lost, was not ALL OF THE REFS FAULT! sure, he had something to do with it, but Pooladi's decision to flop is what caused the whole thing to fall apart!

Pro Tip! Don't FLOP!!!

[ramingeles2000]

the only thing that matters is that we hold onto CQ for dear life. had this australian ref not screwed us, we would have had a great chance to win it all. to all you bashing CQ - i'm sure you got some pleasure out of this

[Doctor DOOM]

@ nader

1- when the team is a goal up, and one man down and almost an entire half is spent, it would be ok to bring in a player who is a specialist in defending, even if a central defender (although he has been used in flanks occasionally) ... rather than shifting a player whose defending has always been iffy and questionable. Sadeghi being experienced is another important point that would have helped in such situations. Besides, him being a tough tug was ideal when Iraq would, expectedly, pour balls into our 18 for an equalizer.

(You may want to know why the coach didn't bring a proper LB as pouladi's alternative, if you ever thought of questioning CQ .... god forbid )

But lets say at the time, Hajsafi was a READY and viable option. But after the first goal the alarm bells should have rang.
No reaction by the coach.

Then the second goal happened and still no attempt to remedy this.

And by the time the third goal happened, we had already exhausted our subs!


----------

I still hold pouladi partly responsible. He is no spring chicken and is supposedly experienced. He ought to know the circumstances of the game, the ref's factor and tendency, and most importantly, that he had just received his first yellow. To risk such an amateurish flop, mere meters away from the ref who had a clear view, by clutching his face ... and worse, staying down on the ground as if he's been hit by a bazooka to the face was simply ridiculous.

He ought to know better how to do such things and when. If he was an intelligent player, which he definitely is not, he'd have sufficed to a fall to the ground and getting up quickly.
Taking such risks when you know the ref is loaded against your coach and your team, is just foolish.


------------

Our defense:
I'd like to repeat this since many fans keep touting ''our defense is the best and reliable and whatnot and .... ''.
Well, the best test of such things is done against equal or better teams. Only then would you know exactly how good our defense is. And today, the first time we met a decent side, our defense was found wanting.

Not only the defenders. But also others like the DMs. They allowed way too much space and worse, time, to the opponents' players. They looked too hurried, unsettled and incoherent at times that made the situation even more dangerous for us.
So much for having ''solid defense''!!!



----------
I'm not saying all 10 man teams can win. It was just ironic to find at more or less the same time, there was another 10 man team beating a team much stronger and a man extra, elsewhere.

And the fact that each time we found a way to equalize after falling behind, just makes me think if we thought we had the capability to attack and score when NEEDED, then why didn't we exercise this ability more often and before we get into desperate situations?

[Ando Teymourian]

@ nader

1- when the team is a goal up, and one man down and almost an entire half is spent, it would be ok to bring in a player who is a specialist in defending, even if a central defender (although he has been used in flanks occasionally) ... rather than shifting a player whose defending has always been iffy and questionable. Sadeghi being experienced is another important point that would have helped in such situations. Besides, him being a tough tug was ideal when Iraq would, expectedly, pour balls into our 18 for an equalizer.

(You may want to know why the coach didn't bring a proper LB as pouladi's alternative, if you ever thought of questioning CQ .... god forbid )

But lets say at the time, Hajsafi was a READY and viable option. But after the first goal the alarm bells should have rang.
No reaction by the coach.

Then the second goal happened and still no attempt to remedy this.

And by the time the third goal happened, we had already exhausted our subs!


----------

I still hold pouladi partly responsible. He is no spring chicken and is supposedly experienced. He ought to know the circumstances of the game, the ref's factor and tendency, and most importantly, that he had just received his first yellow. To risk such an amateurish flop, mere meters away from the ref who had a clear view, by clutching his face ... and worse, staying down on the ground as if he's been hit by a bazooka to the face was simply ridiculous.

He ought to know better how to do such things and when. If he was an intelligent player, which he definitely is not, he'd have sufficed to a fall to the ground and getting up quickly.
Taking such risks when you know the ref is loaded against your coach and your team, is just foolish.


------------

Our defense:
I'd like to repeat this since many fans keep touting ''our defense is the best and reliable and whatnot and .... ''.
Well, the best test of such things is done against equal or better teams. Only then would you know exactly how good our defense is. And today, the first time we met a decent side, our defense was found wanting.

Not only the defenders. But also others like the DMs. They allowed way too much space and worse, time, to the opponents' players. They looked too hurried, unsettled and incoherent at times that made the situation even more dangerous for us.
So much for having ''solid defense''!!!



----------
I'm not saying all 10 man teams can win. It was just ironic to find at more or less the same time, there was another 10 man team beating a team much stronger and a man extra, elsewhere.

And the fact that each time we found a way to equalize after falling behind, just makes me think if we thought we had the capability to attack and score when NEEDED, then why didn't we exercise this ability more often and before we get into desperate situations?

Look, lets call a spade a spade for once.

A team has every right to go into a game and expect if not fair, at least not disastrous refereeing. We should not have to change our gameplan or potential gameplan because we are terrified the ref might make a phantom call.


We have to accept that refereeing has a major effect on the game. A bad call can change a game entirely! And lets be honest, after the first 20 or so minutes of nervousness after the card, the match was once again even. And IMO that is a strong feat for us, and terribly embarrassing for Iraq.

With less men we had more dangerous chances than Iraq.

Before the red, can you recall ONE even slightly dangerous move on our goal. I dont even think they had a shot within 5 feet of the woodwork on either side of the net.

This game was ours, there cannot even be any question about it. We were controlling, we were winning, we were dictating the game. Iraq was throwing nothing but long balls to the wings.


I know we both love TM, we both want TM to win all the time. But we have to be honest, this game was taken from us by non-footballing factors. How can we argue about this?

[mehdiKia15]

Ok, thats enough! I'm going to piss in the Punchbowl

If CQ goes so does this team.He is the glue holding this team together.Who cares what we think for f sakes just look at the players who love playing for him.that to me is a sign of a good coach.Its time to move on,look ahead with CQ bc without him we will not qualify or have the hope to qualify.We should all wait and see there is a good chance CQ might quit on iff from what he said in his post game comments.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[saadat_abad]

Well, as long as we're picking on our mistakes and errors, ...
- haghighi's keeping in their first goal was abysmal. Allowing a ball from near and almost CLOSED angle?
-So much for airtight and impenetrable defense! The defense was in shambles the moment they were put under stress n pressure!
You can't judge it when you're facing Palestine and Kuwait and ... . You assess it against teams that are able to pressure you.
- the pick of penalty takers.
- Perhaps surrendering the ball to such extent to your opponent, when your defense isn't exactly fool proof and is untested, may finally backfire. Especially when you've lost a defender.
- we already started the game one man short - shojaei??? Really?? When is this chap retiring? Please do. And do SOON.
And a few more, for later

You picking on shojaie before the wc and the wc made sense because he wasn't playing well.
Doctor jan, give credit where it's due my friend, he had an excellent Asian cup if you ask me! The jukes , passes, sure he fucked up at times but doesn't everyone ?i actually think if he was in the game for the second half we wouldn't have lost. When he got subbed our possession went way down! He could of helped us in keeping the ball up till we pushed more players up . All I'm saying is masoud had a great tourney , let's stop bashing him and actually give him credit .

[Paradigm]

Ok, this is getting ridiculous! I believe in my fair share of conspiracies, from 911 being an inside job, to AIDS being a made up disease, but for fuck sakes we lost this game thanks to ourselves and no one else!
1. Pooladi for flopping around like a little bitch and earning his second yellow, (red)


2. Pouraliganji for that tackle in the box! Messl-e shottor! I mean come on guy! WTF are you doing!?!? are you trying to give away a PK?
3. Then the missed penalties!
I'm also disappointed in Haghighi, I was hoping he was able to catch at least ONE of those PKs, but he didn't.
So, lets act like grown men/women and stop blaming AFC, ARABS, etc etc for all of our missed opportunities.

I agree with all 3 points 100% - when the kicks were being taken, the Iranian TV commentator also started negative/funny talking which seemed to negatively affect "the air". I could not help but think whether Haghighi had studed some of the Iraq penalty takers' films before? I doubt for instance the guy who chipped was doing that for the first time... Beiranvand should have been brought in for the PKs because he does a lot better guessing directions and he appears agile and confident.

[Damavand]

I still hold pouladi partly responsible. He is no spring chicken and is supposedly experienced. He ought to know the circumstances of the game, the ref's factor and tendency, and most importantly, that he had just received his first yellow. To risk such an amateurish flop, mere meters away from the ref who had a clear view, by clutching his face ... and worse, staying down on the ground as if he's been hit by a bazooka to the face was simply ridiculous.
He ought to know better how to do such things and when. If he was an intelligent player, which he definitely is not, he'd have sufficed to a fall to the ground and getting up quickly.
Taking such risks when you know the ref is loaded against your coach and your team, is just foolish.

This is the part where I agree with you the most. I am afraid our TM has often suffered from such foolish acts through out the years.

[Camran khan]

I agree with all 3 points 100% - when the kicks were being taken, the Iranian TV commentator also started negative/funny talking which seemed to negatively affect "the air". I could not help but think whether Haghighi had studed some of the Iraq penalty takers' films before? I doubt for instance the guy who chipped was doing that for the first time... Beiranvand should have been brought in for the PKs because he does a lot better guessing directions and he appears agile and confident.

Actually, the penalty Iraq got in the 115th minute, Haghighi looked very confident imo, it looked like he was really trying to make the Iraqi as nervous as possible, and as we saw, that wasn't the best placed penalty either.

[Paradigm]

Actually, the penalty Iraq got in the 115th minute, Haghighi looked very confident imo, it looked like he was really trying to make the Iraqi as nervous as possible, and as we saw, that wasn't the best placed penalty either.

Haghighi at best is an average Persepolis goalkeeper, a fickle club with no inspiration, relying on ref calls, buying players, and damaging Iranian soccer since 2001. Haghighi cannot deliver when there is need, and hides behind the defense. He is not special and not at the level of our national team.

[Doctor DOOM]

@ andoteymourian
I agree we had the game and the ref took it away. But that doesn't and should not allow us to simply say ''oh well, he took it from us, so lets not try hard''. After repeated signs, CQ SHOULD have done something about our left flank. Simply blaming the ref Isis not acceptable



@saadatabad
Well, sorry mate. I don't translate a goal into an automatic positive performance in a tournament.
He fumbled, lost balls, made poor passes and had turnovers just as much as has become a tradition with him. So a lucky goal, off a mis-kick (thank god. Otherwise the ball would have gone elsewhere) does not convince me.

Him being on the pitch meant we already started with a handicap. Who knows if some other person like Rafiei was there, we'd have had more dangers, assists, passes and shots than we'd already had? CHANCES ARE THEY'D BE MORE.
He has been useless and I wish to god he'd retire asap.

[KC McElroy]

@ andoteymourian
I agree we had the game and the ref took it away. But that doesn't and should not allow us to simply say ''oh well, he took it from us, so lets not try hard''. After repeated signs, CQ SHOULD have done something about our left flank. Simply blaming the ref Isis not acceptable

You really think we didn't try hard? Other than a stretch in the 2nd half, to me this was one of the most heroic performances we had, fighting to the end and coming back from a goal down twice, the second time with only a few minutes left. We didn't give up even when it seemed like it was over.