AFC Champions League 2015

[Camran khan]

Nobody is bashing Branko (unless you mean the silly jokes here and there). In fact, Branko is a good coach.

The problem is that most of these players do not even understand the fundamentals of football and worse still, most don't have any form of international experience (normally ACL) until their mid-twenties. Week in and week out, these players are exposed to the same outdated footballing style that has existed since the 80ies. There's a reason the likes of Golmohammadi and Mansourian make it look easy in the league - they're able to stray away from the norm and innovate a bit to align with modern footballing standards. However, there's a huge distinction in playing a certain style in the IPL (where it's non-existent) as opposed to the ACL (where other clubs have been doing the same thing).

In the last 10 years, the only times I've seen Iranian clubs play with complete authority in the IPL and ACL were Sepahan and Zob Ahan when they made the final and Sepahan when they were stupidly eliminated by Al Sadd.

Aziz I agree with you Branko is a good coach (compared to our other candidates), I don't think anyone with a sane mind would criticize him after just 2 weeks of coaching.
I agree with you about Mansourian and Golmohammadi, but I'm not sure about the players not understanding the fundamentals of football. They're competing in Asia after all, they lack a lot and are far from being world class players, but for the competitions they play in, they're alright. However, it annoys me that People use the PP game as a measuring standard for the IPL, where the 10th team in the IPL lost 3-0 to the Champions of Qatar and from that game claim that our league is awful. How can a sane human being use that kind of logic!?

And the same low ranked Iranian team actually beat the champions of Qatar 3-0 previously in the tournament. I'm just saying that we shouldn't be so emotional and not expect anything from PP until next season when Branko has had some time to work with the team.

[Bi-honar]

I think it's REALLY unfair to blame the players for any of this. All of the 4 games in match day 5 were tactical disasters by the respective coaches.

The players available to Branko and Derakhshan were the same. Derakhshan went for the win in the 1st leg and kept the pressure on Lekhwiya and they won 3-0. Branko went for the tie and tried to play a defensive game with a squad that is simply not capable of doing that.

As a coach, you have to work with what you have. Then, to make things worse, he switched to a completely offensive formation after the 1st goal (something he should have done from the beginning in a more balanced manner) which left his defensive line even more exposed. The rest is history.

As far as Toni and Mansourian, it was VERY retarded not to start their main players and their teams paid the price for it. You can't just send an un-coordinated weak squad into such important games and expect to get results.

As far as Skocic, they're missing a lot of players and had been struggling to score in the ACL from the beginning. But he still picked a pretty conservative game plan, as with the other games and 1 goal in 5 games is speaks volumes as to how far that conservative approach got them.

[ARYA :)]

First of all, sorry for reffering to your (among other's) posts as dumb, it wasn't directly related to one single post or person, if that makes it any better. It is just how Iranians always react, one win, we're the champions. One loss, we're worse off than Somalia. First of all, Naft tied the game, that is not the end of the world, they're still first (actually depending on the outcome of the other game), hence the best team in their group!

This is the ACL, not UCL, there are no large differences between the clubs (whether Iranian, Qatari, UAE, Uzbek etc) that there are in the UCL, like the difference between Real Madrid and Ludogrets, teams in this tournament are pretty balanced so it is not very shocking if for instane Naft would lose, even if the odds were with them that they would win. Teraktor-Sazi I can't speak of very much, they've been doing good in our league despite their awful form in ACL, every year. Their coach however chose to keep two of their best players on the bench, for god knows what reason. Foolad we can't expect much from at all, I give them the respect that they're in the tournament, anything more should be an achievement. They were a team who has lost a shitload of their best players, they're basically playing with their B-team compared to last season because of silly rules.

You have a funny way of apologizing my friend, first you apologies and then say it was not directed solely at me but rather at the masses!!

And thank you for addressing my request by providing three more excuses for the other three teams. I assume you do realize that both Naft and Persepolis are also in danger of elimination, regardless of the fact that they sit 1st and 2nd in their respective groups.

So according to you, we should all just learn to take it like a man and not worry about status of IPL teams at Asian level, because we are on par with other Asian countries like arabia, qatar, and the likes. Got it, thanks.

[K. Nader]

Aziz I agree with you Branko is a good coach (compared to our other candidates), I don't think anyone with a sane mind would criticize him after just 2 weeks of coaching.
I agree with you about Mansourian and Golmohammadi, but I'm not sure about the players not understanding the fundamentals of football. They're competing in Asia after all, they lack a lot and are far from being world class players, but for the competitions they play in, they're alright. However, it annoys me that People use the PP game as a measuring standard for the IPL, where the 10th team in the IPL lost 3-0 to the Champions of Qatar and from that game claim that our league is awful. How can a sane human being use that kind of logic!?

And the same low ranked Iranian team actually beat the champions of Qatar 3-0 previously in the tournament. I'm just saying that we shouldn't be so emotional and not expect anything from PP until next season when Branko has had some time to work with the team.

I don't disagree with anything you say but I'm looking at it from a broader perspective rather than solely Persepolis. The ACL is definitely a seesaw (to a certain extent) in the group stages but in a competition where there's not much that separates the teams, we're often on the losing side of affairs. When trying to search for answers, it's better to look at trends rather than individual occurrences. In Persepolis's case, the first match played against this Qatari in Tehran was great but their succeeding ACL and league matches were quite mediocre (which is more indicative of their standard).

[Camran khan]

You have a funny way of apologizing my friend, first you apologies and then say it was not directed solely at me but rather at the masses!!

And thank you for addressing my request by providing three more excuses for the other three teams. I assume you do realize that both Naft and Persepolis are also in danger of elimination, regardless of the fact that they sit 1st and 2nd in their respective groups.

So according to you, we should all just learn to take it like a man and not worry about status of IPL teams at Asian level, because we are on par with other Asian countries like arabia, qatar, and the likes. Got it, thanks.

Your response makes no sense.. Where did I ever say that? We have very much room to improve but we most likely won't under the IR, I'm just saying don't come here and start the azadari, save it for the namaz jomeh instead, meaning don't overreact to one or two games.

I don't disagree with anything you say but I'm looking at it from a broader perspective rather than solely Persepolis. The ACL is definitely a seesaw (to a certain extent) in the group stages but in a competition where there's not much that separates the teams, we're often on the losing side of affairs. When trying to search for answers, it's better to look at trends rather than individual occurrences. In Persepolis's case, the first match played against this Qatari in Tehran was great but their succeeding ACL and league matches were quite mediocre (which is more indicative of their standard).

Yes, I agree with most of what you say. We haven't exactly been very successful in the ACL. The difference is you make a point on performances over a long time, while others voice their opinions after today's games.

[Z Joon]

Retard alert.


People are bashing IPL left and right now lol..

Branko is no messiah, and it takes time to form a good team and implement tactics, you remember how we played under CQ during the first years? Actually we played like sh!t all the way up to the pre world cup friendlies, before that we were terrible, now people expect Branko to smash clubs in the ACL left and right with only having coached the club for like 5 minutes.

Brace yourselves, the IPL bashers are coming full force, this is their time to shine. Dark days in our football RIPz

[PersianLegion]

First of all, sorry for reffering to your (among other's) posts as dumb, it wasn't directly related to one single post or person, if that makes it any better. It is just how Iranians always react, one win, we're the champions. One loss, we're worse off than Somalia. First of all, Naft tied the game, that is not the end of the world, they're still first (actually depending on the outcome of the other game), hence the best team in their group!

This is the ACL, not UCL, there are no large differences between the clubs (whether Iranian, Qatari, UAE, Uzbek etc) that there are in the UCL, like the difference between Real Madrid and Ludogrets, teams in this tournament are pretty balanced so it is not very shocking if for instane Naft would lose, even if the odds were with them that they would win. Teraktor-Sazi I can't speak of very much, they've been doing good in our league despite their awful form in ACL, every year. Their coach however chose to keep two of their best players on the bench, for god knows what reason. Foolad we can't expect much from at all, I give them the respect that they're in the tournament, anything more should be an achievement. They were a team who has lost a shitload of their best players, they're basically playing with their B-team compared to last season because of silly rules.



PS. My bad, I said Foolad played with their B-team, more like D-C team.
This is the list of their missing players.

The reality is as following not what you try to picture all Iranians as idiots.

We are all aware of the total corruption and incompetence of our league and clubs managements plus outdated coaches but people know the raw talents and potentials of our youth hope for some miracles just like what happened during mid 90s up to 2000s. That golden generation came from nowhere took us all with a happy and long ride, made our expectation higher and left us all with last one saying good bye 3 weeks ago. Now we are remaining hopeful to see another miracle which may not happen as long as this Regime and corruption continues to exist. When our club some times win we get the glimpse of our past and sparkles of hope make us happy, but when the situation is fair the teams come up with usual crappy performance and results which shows the reality of our football which is btw not bellow Somalia as you said. People got use to good performance of TM and clubs and don't want to accept the crappy lower quality of our current state of being. That is all. Many are not buying this lower performance and may exaggerate sometimes.

[ali alipour]

A very low-quality league taken hostage by uneducated, SONATEE, Iranian coaches who are well attached to Iranian media and Mafia inside of Iran. The result is what you see....
Low quality players who are not fundamentally sound and unable to compete with Asia's level of football, let alone World level football.
But, oh no.....
CQ is a horrible coach for not getting results with these players being produced by Iranian coaches.

This statement is very flawed. There are 3 players between the 4 iranian acl clubs that played in the asian cup. To conclude that queiroz has low quality players because of a bunch of average ipl players losing to teams with multi million dollar foreign players doesn't really make sense. Also, mansourian and Toni clearly showed their priority was not with the acl when they didn't start all their main players.

[PersianLegion]

I will avoid this thread for sometimes because it will be submerged in lame excuses from IPL appologists and over depressing posts by anti-IPL current stats all over it.

Run away!

[Camran khan]

I will avoid this thread for sometimes because it will be submerged in lame excuses from IPL appologists and over depressing posts by anti-IPL current stats all over it.

Run away!

the truth lies somewhere in the middle. my main point is that you cant use a game between the champions of one league vs the 10th team in another league as a measuring stick.

[BacheLot]

Our teams simply lack the quality, morale, fitness and professionalism to compete in more than one competition, especially internationally.
That's why Queiroz wanted those bloody camps to get TM competitive for international level (which some people can't differentiate it from domestic level)

Excellent Point..!!
thats why i knew from get-go its gonna be very difficult for any iranian club to make any meaningful ,deep run into ACL..! i hardly bother even watching these games, knowing its very likely heartbreaking eventuality..!! today was the only day i actually watched a few minutes of each game..!!

to compete legitimately on 2-3 competition, you Need a deep, (at least) semi-quality squad, preferably also an academy team, a Professional Systematic Fitness approach and off course above average international coaching at helm to organize it all..!!

it shouldnt be a surprise to anyone why we havent achieved jack-squat in this continental tourney for like ever, since back in times of ACL's infancy, when most participant's leagues were on par with how our league is still running today....!!
off course other countries have invested big $$ in good coaching, attracting quality players to their leagues and hearty investment in their football infrastructure and organization, but weve been relatively stagnant on all fronts especially in comparison to Japan, Aussies, even saudi's, & pretty soon even the tiny nation of Gutter gonna reap the benefits of their big money invested in their league...!!

[Z Joon]

the truth lies somewhere in the middle. my main point is that you cant use a game between the champions of one league vs the 10th team in another league as a measuring stick.

The team that is 10th in the league is for now advancing to the knockout stage in a group where any of the foreign players of opposing teams get payed more than the entire Persepolis team. But nah, 1 terrible week and the doom days of the amateur league are surging, dark dayz ahead omgee

[ali alipour]

the truth lies somewhere in the middle. my main point is that you cant use a game between the champions of one league vs the 10th team in another league as a measuring stick.

It's funny how no one said anything when perspolis beat this team by the same exact scoreline in tehran...

[ARYA :)]

Brace yourselves, the IPL bashers are coming full force, this is their time to shine. Dark days in our football RIPz

Funny picture!! No one is bashing the IPL, we are bashing the morons who are running the show behind the seen, the very idiots who are also screwing Iran and Iranians in all walks of life!! If you think this a shining moment for anyone, you are sadly mistaken!! And by the way, if you haven’t noticed our football has been in dark days for decades now and no one has done jack squat to make even an ounce of improvement, and by no one I'm not refereeing to players and coaches.

[Bessos]

Bachelot joon mentioned this yesterday, but don't be at all surprised should our two remaining teams get eliminated at the group stage on the last match day!!

Yeah I'm all too familiar with Iranians getting eliminated on the last match day + an arab team taking that spot instead.

Let's hope this doesn't happen.