2018 WCQ seeds and draw

[persianallstars]

If he doesn't want to stay, like for real, and "his heart isn't with Iran", then why don't he just get on a plane, and khodafez? They are literally keeping him as hostage, if he wants to leave and stop being our coach.

did IFF solve his tax issues???

[04041374]

did IFF solve his tax issues???

If they solved it CQ would not call himself a hostage

[arasradio]

all the groups are very balanced, there is no Death group. I see the usual asian teams to go through, don't expect surprised like China and Saudi out.

The next phase will be tough, specially with 2 groups of 6 teams (instead of 5 before and 4 even before)

I have to diagree. Sorry.

Look at this group:

گروه H: ازبکستان، بحرین، فلیپین،کره شمالی و یمن

GROUP H: Uzbekistan, Bahrain, North Korea, Yamen & Philippines

The first three teams are Asian powerhouses nearly missing the World Cup in the past 8 years. With the exception of North Korea which qualified at our cost in 2010. Yemen has always been a decent third tier team and can upset here and there. Philippines are the outsiders of this group anyways.

This group is not balanced at all. And out of the three usual contenders of the 3rd round, one has to be eliminated.

Iran's got the easier group. The only challenge will be an away match against Oman. But believe me Turkeminstan will cause Oman some turbulence and we and Oman at last qualify at this easy group with good goal diff. Guam will be Oman's saviour in this group to earn a good goal diff to qualify as one of the best four of the runner ups.

[arasradio]

On Queiroz comments in the conference regarding the draw:

Don't jump to conclusions bad mouthing and swearing at him here. Or the conspiracy theory lovers that claim here that he meant to make his situation as the hostage crisis of late 70s and early 80s. He simply meant that he was not able to get out and be there. The guy is defending your honour the national team, the team Melli. What is he asking? More money or better preparation, better fields and reward for our lions.

He even says the sting of the snakes will murder the Iranian Panther (tiger). Come on guys!!! Don't line behind the mafia in Iran with being over emotional. Wait. Iranian football is a slow motion film that you need to pause and read between the lines.

Don't get me wrong. I still think he should leave to protect himself. And as I said before in different threads, he won't be able to work with the mafia in Iran. And I believe he might have read our comments. I said before that the mafia will await for the best opportunity (at his weakest point) to target him. They want him to leave on his own so they can get the extra cash for their mafia family. If he stays, as human afazeli said, it will be against him and TM. AGAIN, if the situation remain the same and the two fractions within the federation do not declare peace.

We shall wait and see what happens. The easy group may settle things. Let's see. Don't please go overboard. Respect TM. Regards.

[Swiss Persian]

I don't care. HE SAID "I"M LIKE A HOSTAGE HERE." This asshole is trying to make media buzz akin to a mini hostage crisis in the 70s that caused a shit load of hurt for Iran to this very day. Dastardly looking left and right with those rat eyes of his during the clip pretending to be under severe duress.

this asshole has the absolute right to feel like a hostage as he is dealing literally with a bunch of hostagestakers or do you want to call them rational/honest and fair people to deal with? from the very top to the greenkeeper of the stadium (if there is at all such a position in iran as our fields look like world war I battlefields) these are a bunch of corrupt hostage takers and the world should know it.

[perspolis#1]

Cq's situation is only a spot of bother for our first match in June against Turkmenistan. If we could resolve it, great. If we cant and he leaves Im sure a majority of caretakers can lead the team until we find a permanent replacement.

We are in a group that plays clean football. Instead of Lebanon, a tough/physival park the bus team, we got India a team that rarely ever picks up yellow cards(they won fairplay at the 2011 asiian cup.) Instead of the organized North Korea, we got Turkmenistan. I admit to not having known much about their play so I went on youtube and watched a full game they had against Afghanistan, 10 months ago. They play the ali asghari long ball game and both their centerbacks remind me of Hadi Aghili in that they arent great at distributing the ball. They somewhat match us physically, but in technique and organization we should win both matches. Dont expect Guam to concede 19, but they are a weak team and we should have comfortable wins.

Oman is the only problem as they have a top3 Asian goalkeeper and a park the bus mentality. In some ways its perfect because now we need to fix our passing game in order to penetrate their defense. From what I saw of Oman in the Asian cup, their team cant handle speed well. They are strong in the air but Dejagah/Shojaei(or whoever our Cam is)/ and Gucci/Azmounshould be able to dribble them away.

[sarbaz]

Yes we got an easy group and we should easily advance but the issue is ,with or without CQ

Can we qualify for the WC 2018 on the final qualifying stage ??

[perspolis#1]

The short answer is yes we can. Without him we will be less organized, more offensive, we should qualify based on the form of other teams prolonging this matter is what will prevent us from qualifying

[Surenas]

It's still ridiculous, Iraq as group leader.

It's a good group, but not as easy as Japans group, Oman won't be an easy task at this early stage, but we'll make it anyway.

I hope S. Arabia and Qatar won't advance.

[Bi-honar]

It looks like only 5 of the 12 teams in the final stage are going to be Arab teams. That's a slight improvement to last time's 5 out of 10.

[Bessos]

It looks like only 5 of the 12 teams in the final stage are going to be Arab teams. That's a slight improvement to last time's 5 out of 10.

Ikr. And taking the past into consideration... I bet 4 out of 5 (or heck, perhaps even all 5) are going to be in Iran's group of course. Then they are going to conspire with each other to kick Iran out, even if it is at the cost of each other.

But nah, no matter what they try, IRAN is a different team now than 10 years ago.

...

On another note, it is going to be interesting to see who the top 4 ranked Asian teams are going to be by the time of the final round draw. Of course we expect the usual 4 powerhouses: Iran, Aus, Japan, S Korea.
However, imagine if UAE would take Australia's place in the top 4 ranked teams, then that means that the 2 groups of the final round would look something like this:

GROUP A
Iran
UAE
Team #3
Team #4
Team #5
Team #6


GROUP B
Japan
South Korea
Team #3
Team #4
Team #5
Team #6

... and Australia could end up in Group A, but also in Group B with Japan and South Korea. Making it possibly an easier trip for Iran to the WC.

This is a list of the current top 5 on fifa ranking:
Iran, 689 points (comfortably on first spot atm)
Japan, 614 points
S Korea, 575 points
Australia, 531 points
UAE, 501 points (can possibly take 4th spot by next year)

[Bi-honar]

Ikr. And taking the past into consideration... I bet 4 out of 5 (or heck, perhaps even all 5) are going to be in Iran's group of course.

That will obviously depend on the ranking of the teams at the time of the last draw, but it's almost impossible for us to have 5 Arab teams in our group and highly unlikely to have more than 3.

Iran, Japan, Australia and S. Korea will most likely be in pots 1 & 2 (so no more than 4 Arab teams can be in one group). I also suspect China and Uzbekistan will pass UAE in the rankings and will be placed in pot 3 - if that's the case, we won't have any more than 3 Arab teams per group.

Having said that, it's way too early to call things and hopefully some of the non-Arab teams from East Asia can pull some upsets.

[Kiarash]

That will obviously depend on the ranking of the teams at the time of the last draw, but it's almost impossible for us to have 5 Arab teams in our group and highly unlikely to have more than 3.

Iran, Japan, Australia and S. Korea will most likely be in pots 1 & 2 (so no more than 4 Arab teams can be in one group). I also suspect China and Uzbekistan will pass UAE in the rankings and will be placed in pot 3 - if that's the case, we won't have any more than 3 Arab teams per group.

Having said that, it's way too early to call things and hopefully some of the non-Arab teams from East Asia can pull some upsets.

I actually think Thailand and Vietnam will beat Iraq this time.

From all minnows of East-Asia, these two are the most improving the past few years.

[perspolis#1]

I spoke to a few friends regarding what they believe of their national team chances. I'll first add that in no way is this close to an indication of what their entire footballing community feels about their chances.

Palestine: He claimed that ever since Palestine was allowed to host their own games(3-4 years ago) they have not lost at home. This might mean Saudi/UAE not enter as a second placed team especially if one of them ties in Malaysia.

India: Very low confidence in his team. Said that indias best chance against Iran is to play us in a rainlogged pitch and bunker. He said he would have preferred China/UAE since they are physically weaker.

Thailand: He thinks/hopes Thailand will take the first spot over Iraq narrowly.

[Mr.Click]

Indian football fan reactions



Guys, post the reaction of the fans of other teams here

I strongly agree with Asif Ali Khan