WARNING: Syria game is harder than first 4 games.

[Afat11]

I think its strange that people would still care about that Lebanon game. We were very unlucky, and they had 1 chance and took it against probably one of the worst transitional teams in the last 15 years. If you look back at that old and transitional roster where the only highlight was an Ali Karimi on his last playing legs, then you will know that that team is not even close to the quality of this team.

On the road to Russia, the only thing I fear is that we will have games where we cannot score. I honestly don't see us getting scored on in more than 1 or 2 games in this whole qualification. Our defense is just too organized and difficult to break down. It's entirely possible that we could not be able to finish a goal and end the game 0-0, but this team is a new beast compared to the one we even saw in Asian Cup 2015.

We are young and hungry. CQ has gotten the loser mentality out of our players, and we treat every game like it is the World Cup final now. The Syrians will need all of the luck in the universe to beat us. Anything is possible, but I don't see it happening. At worst a 0-0 tie, at best we win by a few goals.

[Keano]

Baba if we loose to Syria, we should not even be allowed for Russia 2018.

C'moon now Abtin jaan, not again our self cockiness por favor mi amigo! If our entire team and its coach employ the same mentality as yours, then it's enough to entangle ourselves by falling into the same pit we dug ourselves 4 years ago against Lebanon. What do you mean by "if we loose to Syria, we should not even be allowed for Russia 2018"? By your flawed and illogical "logic" In round 1 of South American WCQ, Argentina after losing to Ecuador and drawing against Paraguay, and then losing 1-0 against Paraguay (2 weeks ago), not only shall not qualify to WC 2018, but also MUST get banned from football for the next 4-6 year!

C'mon guys, a lot of you folks are way too cocky and negative. You guys give up and hate everything not too long before you loved dearly, with the smallest slip-up. Such ungrateful fans we are!

[Afat11]

C'moon now Abtin jaan, not again our self cockiness por favor mi amigo! If our entire team and its coach employ the same mentality as yours, then it's enough to entangle ourselves by falling into the same pit we dug ourselves 4 years ago against Lebanon. What do you mean by "if we loose to Syria, we should not even be allowed for Russia 2018"? By your flawed and illogical "logic" In round 1 of South American WCQ, Argentina after losing to Ecuador and drawing against Paraguay, and then losing 1-0 against Paraguay (2 weeks ago), not only shall not qualify to WC 2018, but also MUST get banned from football for the next 4-6 year!

C'mon guys, a lot of you folks are way too cocky and negative. You guys give up and hate everything not too long before you loved dearly, with the smallest slip-up. Such ungrateful fans we are!

CQ has changed this attitude from the players. I no longer see our team play cocky. We may have had chemistry problems against Qatar and China, but if you look at our last four games, our team is extremely disciplined tactically.

Some may not like the tactic, but our team executes it well. CQ has changed our players attitude from being scared to lose to executing the plan and acting as if every game is just another game to execute the plan.

These players never look intimidated in any game to me. That is a good sign. In previous versions of TM, I saw a bit of intimidation in our players eyes in big matches, and hesitant play. Now, our boys have the calm composure of a tactically disciplined team. Koreans were intimidated when they played CQ the last few times, while I can say for a fact that it was the other way around when we last lost to them in Asian Cup 2011.

Mentality has a lot to do with the game of football. Iran has a strong mentality now and it has not in the past. Iran shouldn't be afraid of Syria and they also shouldn't expect an easy win, and they won't.

CQ will tell them this, and they will execute the plan and with a solid performance, we will win. After the last few matches, I expect a solid performance. The team's chemistry is back, and our players are motivated to qualify early for Russia.

[ehsan singapore]

we must have a super off day, to lose to syria

[theworldgame]

Well, if we don't have a quality camp and a quality training venue/pitch and no friendly game, then we are not prepared and we could easily lose. For God's sake we don't even have a proper training pitch in Iran, but we are full of egos :-)
Being successful requires both hardware and software. We have the software (CQ), but have no hardware to utilise the true power of the software. We couldn't even go to Dubai to have a descent camp, and we still claim we should beat Syria with no issues?
Then tell me why the other teams with such great preparation (hardware) weren't able to beat Syria easily?
We can only be good and reliable if we continue to practice. But even simple practicing seems to be impossible in Iran.
Why should TM camp in Dubai be cancelled in Dubai due to financial problems, while PP plans to have a 10 day camp in Dubai?
This is not only ridiculous, but also so depressing. Once again, who the hell cares about our club teams who have failed to have any considerable results in Asia?

[Sarbaze-Vatan]

Bad news: Milad Mohammadi is injured and will miss the next game most likely.

http://www.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=13950805000271

No body wants that we have the repeat of away Lebanon game we had in last campaign. In that match, many of our players were injured. We underestimated Lebanon. We also remember how much time they wasted in that match. Hopefully no more injury. Mohammadi injury reminded me of that awful away Lebanon game again. Also the history shows that we drop points against lower teams of the group in the WCQs more than other top Asian teams like Australia, Japan, Korea, and even Uzbekistan and Saudi Arabia.

WARNING: The next match is very dangerous and we must play our best possible football in order to maximize our chance to win.

Question: Who should fill the LB spot for the next match? Hopefully CQ does not use Hajsafi in that position although he may do that. I prefer Ansari fills that spot in the next match.

[Omid177]

Bad news: Milad Mohammadi is injured and will miss the next game most likely.

http://www.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=13950805000271

No body wants that we have the repeat of away Lebanon game we had in last campaign. In that match, many of our players were injured. We underestimated Lebanon. We also remember how much time they wasted in that match. Hopefully no more injury. Mohammadi injury reminded me of that awful away Lebanon game again. Also the history shows that we drop points against lower teams of the group in the WCQs more than other top Asian teams like Australia, Japan, Korea, and even Uzbekistan and Saudi Arabia.

WARNING: The next match is very dangerous and we must play our best possible football in order to maximize our chance to win.

Question: Who should fill the LB spot for the next match? Hopefully CQ does not use Hajsafi in that position although he may do that. I prefer Ansari fills that spot in the next match.

That's why we need friendlies. Without a friendly CQ will replace him with Ehsan. I'm 100% sure because he won't take a risk with inexperienced players.

[Omid177]

TBH we lost against Lebanon because 7 players were injured and suspended. We had players like Pejman Nouri, Mohammad Nouri, Ansarifard and Shojaei (who was 1 year injured before) in the starting line up

[ehsan singapore]

TBH we lost against Lebanon because 7 players were injured and suspended. We had players like Pejman Nouri, Mohammad Nouri, Ansarifard and Shojaei (who was 1 year injured before) in the starting line up

well pejman nouri and mohamd nouri are a joke player mohamd was better though

[persianallstars]

We need to score an early goal.

actually we just need to get three points... no matter how

[AliCarbon]

IFF shoulda already had a list of available alternates and they've had plenty of time to look for one and organize it if they knew their heads from their asses and took their jobs more seriously and not sit on their asses always looking for excuses to cancel CQ's WC Preparation plans and camps..!! and this AFTER HOW MANY FKING TIMES DOING THE SAME EXACT SHITT...!!? Is Carlos now expected to shoulder their responsibilities too..!?
im sure many others here are getting way too tired of their repeated bs excuses..!! oh we are broke..!? we dont have money, the world hates us..!!
YOU ARE THE NUMBER 1 RATED FOOTBALL COUNTRY IN FKING ASIA FOR QUIET SOMETIMES NOW..!! NOW GO OUT AND GAIN SPONSORS, MARKET YOUR BRAND PROFESSIONALLY, RAISE NECESSARY FUNDS, AT LEAST TRY TO BECOME MORE LIKABLE IN OUTSIDERS EYES, BUILD NECESSARY FOOTBALL ALLEGIANCES WITH OTHER APPROPRIATE COUNTRIES.... ETC ETC ETC..
DONT HAVE ALL YOUR PLANNING EGGS IN ONE FKING BASKET AND DONT COME CRYING LIKE A BITCH, CANCEL EVERYTHING YOU INITIALLY PLANNED WHEN UNAVOIDABLY A SNAG IN THE ORIGINAL PLANS COME UP..!!
FOR HOW LONG ARE WE GOING TO TOLERATE THIS BS, AMATEUR BEHAVIOR FROM IFF..??

You under estimate our patience for failure after 40 years of it. & planning takes brains and balls which are quite hard to come by within a 1000 km radias of IFF.

[teammelli91]

Different players, different tactics, different mindset, different and more experience going against Syria than compared to the match vs Lebanon in 2012.

I'm not sure what will happen but I'm very optimistic.

[teammelli91]

We win this one and we are two steps closer to Russia 2018.

[ehsan singapore]

We win this one and we are two steps closer to Russia 2018.

with 13 out of 15, we would need 20, hence we need 7 points from our last 5 games, which 3 are home, now if we beat syria and qatar then we have a min play off spot

[PayamPersia]

Every Game is the hardest!