Reality Check : We aren't that good

[DR Strangemoosh]

Hi guys, I am new to PersianFootball,
As a Mixed Iranian/Japanese heritage , This Match was very special to my family and I.
I cant separate the feelings I have for both countries.
I have been following TeamMeli Iran Games since 2004 Asian cup
I like to say few things about this match Iran vs Japan
First - Iranian players have been complaining to every Referee decisions and the first Japan goal was the Result of it. this complaining about the Referee has been Carlos Queiroz team ever since He took Over the Job For Iran. and Iranian players love to Argue with the Referee, .they dont respect the Referee decisions which causes more problem for them .
Second- , Azmoun shot Could have changed the game if it went in . Iran played well for 60 mins to keep japan silent , and the rest of the game it was japan Thanks to Iranian players lack of concentration and arguing with the referee!
Third- Poor Referring, this Ref has a bad reputation For Australian League Biased and full of Flaws .I knew the Decisions were going to be controversial when they appointed Chris Beath
the penalty for Japan was not a clear Penalty, It was not intentional when the ball hit the hand of Iranian player,
Fourth- Missing link in the Midfield Saeid Ezatolahi not being there affected Irans defense , more vulnerable without him.
Finally, Carlos Queiroz, His tactic has affected Iran Defense , too many changes for the Center Back in this Asian cup and his mentality, he did not believe Iran could lift the trophy
where was his winning mentality?
he payed too much respect to japan team saying they are the favorite and Iran are not.
Iran knows how to defend well with Carlos Queiroz and in terms of offense they can only execute against weaker opposition with shaky defense from what I have seen so far.
in summary, Iran played very well this Asian cup against weaker oppositions. they also showed that they can not comeback when they are down which is a problem for them due to Carlos Queiroz counter-attacking system.
also, Iranian players lost their temper and cool, Ashkan Dejagah shove and azmOUN slapped the Japanese players
they could have been easily carded or even sent off .
Iran was mentally not ready and The Refree influenced the result of this match!
what a shame!
in Japan many fans believed Iran would advance to the final but you never know its football anything can happen.

Thanks for your input.

[Roxanaz80]

We lost to the better team. period!
And the first goal was schoolboy error, destroyed the whole game. We are also mentally not strong; when we are down 2:0 we lose self control. Japan won because they were in all those areas professional that we were not!

Adesor jan, have u ever been to a Japanese tea ceremony? It's all about focus, doing one thing at a time, practicing until u get it right. Not for impatient people.

Maybe our players need basic rituals to keep them grounded, focused and relaxed.

[tmfan]

4 idiots gave this thread 5 stars.....

[Doctor DOOM]

4 idiots gave this thread 5 stars.....

and yet, you took part in it!

live with it, mate

[EKBATAN]

why are so many people in denial ??

Title of thread is "we are not that good" it doesnt mean we suck!

We just dont have what it takes to beat good professional wins. And that is because we dont play any good teams. Same with our club teams, i wish in ACL they played more east asian teams vs. ALL Arab teams until the final. This is why in Finals we never even get close to winning.

World cup we defended well, but we did not score goals. We dont have many strikers and our players are mentally weak. Goal #1 is exhibit A; tells you A LOT about Iranian culture; instead of doing their job and continuing with life, they rather complain and hope to get a break. you dont get breaks in life, you handle your business, but Iranians always thinking having an EXCUSE for something justifies it. Solve the god damn problem instead of complaining.

[zereshk-ali]

Gutted for TM fans everywhere, especially those who traveled to watch. I thought until this showing we had been the best team in this tournament and we shouldn’t forget that. Ultimately we fell short and we need to evaluate and learn from our mistakes but not give in to knee-jerk reactions. Congrats to Japan - so much respect for them as a footballing nation in so many aspects of the game.

First off, putting aside biases or allegiances, we need to acknowledge and have gratitude that our team has come a long way in many facets during the 8 years under CQ. But at the same time we need to get away from extremes and absolutes in our analyses in this forum as well as in our media as - like it or not - we live in a world where this influences the national dialogue around which decisions are made. Unfortunately this type of absolutism happens with respect to CQ - either you’re with him or against him. It happened when Branko was in charge. This kind of absolute sovereignty and deference even happens with players like Daei and Karimi. This is how we fail to learn from our mistakes - unquestioning attitudes towards our failings and entrenched positions, closing ourselves to potentially valid criticism because it comes from the other side.

And it’s not an either/or blame game - the coaches fault or the players or the federation. In reality it’s a combination of interlinking factors and we need to look beyond this one game and poor performance to see where we’re going wrong.

For what it’s worth here are my thoughts below. They concentrate on 3 factors what I feel relate to continual mistakes that are probably more immediately addressable i.e. putting aside federational/political/cultural issues:

Inflexible tactics - the long ball tactics to an isolated Azmoun against a top level Asian team were one-dimensional, uninspiring and predictable. Yoshida and Tomiyasu must have relished it - they knew what was coming from every possession/throw-in around the box and never had to deal with runners from midfield or any periods of pressure. Most frustratingly, Queiroz has developed patterns of play that at times were more intricate and sophisticated than at any point I can recall from over 20 years of watching TM - and not just against the Asian fodder.

Doctor Doom was spot on in his criticisms in an earlier post - we stuck to tactics that worked against weaker teams during this tournament, but more sophisticated opposition require a more sophisticated approach and that in such a key game that this appeared to be our only plan of attack is pretty damning. I personally think this long ball tactic (as well as an overly defensive approach to other games such as periods of WC games) as well as the constant complaining to referees unfortunately ties in with the underdog/siege mentality which CQ seems to love - and which at times has been successful - but itself breeds a lack of belief in our ability to keep possession and build pressure (particularly when the game circumstances change and we go a goal down) and holds us back from progressing to the next level.

Again, the warning signs were there - earlier in the tournament we were using long throws against 2nd and 3rd rate Asian teams, when this should have been an opportunity to develop our open play game. We should have learned from the WC too - when our better opportunities were created when we had confidence to play football, rather than the continuous and ineffectual long diagonal balls to Azmoun and Ansarifard. Most worryingly there was no sign of CQ realising this mistake during the game, looking at the first opportunity to bring Ansarifard on to go even more direct. Resorting to this type of football in the odd game is bad, but relying on it against better opposition time and again will not allow us to progress.

Player mentality - again, the warning signs were there. The emotional outbursts earlier in the tournament, giving away needless fouls, yellow cards and even risking getting sent off - yet it appears that nothing was done to address this. Ultimately the players lost their heads and let down their coach and us, badly. Surrounding the ref for the first goal was amateurish (and if there was a whistle heard, unfortunate). But, even more worryingly, this is when you need players to stand up and show their character and - for all CQ’s rotating captaincy to attempt to create leadership - what we saw was again damning. There were no leaders on the pitch and our players effectively giving up after Japan's second goal was simply inexcusable and disrespectful to TM fans everywhere.

In hindsight, and with this capitulation in mind, CQ’s pre-match comments about the importance of players trusting his tactics to execute the game plan seemed strange to me - I’m not sure if all the hashieh in the past few months eventually caught up with the players but it seemed after the second goal the total loss of discipline in midfield (e.g. Ebrahimi seeming to forget his job was to anchor the midfield) that they seemed to be totally neglecting any of CQ’s instructions and suggests they weren’t fully on board with the aforementioned failing tactical approach.

Learning from games - Lastly, the lack of opportunity to test ourselves against this level of oppo - the kind of stress test that we can learn from means we have to adapt more quickly and learn from our mistakes. Until our complete emotional and tactical meltdown this was a 50/50 game and I don’t accept conclusions from this that we have ideas beyond our level or were getting carried away - the FIFA ranking and our results and performances - as well as Japan’s - in this tournament and more generally would suggest otherwise. But we don’t have the experience from varying tactics against better opposition to learn from and develop our game. In this catch 22 situation I would rather we came out and potentially lose with a more progressive style of football that will allow us to develop rather than to paper over the cracks with the odd win by resorting to knocking it long to Azmoun, hoping he wins his own flick ons and causes mistakes in the opposition. If we want to progress to the next level we need to believe in ourselves, and this comes from the tactics, mindset and even the pre-game dialogue.

The next steps are critical - we should analyse mistakes and where we went wrong but we also can’t throw away the strong foundations that CQ has built. The most important of these are an ambitious and strong group of players with a young spine that have built a togetherness through continuity that selects a similar group of players, but with opportunities for players to rotate in and feel part of the group, a strong defensive structure and finally (aside from the 2nd half here) a team that presses, scraps and is difficult to beat. It’s time for us to move on now, but we need to find the right coach of similar calibre to CQ that understands these and can develop more flexibility in our tactics and mentality and give them the time to do so.

Finally, let’s look at the positives everyone - we’re in a far stronger position we were than when CQ signed on. For me he will go down as one of the great modern coaches. He was a key contributor to the modern revolution of tiki-taka and 4-2-3-1 being the architect of Portugal’s golden generation and their wonderful style of football and we were lucky to have him for so long. But we need also to acknowledge and learn from his mistakes as well as celebrate his successes in order for us to move forward.

[Doctor DOOM]

Gutted for TM fans everywhere, especially those who traveled to watch. I thought until this showing we had been the best team in this tournament and we shouldn’t forget that. Ultimately we fell short and we need to evaluate and learn from our mistakes but not give in to knee-jerk reactions. Congrats to Japan - so much respect for them as a footballing nation in so many aspects of the game.

First off, putting aside biases or allegiances, we need to acknowledge and have gratitude that our team has come a long way in many facets during the 8 years under CQ. But at the same time we need to get away from extremes and absolutes in our analyses in this forum as well as in our media as - like it or not - we live in a world where this influences the national dialogue around which decisions are made. Unfortunately this type of absolutism happens with respect to CQ - either you’re with him or against him. It happened when Branko was in charge. This kind of absolute sovereignty and deference even happens with players like Daei and Karimi. This is how we fail to learn from our mistakes - unquestioning attitudes towards our failings and entrenched positions, closing ourselves to potentially valid criticism because it comes from the other side.

And it’s not an either/or blame game - the coaches fault or the players or the federation. In reality it’s a combination of interlinking factors and we need to look beyond this one game and poor performance to see where we’re going wrong.

For what it’s worth here are my thoughts below. They concentrate on 3 factors what I feel relate to continual mistakes that are probably more immediately addressable i.e. putting aside federational/political/cultural issues:

Inflexible tactics - the long ball tactics to an isolated Azmoun against a top level Asian team were one-dimensional, uninspiring and predictable. Yoshida and Tomiyasu must have relished it - they knew what was coming from every possession/throw-in around the box and never had to deal with runners from midfield or any periods of pressure. Most frustratingly, Queiroz has developed patterns of play that at times were more intricate and sophisticated than at any point I can recall from over 20 years of watching TM - and not just against the Asian fodder.

Doctor Doom was spot on in his criticisms in an earlier post - we stuck to tactics that worked against weaker teams during this tournament, but more sophisticated opposition require a more sophisticated approach and that in such a key game that this appeared to be our only plan of attack is pretty damning. I personally think this long ball tactic (as well as an overly defensive approach to other games such as periods of WC games) as well as the constant complaining to referees unfortunately ties in with the underdog/siege mentality which CQ seems to love - and which at times has been successful - but itself breeds a lack of belief in our ability to keep possession and build pressure (particularly when the game circumstances change and we go a goal down) and holds us back from progressing to the next level.

Again, the warning signs were there - earlier in the tournament we were using long throws against 2nd and 3rd rate Asian teams, when this should have been an opportunity to develop our open play game. We should have learned from the WC too - when our better opportunities were created when we had confidence to play football, rather than the continuous and ineffectual long diagonal balls to Azmoun and Ansarifard. Most worryingly there was no sign of CQ realising this mistake during the game, looking at the first opportunity to bring Ansarifard on to go even more direct. Resorting to this type of football in the odd game is bad, but relying on it against better opposition time and again will not allow us to progress.

Player mentality - again, the warning signs were there. The emotional outbursts earlier in the tournament, giving away needless fouls, yellow cards and even risking getting sent off - yet it appears that nothing was done to address this. Ultimately the players lost their heads and let down their coach and us, badly. Surrounding the ref for the first goal was amateurish (and if there was a whistle heard, unfortunate). But, even more worryingly, this is when you need players to stand up and show their character and - for all CQ’s rotating captaincy to attempt to create leadership - what we saw was again damning. There were no leaders on the pitch and our players effectively giving up after Japan's second goal was simply inexcusable and disrespectful to TM fans everywhere.

In hindsight, and with this capitulation in mind, CQ’s pre-match comments about the importance of players trusting his tactics to execute the game plan seemed strange to me - I’m not sure if all the hashieh in the past few months eventually caught up with the players but it seemed after the second goal the total loss of discipline in midfield (e.g. Ebrahimi seeming to forget his job was to anchor the midfield) that they seemed to be totally neglecting any of CQ’s instructions and suggests they weren’t fully on board with the aforementioned failing tactical approach.

Learning from games - Lastly, the lack of opportunity to test ourselves against this level of oppo - the kind of stress test that we can learn from means we have to adapt more quickly and learn from our mistakes. Until our complete emotional and tactical meltdown this was a 50/50 game and I don’t accept conclusions from this that we have ideas beyond our level or were getting carried away - the FIFA ranking and our results and performances - as well as Japan’s - in this tournament and more generally would suggest otherwise. But we don’t have the experience from varying tactics against better opposition to learn from and develop our game. In this catch 22 situation I would rather we came out and potentially lose with a more progressive style of football that will allow us to develop rather than to paper over the cracks with the odd win by resorting to knocking it long to Azmoun, hoping he wins his own flick ons and causes mistakes in the opposition. If we want to progress to the next level we need to believe in ourselves, and this comes from the tactics, mindset and even the pre-game dialogue.

The next steps are critical - we should analyse mistakes and where we went wrong but we also can’t throw away the strong foundations that CQ has built. The most important of these are an ambitious and strong group of players with a young spine that have built a togetherness through continuity that selects a similar group of players, but with opportunities for players to rotate in and feel part of the group, a strong defensive structure and finally (aside from the 2nd half here) a team that presses, scraps and is difficult to beat. It’s time for us to move on now, but we need to find the right coach of similar calibre to CQ that understands these and can develop more flexibility in our tactics and mentality and give them the time to do so.

Finally, let’s look at the positives everyone - we’re in a far stronger position we were than when CQ signed on. For me he will go down as one of the great modern coaches. He was a key contributor to the modern revolution of tiki-taka and 4-2-3-1 being the architect of Portugal’s golden generation and their wonderful style of football and we were lucky to have him for so long. But we need also to acknowledge and learn from his mistakes as well as celebrate his successes in order for us to move forward.

a perfect post.



I just have to add the fact that we HAVE TO bring in th impact of culture.
We just dont have the culture to improve on failures.
We seem to mourn the failures, followed by a period of depression. followed by a new cycle. BUT WE NEVER LEARN FROM THE FAILURES.

That's why we see repetition of them!
Even during CQ's tenure. whether on the micro-level (game to game correction of flaws) or macro-level (tourney to tourney corrections).

That's one major drawback of CQ's tenure (among quite a few positives).



and I'm afraid as long as we dont fix this characteristic, we'll be entering yet another cycle of repetition of failures and never learning the lessons.
I'm willing to bet all the lessons will be forgotten by next month!!!

[ramingeles2000]

Gutted for TM fans everywhere, especially those who traveled to watch. I thought until this showing we had been the best team in this tournament and we shouldn’t forget that. Ultimately we fell short and we need to evaluate and learn from our mistakes but not give in to knee-jerk reactions. Congrats to Japan - so much respect for them as a footballing nation in so many aspects of the game.

First off, putting aside biases or allegiances, we need to acknowledge and have gratitude that our team has come a long way in many facets during the 8 years under CQ. But at the same time we need to get away from extremes and absolutes in our analyses in this forum as well as in our media as - like it or not - we live in a world where this influences the national dialogue around which decisions are made. Unfortunately this type of absolutism happens with respect to CQ - either you’re with him or against him. It happened when Branko was in charge. This kind of absolute sovereignty and deference even happens with players like Daei and Karimi. This is how we fail to learn from our mistakes - unquestioning attitudes towards our failings and entrenched positions, closing ourselves to potentially valid criticism because it comes from the other side.

And it’s not an either/or blame game - the coaches fault or the players or the federation. In reality it’s a combination of interlinking factors and we need to look beyond this one game and poor performance to see where we’re going wrong.

For what it’s worth here are my thoughts below. They concentrate on 3 factors what I feel relate to continual mistakes that are probably more immediately addressable i.e. putting aside federational/political/cultural issues:

Inflexible tactics - the long ball tactics to an isolated Azmoun against a top level Asian team were one-dimensional, uninspiring and predictable. Yoshida and Tomiyasu must have relished it - they knew what was coming from every possession/throw-in around the box and never had to deal with runners from midfield or any periods of pressure. Most frustratingly, Queiroz has developed patterns of play that at times were more intricate and sophisticated than at any point I can recall from over 20 years of watching TM - and not just against the Asian fodder.

Doctor Doom was spot on in his criticisms in an earlier post - we stuck to tactics that worked against weaker teams during this tournament, but more sophisticated opposition require a more sophisticated approach and that in such a key game that this appeared to be our only plan of attack is pretty damning. I personally think this long ball tactic (as well as an overly defensive approach to other games such as periods of WC games) as well as the constant complaining to referees unfortunately ties in with the underdog/siege mentality which CQ seems to love - and which at times has been successful - but itself breeds a lack of belief in our ability to keep possession and build pressure (particularly when the game circumstances change and we go a goal down) and holds us back from progressing to the next level.

Again, the warning signs were there - earlier in the tournament we were using long throws against 2nd and 3rd rate Asian teams, when this should have been an opportunity to develop our open play game. We should have learned from the WC too - when our better opportunities were created when we had confidence to play football, rather than the continuous and ineffectual long diagonal balls to Azmoun and Ansarifard. Most worryingly there was no sign of CQ realising this mistake during the game, looking at the first opportunity to bring Ansarifard on to go even more direct. Resorting to this type of football in the odd game is bad, but relying on it against better opposition time and again will not allow us to progress.

Player mentality - again, the warning signs were there. The emotional outbursts earlier in the tournament, giving away needless fouls, yellow cards and even risking getting sent off - yet it appears that nothing was done to address this. Ultimately the players lost their heads and let down their coach and us, badly. Surrounding the ref for the first goal was amateurish (and if there was a whistle heard, unfortunate). But, even more worryingly, this is when you need players to stand up and show their character and - for all CQ’s rotating captaincy to attempt to create leadership - what we saw was again damning. There were no leaders on the pitch and our players effectively giving up after Japan's second goal was simply inexcusable and disrespectful to TM fans everywhere.

In hindsight, and with this capitulation in mind, CQ’s pre-match comments about the importance of players trusting his tactics to execute the game plan seemed strange to me - I’m not sure if all the hashieh in the past few months eventually caught up with the players but it seemed after the second goal the total loss of discipline in midfield (e.g. Ebrahimi seeming to forget his job was to anchor the midfield) that they seemed to be totally neglecting any of CQ’s instructions and suggests they weren’t fully on board with the aforementioned failing tactical approach.

Learning from games - Lastly, the lack of opportunity to test ourselves against this level of oppo - the kind of stress test that we can learn from means we have to adapt more quickly and learn from our mistakes. Until our complete emotional and tactical meltdown this was a 50/50 game and I don’t accept conclusions from this that we have ideas beyond our level or were getting carried away - the FIFA ranking and our results and performances - as well as Japan’s - in this tournament and more generally would suggest otherwise. But we don’t have the experience from varying tactics against better opposition to learn from and develop our game. In this catch 22 situation I would rather we came out and potentially lose with a more progressive style of football that will allow us to develop rather than to paper over the cracks with the odd win by resorting to knocking it long to Azmoun, hoping he wins his own flick ons and causes mistakes in the opposition. If we want to progress to the next level we need to believe in ourselves, and this comes from the tactics, mindset and even the pre-game dialogue.

The next steps are critical - we should analyse mistakes and where we went wrong but we also can’t throw away the strong foundations that CQ has built. The most important of these are an ambitious and strong group of players with a young spine that have built a togetherness through continuity that selects a similar group of players, but with opportunities for players to rotate in and feel part of the group, a strong defensive structure and finally (aside from the 2nd half here) a team that presses, scraps and is difficult to beat. It’s time for us to move on now, but we need to find the right coach of similar calibre to CQ that understands these and can develop more flexibility in our tactics and mentality and give them the time to do so.

Finally, let’s look at the positives everyone - we’re in a far stronger position we were than when CQ signed on. For me he will go down as one of the great modern coaches. He was a key contributor to the modern revolution of tiki-taka and 4-2-3-1 being the architect of Portugal’s golden generation and their wonderful style of football and we were lucky to have him for so long. But we need also to acknowledge and learn from his mistakes as well as celebrate his successes in order for us to move forward.

one of the best posts i've read on PFDC in a while. Thanks dadash.

Devastating loss and a double-loss for us today with CQ's departure. I do think his tenure has given the job some international prestige, and that we're in a better position than ever to attract a top-class foreign coach. The next coach unfortunately may be the "fall guy" as someone else mentioned, as he has HUGE shoes to fill, but he also has the opportunity to build on a solid, young unit and maybe add some attacking flair and fresh ideas to take us to the next level.

at the end of the day, losing to Japan in the Asian semis isn't an unacceptable outcome for us. For about 30 minutes we were in charge of the game. If that Azmoun nutmeg finds the back of the net, we pull back and win 1-0. But football is cruel sometimes (as it was to Morocco in 2018 and Australia in 1998).

Another factor that makes this loss burn so much is that we have to wait so so long before another meaningful TM game. Really, no interesting matches until the final round of WC2022 qualification, which is ages away.

[ramingeles2000]

Strongly disagree with the title. This is CQ's team. He built a team void of intelligence and skill. He built this team of work horses based solely on what he valued. We played this garbage brand of football of park the bus and hoof the ball and the fans kept praising him. had he gotten the result today we would have kept praising him. He just wasnt good enough to get us over the hump and have any meaningful impact on our football. And that is the truth. His legacy will be gone with him, a less skilled team made of 7 defensive mids. Heck he was even putting Cbs to play in the midfield and even ansarifard just for his jumping and heading abilities. When are people going to admit that this was CQ's football and tactics. He was a one trick pony and got exposed anytime any team took a lead against us. I hope Colombia watched the game today and ask themselves if this is the direction they want their football to go.

crawl back into the sewer you came from, please.

[dcpp]

Reality Check : We aren't that good

After a few hours I can finally share my feelings. First of all, I wish the best to CQ. We didn't win any trophies under him but he brought so much to our football. He closed the gap between Iran and other top Asian countries during these last 8 years. You may agree or not with his football approach but I personally believe it's the best way we could play to get something. I'll always remember him as the manager who always made things move forward not backwards.

People are always complaining that we don't play offensive enough. Well look at this game, look at the Bosnia game. As soon as we move our block higher we have big time issues defensively. Japan could have score 2 more goals during the last 15-20. I believe that saeid was really missed in this cup and we definitely need better midfielders who can read the game, keep the game simple as we don't have any of this. As soon as we under a proper pressing, our players lose their composure.

I thought that I'll literally be under depression if we lose this game but in fact, I'm not even sad. I believe that it showed our limits, we may have won this game under other circumstances, I'm sure about it but what makes me confident is that we have a good basis now. Unless we end up with a crappy coach, our next coach will have a lot of work but also a solid foundation to work on.




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[zereshk-ali]

a perfect post.



I just have to add the fact that we HAVE TO bring in th impact of culture.
We just dont have the culture to improve on failures.
We seem to mourn the failures, followed by a period of depression. followed by a new cycle. BUT WE NEVER LEARN FROM THE FAILURES.

That's why we see repetition of them!
Even during CQ's tenure. whether on the micro-level (game to game correction of flaws) or macro-level (tourney to tourney corrections).

That's one major drawback of CQ's tenure (among quite a few positives).



and I'm afraid as long as we dont fix this characteristic, we'll be entering yet another cycle of repetition of failures and never learning the lessons.
I'm willing to bet all the lessons will be forgotten by next month!!!

Melancholia - it's in our music, it's in our DNA!

I agree - and I think that's why the underdog tag and our glorious failures in the WC seemed to resonate so well with the players and fans. We need to manifest the change in results and we can only do so by believing we can move to the next level by having the confidence to try different approaches and learn from them.

This won't happen when we continue to celebrate heroic losses, blame the referee or scapegoat individuals.

[Irannn]

Words of wisdom. Next manager should teach this to our football players. Only one person should talk to referee and that's the captain. Nobody should leave the match and argue with referee period.

no it's not just the next manager's job. we need a revolution here. that's the stupid culture we have. complaining about everything.

if someone watches the IPL, that's always like this. everybody protesting after every single whistle. that's kind of a tactic for coaches to put pressure on the referees. and all of our NT players at one point played or still playing in IPL. they grow up protesting instead of focusing on the game.

this is a cultural thing. even in this forum you see people complaining about every single whistle.

[OFFSIDE_1]

boy, did we miss Ezatollahi in the lineup.

We went to the WC with Defense as our number one strategy. It brought us results against Morocco and Portugal. Japan is certainly not a step above those 2 teams.

We should have stayed with that strategy. I think our biggest mistake was going away from what worked. Yes, against Vietnam, Oman and others, an attacking game works. But, if we had gone back to defending well, not caring about ball possession, and just tiring down and frustrating the japanese team by slowing down the game, we may have seen different results.

[Club monaco]

these incompetent unprofessional fools running to the match official as if he is going to stop the game and answer their questions....

[dcpp]

Reality Check : We aren't that good

boy, did we miss Ezatollahi in the lineup.

We went to the WC with Defense as our number one strategy. It brought us results against Morocco and Portugal. Japan is certainly not a step above those 2 teams.

We should have stayed with that strategy. I think our biggest mistake was going away from what worked. Yes, against Vietnam, Oman and others, an attacking game works. But, if we had gone back to defending well, not caring about ball possession, and just tiring down and frustrating the japanese team by slowing down the game, we may have seen different results.

I definitely agree on saeid.

As for the strategy, we did it during the first half except a few moments when Japan let us have the ball and stopped pressing high. I also think that CQ knows the limit of his players and knew that if we concede the first goal we will definitely be out. Karim was about to be subbed in before the goal which makes me think he planned to surprise Japan and play a more direct football and try to get the first goal. Anyways we conceded that goal and Karim was eventually subbed in but not in the way CQ wanted.


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