Lets be realistic here of how the game went and what happened.
Iran was pretty much the better team up to the 55th minute. Having some corners and many more free kicks than Japan. Attacking and having some chances, and in my opinion overall SLIGHTLY better than Japan up to that point. Basically if Iran had continued in that manner there was a chance they could have scored. Now:
(Internal Error): Iranian player (Kanani) thinks a foul is called. Some are saying by whistle and some are saying the ref pointed his finger towards the spot. I have not seen a replay yet. Then after he starts going after the ref 3-4 other players go after the ref too while we had enough coverage to block the play. All of a sudden the ref says (Advantage) and the play goes on and Japan scores. A complete loss of concentration leads to a mental breakdown after the goal is conceded. I think Kanani caused the dillima and had he gone after the play the goal could have been prevented. That's what I think too place and he lead the other players into his error and amateurish actions which caused the goal and Iran losing focus and concentration and having the air punched out of you.
(External Error): The 2nd goal was a PK which after being reviewed for a few min by the VAR team was called for the ref to be viewed directly as well. In the replay you can see that PAG had hit ground a fraction of a second before the ball is kicked. Thus there was no way for him to purposely place his arm there to stop the ball. Plus his arm is behind him and his elbow hitting down in somewhat of a defensive position of him trying to defend his body. Clearly this was not a PK and we will need to wait and see other opinions but I have seen many many plays similar to this and even worse where the ball has hit he players hand and a PK is not called.
Now many of us are mad and first thoughts are to blame the coach tactic and that Iran just did not have it. Iran had a good tournament and even today in my opinion was controlling the game until that fluke happened. Plus we were missing Taremi and Karim was warming up already to come in right before the goal fluke happened. That caught CQ by surprise too and messed up his tactics. Really sad this had to go this way for Iran today. One error followed by a referee error 100% flattened us.
Iran was pretty much the better team up to the 55th minute. Having some corners and many more free kicks than Japan. Attacking and having some chances, and in my opinion overall SLIGHTLY better than Japan up to that point. Basically if Iran had continued in that manner there was a chance they could have scored. Now:
(Internal Error): Iranian player (Kanani) thinks a foul is called. Some are saying by whistle and some are saying the ref pointed his finger towards the spot. I have not seen a replay yet. Then after he starts going after the ref 3-4 other players go after the ref too while we had enough coverage to block the play. All of a sudden the ref says (Advantage) and the play goes on and Japan scores. A complete loss of concentration leads to a mental breakdown after the goal is conceded. I think Kanani caused the dillima and had he gone after the play the goal could have been prevented. That's what I think too place and he lead the other players into his error and amateurish actions which caused the goal and Iran losing focus and concentration and having the air punched out of you.
(External Error): The 2nd goal was a PK which after being reviewed for a few min by the VAR team was called for the ref to be viewed directly as well. In the replay you can see that PAG had hit ground a fraction of a second before the ball is kicked. Thus there was no way for him to purposely place his arm there to stop the ball. Plus his arm is behind him and his elbow hitting down in somewhat of a defensive position of him trying to defend his body. Clearly this was not a PK and we will need to wait and see other opinions but I have seen many many plays similar to this and even worse where the ball has hit he players hand and a PK is not called.
Now many of us are mad and first thoughts are to blame the coach tactic and that Iran just did not have it. Iran had a good tournament and even today in my opinion was controlling the game until that fluke happened. Plus we were missing Taremi and Karim was warming up already to come in right before the goal fluke happened. That caught CQ by surprise too and messed up his tactics. Really sad this had to go this way for Iran today. One error followed by a referee error 100% flattened us.
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