Worst loss in the last 20 years

[elnino99]

Easily easily easily Bahrain 2001. Please just watch the highlights, to the very end:

It hurt so so much because:

- We had our "golden generation" all in their primes, managed by a coach who'd just taken Croatia to semis of the WC
- We had done relatively well in qualifiers after some icnonic games, Daei's late winner in Baghdad for example and his double vs. Saudis at Azadi.
- The first leg vs. Bahrain was one of the most depressing matches ever. We completely dominated them in Tehran, Golmohammadi scored an amazing goal that ref called wrongly offside. Bahrainis wasted about 20 minutes. It was a matter of pride to beat them
- We lost our WC place to SAUDIS....the absolute arch rival of ours, with Bahraini players robbing it into our faces dancing with a foreign flag after the match. See the highlights.
- That team was very good. We came very close to eliminating an Ireland team captained by Roy Keane that nearly made it to QF in World Cup only to be eliminated by Spain in penalties. I never forget Karimi's misses in Dublin

2002 was one of the most underrrated teams we had. A case of what could have been, and that wrestched night in Manama...I'll never forget.

I held that grudge against Bahrain for so long, that even when we beat them at Azadi to qualify for 2006 WC it didn't feel like revenge. Best revenge came when the fuckers missed out 2 golden chances to make WC once vs. Trinidad in 206 and then vs. NZ in 2010 with missing a penalty in Wellington. Only after trashing them 6-0 a few years later, I got the closure I needed.
I was 10 at the time of that night in Manama...I never cried more in my entire childhood.

[tmfan]

The last time we lost in an official game by more than 3 goals margin was 26 years ago (vs South Korea 0-3 in WCQ)!

[Ghermez Agha]

this one hurt a lot, but there are def worse ones

3-3 iraq was way more painful. also for me the loss in azadi to saudi arabia - that game was going to have us one foot in south africa but instead that put us in a position to fail to qualify for the WC. we were in full control until the last few mins.....extremely painful memory. argentina loss was bad too I'd rate all of them as much worse than this loss to japan

[OSTAD POOYA]

Bottom line is we have lost so many bad games that one can not put a finger on the worst one. I voted for the Bahrain loss but technically looking at the comments the Saudi loss and losing in Tehran was a big disaster. I know Iran was undefeated in Azadi from the time it was built until the mid 2000's. I just cant remember if the 1st home loss we experienced was against Uzbekistan or Saudi in Azadi? There are many other bad ones too. Like the Lebanon Cup where it went to OT after Bagheri fired a missile and we lost by a Golden Goal. Or all the Asian cups where we lost in PK's or OT.

As a matter of fact this was the first Asian cup since 1996 that we lost in regular time. And its sad and true that this was Iran's worst loss since 1993 but I believe we have to look at it in the context of what happened. We were not crushed. We lost concentration and SELF DESTRUCTED. Someone else pointed out to this. That is what hurts the most. We lost because of an elementary mishap and that flattened us. I think that's why this one hurts so much too. Our expectations where too high and we actually lost because of stupidity and then a PK which could have been avoided. Any way you look at it the way the score line was achieved it was not a normal occurrence.

[O-ZoNe]

The arogh loss stung more given how we had to fight back with 10 players and twice come back from behind. This one was to a better team and by a larger score which didn't really leave any hypothetical scenarios of if only we had done this or that we wouldn't have lost. The arogh loss was close, this one wasn't.

This was worst. Everyone supported us in the Iraq highway robbery! This one we let all those supporters down because as Asia's supposed #1 many hoped for us to go all the way. Worst part is ..seems Copa invited the right Asian teams as both Qatar and Japan easily walked into the final now and we had a chance to show otherwise.

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[KC McElroy]

This was worst. Everyone supported us in the Iraq highway robbery! This one we let all those supporters down because as Asia's supposed #1 many hoped for us to go all the way. Worst part is ..seems Copa invited the right Asian teams as both Qatar and Japan easily walked into the final now and we had a chance to show otherwise.

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Against arogh until the last second I thought we still had a chance. Against Japan after the second goal I knew it was over. Perhaps that's why the arogh match was more painful to accept.

[eerooni]

Guys, we self destructed! We could said the same thing vs China, but in that game we HAD FOCUS! we won the hard balls and we won 3-0! We have to accept that in such competitions especially in the semis, you lose focus you lose PERIOD!! Just ask China! On THREE occassions they thught they had the ball for a back pass, but our boys pounced on them! Welcome to PRO Soccer!

[Bi-honar]

It would be tough to beat yesterday's loss if we're looking at it objectively (i.e. facts only):

* Worst ever defeat to Japan (22 matches total).

* Tied for the worst ever defeat at the Asian Cup (the only other 3 goal margin loss was to Korea in 1988).

* Worst TM Performance in a half since 2000 (vs. Austria the 2nd half was also 3-0). That was a friendly so for competitive matches we'd have to go even further back.

Subjectively, I also think it was the worst loss because it had the most embarrassing, pathetic and unsportsmanlike behavior I have seen from TM for a VERY VERY long time.

Playing a drop ball into an attacking position was an absolute new low. It's one thing to have a bad loss and a whole different thing to be sore losers on top. It was a match I'm sure we'd all rather put behind and move on.

[O-ZoNe]

It would be tough to beat yesterday's loss if we're looking at it objectively (i.e. facts only):

* Worst ever defeat to Japan (22 matches total).

* Tied for the worst ever defeat at the Asian Cup (the only other 3 goal margin loss was to Korea in 1988).

* Worst TM Performance in a half since 2000 (vs. Austria the 2nd half was also 3-0). That was a friendly so for competitive matches we'd have to go even further back.

Subjectively, I also think it was the worst loss because it had the most embarrassing, pathetic and unsportsmanlike behavior I have seen from TM for a VERY VERY long time.

Playing a drop ball into an attacking position was an absolute new low. It's one thing to have a bad loss and a whole different thing to be sore losers on top. It was a match I'm sure we'd all rather put behind and move on.

Spot on...I'll also ad the fact that this happened under a world class coaches reign who made our defensive abilities well regarded around the world makes this even more painful.

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[teammelli8080]

Anyone voting Iran Japan rather than Iran Bahrain in the 2002 WCQ simply has a short memory or wasn't old enough to remember that match. Everything was terrible in that match. Remember that cage-like structure they put the Iranian fans in?? Remember the blasting of swears and vulgarities over their megaphones? Remember them running around with ANOTHER COUNTRY'S FLAG after the game was over, just because of "arab brotherhood"?? I don't think people remember the depth of that tragedy.

[tmfan]

The Mexico game was tough one too. Mirzapour and Rezaei's poor mistakes gave Mexico the winning goal and destroyed our campaign in 2006. Taking out Karimi in around the 60th minute was an extremely stupid decision by Branko too.

[KC McElroy]

The Mexico game was tough one too. Mirzapour and Rezaei's poor mistakes gave Mexico the winning goal and destroyed our campaign in 2006. Taking out Karimi in around the 60th minute was an extremely stupid decision by Branko too.

To me it wasn't. It was a game I expected us to lose due to the strength of the opponent.

[Hadi]

losing to japan in asian cup semis is faaaaaaaaaaaaaar from being our worst loss

loss to Bahrain in WCQ 2002
loss to China in AC 2004
Loss to Iran in AC 2014
Loss to Qatar WCQ 1998
Loss to Korea AC 2000

all of these were worse

[DRCha]

Loss to Iran in AC 2014

Which country? And don't you mean the 2014 Asian Games?

[Damavand]

Which country? And don't you mean the 2014 Asian Games?

I think he means the loss to Iraq on penalties in AC 2015.