Iranian weakness yet again fully exploited this time by Japan

[Roozbeh-G2006]

I am opening a thread about this because it is a national weakness that needs to be discussed, debated, and the focus of our attention and is the most important factor that stops us from becoming the champions we so deserve to be as technically, physically and tactically we are superior to any team in Asia. This weakness is our uncontrollable emotions. The Saudis have always used it against us and now so clearly the Japanese also used it against us in yesterday's game. We played superior football and as the game was progressing we were the better side and had we not lost control of our emotions we would have won the game and won the championship.

It was very clear from the start that the Japs in the first half were playing a sneaky dirty game just to wind us up. They successfully wound all our players up and we fell totally in their trap by the end of first half and that anger was in everyone right until the end of the game. And that is because we never consider our emotional reaction to situation a flaw or a bad thing or don't realise how depleting it is especially in a competition. A good example of how anger can make you lose is Mohammad Ali, he used that tactic to wind his opponents up and make them angry. In one fight he knew his opponent was sensitive about his baldness and throughout the fight Ali mocked his bald head. It is a general knowledge that when you become emotional and angry in a competition you lose concentration and your stress hormones go sky high you are then straining to fight your competitor. You become less capable in every aspect of the competition. Your energy depletes and you lose.

I don't see or hear anyone paying much attention to this weakness that we have had in almost every tournament. It is the real reason we under achieve specially in Asia as Saudis, UAE, Qataris, Japanese and South Koreans have learnt how to wind us up and make us angry.

[eerooni]

Would love to ask the Japanese Coach how he defeated Iran and if he ever imagined he will win 3-0?!!! It would make for an interesting interview!!

[beri486]

Japan did not defeat Iran.

Iran defeat itself.

No JAP fan would have imagined that score line in their wildest dreams.

Had Azmoun scored in the first half the score could be easily reversed.

[Bladsville]

Had Azmoun scored in the first half the score could be easily reversed.

True, but Azmoun can't carry the entire team on his back. It was a huge error on the defense.

[beri486]

Of course, that's why I said Iran beat itself.

[persiangodfather]

Well hopefully we learn from this

[Surenas]

Can we finally stop this superiority complex? We are not superior to the Japanese in terms of technic or tactics. Have you ever seen how safe the Japanese keep the ball, lead, and play precise? Have you seen how many times we have unnecessarily lost the ball in this tournament?
There are some of our top players in our squad, Dejagah, Ghoddos, Taremi, somehow also JB and Azmoun who are able to play great football.

But overall, the Japanese have players who not only play abroad, but also belong there for many years to the leading players or key persons. Where do we have the players like Nagamoto, who played for Inter for years, Haraguchi has been an important player for years with Hertha BSC, Yoshida is a top defender at Southampton etc. Previously they had players like Kagawa, Honda, Nakamura, Okazaki, Hasebe.

We did not have any players who could ever last long at this level, the only one in our history who could do that was Mahdavikia and this one is by far one of the best players in our history.
The stories with Hashemian, Daei are not right, I saw them playing at that time (because I'm from Germany, I have seen all their games, not just highlights) Hashemian had only played well at Bochum, he was not worth mentioning at Bayern and Hannover, as well as Karimi and Daei.

These players were not consistent enough in Europe. What I mean to say is, it's nonsense to say we're superior, even though we really are not. Japan has invested tens and hundreds of millions in football in recent decades. This is not even about their league, which is not special, but the professionalism in their quantity.
Japan has established a system where all schools in the country have a selection and play against each other in local tournaments every half year! If you've seen Footballista (Captain Tsubasa), you know how it was, by the way, Tsubasa was the best thing they could do, they were so influential on the youth of the 80s-90s that they slowly moved from baseball to football.

These pupils were active throughout the country. The best players were selected and taken over at a certain age in university teams, these then either rose to the J-League or went directly abroad. The Japanese football network is very disciplined and close-knit, they are capturing an extremely large number of people through their school system, and they can catch every single child in Japan into professional contact with football, because it's connected to their school system.

With us in Iran, a lot is lost, because we are not in the picture of what our qualities are, we do not know who really has talent, we do not know exactly how many players we do not even discover. In Iran you learn football on the streets, which has the advantage that we are very playful and on the ball, the disadvantage is that we lack discipline, teamwork and tactics.

Regarding the game yesterday, it can be said that we were far too afraid of Japan, we have shown far too much respect, unfortunately, CQ has also contributed to it by giving Japan the role of a big favorite unnecessarily and you felt that the players were very insecure and the Japanese noticed that during the game.
Even so, if Azmoun scored this could have caused the Japanese to get scared, but they would not have broken apart like we did.
We are limited in skillful game opening and CQ knows that, so we were more inclined to neutralize Japan, because in an open game the Japanese can become even for teams like Belgium or Colombia dangerous, even if they lose, but for us it is definitely enough. The mixture of the fear of playing openly against them and the fact that we really do not have the quality for it, has mentally blocked our team.

[Leopard]

NO More Australian referees. How could AFC do that>>>>>

The dirty japanese players tried to hurt JB and ref ignored it. In another situation a japanese acted as an actress and went down without being touched. The referee issued yellow card for us. with that happening and the number of times players being told not to repeat Pooladi act, the players looked nervous. Just looking at the face of the referee before the match I got worried.
and that god damn qatar referee giving card to Taremi was unjust. He knew that we would meet Qatar in final, so he clipped our wing.
Except for a few refs most Asians are corrupted. Anyway we have a great Team and dont forget we beat qatar in a friendly a few weeks ago,

[Leopard]

in asian games similar thing happened . chinihaa dashtand mibaakhtand vali yao ming goft beheshan aasaabe haddadi raa kharab konid. martikeh chini zad too sare haddadi va game avaz shod va tala shod noghreh

[Ali Doust]

Screw Japan and their perverted culture.

[SOLEIMAN]

This notion of Iranian superiority is dumbfounded. Iran lost because of a lack of finishing ability and lack of composure. This is a recurring problem, nothing new. Japan were better! Wake up dear friends!

[H.Behzadi FAN]

We did beat ourselves ... but once Japan had the lead, they were under far less pressure and proceeded to kill off the game.
remember : Ansarifard was ABOUT to come on for Amiri. Just before Japan scored.
CQ wanted to see how they adjust in the 2nd half and then put on the 3rd forward. The mental mistake KILLED us.
Their goalkeeper made a good save from the well taken Jahanbaksh freekick as he did with the Azmoun chance in the first half.
We were the team with the better chances. Japan wanted to play their typical possession style. And if you watch the goal, you will see how Osaka made a superb pass on a turn to the attacker who ended up one-on-one with Kanani. On the pass Osaka totally nullified PAG.... IF ONLY PAG had kept on running back and watched the ball (instead of sprint the longest to the Ref) we would have not had any danger on our goal.
Japan KILLED the game off very professionally. 30 minutes is a long time and there was a lot of time for us to tie the game. But just like US FANS were shell shocked following that freak goal, so were the players.
On the day we missed TAREMI more than we are all willing to admit. Azmoun had nobody up there. I don't know WHY Jahanbaksh was in the starting line up for. I still can't figure out where he is playing exactly. The balls were all going to Azmoun and he was all alone. Even the chance he got and was saved by their goalie was because of a flick on header by Amiri.
The game was very close until that mental breakdown by the 5 players......... F-i-V-E ..... !!!! smh ..... you don't even see that in the Persian League matches without a whistle blowing. uuuuuggggghhhh

[orbicular]

I wasn't able to see the game, but nearly every article I have read so far makes some nuanced reference to controversial nature of Japan's first two goals-allowing the first goal after Minamino had dived, and penalizing the Iranian defender for an unintentional hand ball. The fact that there was an Australian Referee also adds to the controversy, as Iran's final game in 2015 was also controversially officiated by an Australian arbiter. If these goals were indeed controversial, it is easy to see Iran succumb to a loss, especially facing a well-coached, well-disciplined and methodical team. However, I am still troubled by the notion that players of this caliber are able to so radically deviate from the norms of the game by abandoning the play and collectively running towards the referee to force the his hand. As great as the players and the coaches are, I believe some explanation regarding that first goal might be in order.

[Ali Doust]

I wasn't able to see the game, but nearly every article I have read so far makes some nuanced reference to controversial nature of Japan's first two goals-allowing the first goal after Minamino had dived, and penalizing the Iranian defender for an unintentional hand ball. The fact that there was an Australian Referee also adds to the controversy, as Iran's final game in 2015 was also controversially officiated by an Australian arbiter. If these goals were indeed controversial, it is easy to see Iran succumb to a loss, especially facing a well-coached, well-disciplined and methodical team. However, I am still troubled by the notion that players of this caliber are able to so radically deviate from the norms of the game by abandoning the play and collectively running towards the referee to force the his hand. As great as the players and the coaches are, I believe some explanation regarding that first goal might be in order.

Chris Beath the referee works in the J-League. That should tell you all you need to know.

[Roxanaz80]

True, but Azmoun can't carry the entire team on his back. It was a huge error on the defense.

Azmoun and Taremi work as a duo. One without the other is incomplete.