World Cup 2022 Qualifier: Korea Republic - Iran (Info, Updates & Live Reports)

[PerZiano]

Some people here forget Korea also beat GERMANY 2-0…

Yet people here freak out that we lose against such a quality opponent in their home turf with FIVE ESSENTIAL PLAYERS missing..

I think it will benefit TM in the long run, to come off that high horse after winning against weak arab teams (although they play the game of their lifes when against us, or when Zeus even helps with magical winds which keep the ball inside like in Lebanon when that soosool wanna be american „Soony“ scored)

[naderb94]

Since you want Skocic out, and you don't want an Iranian coach - then who would you seriously suggest?

I never said I wanted Skokic out.. Just don't think he's a top level manager to lead a World Cup caliber team.. We're sorta short on time to replace him with someone. If this was back in December or November, then I would be cool with replacing him, but we're less than 8 months out from the World Cup.. My dream scenario would be the return of CQ but that won't happen.

[naderb94]

Unpopular opinion:
It's not a tragedy loosing to S Korea on their sole with key players missing when you are already qualified.

PS: Some act like we lost against Maldives lol

This isn't a one game thing.. We have been playing poorly overall the past 6 out of 9 games, but have mainly kept quiet because we managed to get results.. Getting results is really good but when you have to sneak out of games with UAE, Lebanon, Syria and then lose to Korea in a dominant fashion, then it's a sign for concern..

[perspolis#1]

Whatever excuses are there about players missing, its Korea etc. There is no excuse for our inability to create chances or to have fluid ball control with a gameplan. There were WAYYYY tooo many instances where we have the ball, Azmoun is surrounded by 5 koreans and our player on the ball has no options and gets closed down and yeets it into nowhere.

Even absolutely dreadful teams to watch like Burnley have some semblance of their players being able to pass out of pressure, move up together and string an attack together.

CQ was not even the gold standard but at least we had some plans for set pieces, down the line counters etc to attack.

A reminder that a lot of the Pot 2-4 teams we will play in the World cup have improved greatly from 4 years ago(US, Nigeria, Serbia etc all have players in europe in elite clubs now.)

[DR Strangemoosh]

Some people here forget Korea also beat GERMANY 2-0…

Yet people here freak out that we lose against such a quality opponent in their home turf with FIVE ESSENTIAL PLAYERS missing..

I think it will benefit TM in the long run, to come off that high horse after winning against weak arab teams (although they play the game of their lifes when against us, or when Zeus even helps with magical winds which keep the ball inside like in Lebanon when that soosool wanna be american „Soony“ scored)

It's not an issue of the one game, it's the performance and lack of progression over the sixteen games - no new players developed in the TM setting (last new young player was brought in by Wilmots - Mohebi), no real game plans, poor tactical shape of the team, relying on individual brilliance of players.

Over the previous 8 years we had been seeing year-on-year improvement in the structure of the team and young or untested players brought in (sometimes we disagreed but in the end it made sense), with the team gradually getting a versatile playing style - building for the future from a number of perspectives.

It's just the fact that even though our results have been amazing, the performances were worrying, and the fact that we have a world cup coming up.

[DR Strangemoosh]

As others have said, some of the pot 3-4 teams around Iran in the Fifa ranking have really developed over the last four years, and have star players in the best teams in Europe.

We have been used to seeing Iran over-achieve in world cups for our pool of players and infrastructure, so the worry is of a humiliation going in with no game plan, especially if God forbid we lose someone like Taremi or Azmoun to injury


BTW These pictures of Bagheri in Dubai aren't great either...

[Medzdidz]

The team can’t change anything now - focus needs to move fully on to the Lebanon match and they need to absolutely batter them.
There is still possibility of finishing top , Korea have their last game away at UAE. Small possibility but we need to play as if we need a big win to do it.
They need to start Allahyar against Lebanon and unleash him. Go with pace against their weak defence.
Then the coaches etc need to get their butts into gear and asses the qualifying campaign and watch every game back, especially that Korea game. They need to cut players who are not good enough at all and should be nowhere near the squad, they need to look at who they can call up from younger players performing well and give them a chance in friendlies. These friendlies need to be of a good standard.
Am I confident that will happen…no.
I have said before that I think Skocic is tactically naive but who the hell else do we get to take over. Sometimes it is better the devil you know.

[yashar_fasihnia]

here are my 2 cents:
1) To say Korea beat Germany 2-0 doesnt mean anything. They also drew with Iraq 0-0 and Lebanon 0-0, beat UAE with miniimum score of 1-0 etc. So lets not talk about Korea's score line versus other games cos we all know this is irrelevant in football.

2) Secondly, we have qualified for the worldcup, and given we are always whining about lack of friendlies and not giving others a chance, we shouldnt complain about Abedzadeh or Gholami or even Hajsafi. some youngsters played their first international cap against one of asias best teams, we need to cut them some slack specially Gholami who isnt even a RB but rather a CB. We all remember Kanani when he first started playing for TM and how he messed up the asian cup semi finals aganst Japan last time. or Pouladi when he first started playing for TM and got that stupid red card against Iraq. There is pressure, there is lack of coordination, and the opponents are also not havij either. What matters is whether Abezadeh and Gholami will learn from this game today and improve or not? This is a matter of time which we can talk about again after they each get a few games under the belt.

3) About Hajsafi, he has always been a utility player and is still playing in Europe. During his best years, he was a very good tactical player. Coupled with the fact that he is experienced and still plays in Europe, there is no harm in giving him some play time to see what he can do today. Afterall, we have a relatively young team, so having a few experienced players cant be bad.

4) In any squad, there are always some definite guaranteed starters such as sardar, Taremi, Jahanbakhsh, etc, then there are some definite reserves who are usually the most common subbed in players or are on the border of being a starter such as Ghoddos/Sarlaki, etc and then there are the wild cards who get invited to be tested or who show potential or have certain capabilities such as hajsafi, Gholami, Abedzadeh etc. the 3rd category is a personal choice of the coach and is always debatable because they are subjective to the coachs personal choice and we have a lot of those in Iranian football. Once in a while, you find gems in them too or revised players. Ando Teymourian and Masoud Shojaei were such examples as I may recall back in 2005 was it? Maybe a few games for Hajsafi, Gholami and Abedzadeh and they can gain their confidence, so we wait till then to judge.

5) It has been Skocic first loss in around 20 games and in 2 years. Yes, his opponents have been mostly 2nd and 3rd rated asian teams but if we want to be fair, we cant jump on the guy just after his first loss. I am not a fan of him at and I dont trust in him much but I admit he has exceeded my expectations. I wasnt even expecting us to be topping this asian group with no losses at all till today. We had got worse results with both Queiroz (whom Im a big fan) and Wilmots. But just cos Skocic exceeded my expecations (which were very low) doesnt mean Im convinced still. It just means I had under estimated him way too much and now, I see he is not as bad as I thougth he was. Yet, I dont have faith in him for a worldcup tournament which brings me to next point.

6) To even compare Queiroz with Skocic is a joke. One has been coaching Manchester United and Real Madrid and has huge experienced handling players, egos and tough opponents, the other has not even been a coach of a top IPL league! Skocic may get similar results against weaker asian teams and partly, its cos of the deadly attacking power we have upfront, but playing in the worldcup is a totally different ball game. First of all the coach himself shouldnt be scared of facing teams like Spain, Portugal, Morrocco, Nigeria and Argentina. Queiroz wasnt, but Skocic? I would expect him to piss in his pants more than our players. The guy never even dreamt of becoming TM coach before we parted ways with Queiroz. This coach should then have a strong psychological strength to pass that to the team and prepare them for such matches. I dont see that in Skocic at all. Infact, to me, he seems more of a Yes man than anything else. Lastly, he should be tactially both sound and experienced, made so many mistakes, seen so many games that he can prepare our team. Again, Skocic doesnt even remotely have any of these.

7) Overall, yes its sad that we lost to Korea after 11 years but we got some positives out of it. Few tactical changes, few new players, few (or lots?) of mistakes in the field and the over-hyping of this team and Skocic were among the benefits of todays game. What matters more is what we take away from todays game in terms of expectations by us fans and improvements in the team by the players and coaching staff.

[Philosophy_King]

There was no Taremi or Ezatolahi against Japan also.

Correct and similar to our 2-0 loss to Korea, we couldn't create many chances against Japan. When ever we face Teams that press us high and stay compact we struggle to find solutions and fall back into aliasghari bekesh ziresh football. It is just lack of education/mentality and i feel that no #Coach on the planet can fix these problems. We need to fix this issues from the very beginning: youth academies, infrastructure, facilities, more quality friendlies, the standard of the leauge etc.

That being said, Sko Lineup was ridiculous+ he missed the right time to make substitutions. Haysafi needs to retire ASAP; Ahmad Nour and Gholami are no TM-material; Amiri should be used as a joker in the future, players like Sayyadmanesh, Ghaedi, Ghoddus need to get more playing time, they are our future...

[Karimi 8]

Yeah I agree, unfortunately it has become very clear that our weakness is our wide defenders and a high-press. If our opponent implement these strategies, we have no ball carriers / effective passers to escape from those positions. So we just in turn rely on a bezan ziresh to Azmoun / Taremi. This may work against teams like Lebanon, UAE, Iraq, etc, but isn't going to work in the World Cup.

We need some friendly matches to try to sort this out, or else, we have zero chance at this stage to get out of our group.

[PSGman#19]

Correct and similar to our 2-0 loss to Korea, we couldn't create many chances against Japan. When ever we face Teams that press us high and stay compact we struggle to find solutions and fall back into aliasghari bekesh ziresh football. It is just lack of education/mentality and i feel that no #Coach on the planet can fix these problems. We need to fix this issues from the very beginning: youth academies, infrastructure, facilities, the standard of the leauge etc.

That being said, Sko Lineup was ridiculous+ he missed the right time to make substitutions. Haysafi needs to retire ASAP; Ahmad Nour and Gholami are no TM-material; Amiri should be used as a joker in the future, players like Sayyadmanesh, Ghaedi, Ghoddus...

Exactly, I think we are overrating our pool of players. You could put skocic, guardiola or any body we will never play like man city. We have big holes in some positions for that. When we find some hope, the guy is constantly injured (pag, shariati, delfi, salmani) or have weird career choice (pag, ghaedi, etc..) or really weird drop of performance (milmo)

Cq minimize the risk with a super defensive tactic and some of our top players but it work only to a certain extent.

[Ardalan]

Behtarin natijeye emrooz ine ke Eraagh joon az Emarat bebare ta Emarat dar baazie akharesh majboor beshe az Kore emtiyaaz begire ya bebare.

[naderb94]

The LB position has been a trainwreck for TM.. We've had 4 different starters in the last 10 games alone..
Noorafkan, Hajsafi, MilMo, Amiri have all started at LB. We need ONE consistent starter at LB rather than playing musical chairs at LB.

[Yerba]

We had 2 great missed opportunities in this game:
- Sardar heading the ball instead of shooting 1:1 against the goali.
- Allayar’s 1:1 miss

Let’s not forget Haj Safi not passing the ball to Gholi in the beginning of the match.

Realistically the team only had one training session as a complete squad. Many of the players were jet lagged evident in their body language. Keep in mind Ali Asqari or bekesh zeereshe football are results of poor stamina, endurance and speed.

Abedz goal keeping blunder hurt the teams’ psych, right before half time. That drained the energy out of players.

The lose is justifiable. The coach and team needs more practice sessions, friendly games against stronger opponents.
Better lose now against S.Korea now than in a game that could have knocked us out of a tournament.

Not the end of the world… we are a better squad than what we showed today. It was a bad day for the team.

I recall in 2016 during the 1st round of 2018 WCQ qualifiers we played against Thailand. It was an awful performance by our team. It was the first time the team had played together in several months with only 2 practice sessions. We barely scarped a win 1-0 win.
Majority of us justified it as a fluke performance and the team needed more time together.
History is not repeating itself, but it does rhyme.

[Yerba]

In hindsight…I kind of wished the coaching staff would have treated this game more of a friendly, and gave newer players a chance, changed tactics, and used more subs throughout the game.

Skocic is inexperienced. He should have taken this opportunity experiment more, similar to the Bosnia game.