Bosnia is having a horrible EURO 2016 campaign

[Bi-honar]

but the main point of my above-message which you quoted in the context of this particular thread is that you cannot take the result of today's stand-alone match between Israel and Bosnia as some sort of barometer as to how we should have fared against them (Bosnia) in a tournament setting.

Abed jaan, it's not a standalone match though: other than the game against TM, they didn't win a single competitive match in 2014!

You can keep repeating that they have God and his 10 siblings playing on the team, but all that matters is how they perform as a team and you can't deny the fact that a single competitive win in a full year out of 7 matches is not something to write home about. There's a reason they fired Susic.

Now you guys are gonna keep coming back and saying they have so and so on the team. Who cares? They lost to Egypt, Cyprus and Israel who have even less so and so's on their teams than we do. Holland has so and so on the team though and Iceland still beat them. A good football team has to be more than the sum of it's components and they clearly are not.

And there are a lot of other non-factual points in your post. We were not one of the oldest teams in the tournament. We did not have fitness issues by the time the WC rolled around and we matched or outran our opponents. And we were far more experienced than Bosnia in a "tournament format" - this was their first "tournament format" for god's sake. These are all FACTS.

[rugs]

Abed jaan, it's not a standalone match though: other than the game against TM, they didn't win a single competitive match in 2014!

You can keep repeating that they have God and his 10 siblings playing on the team, but all that matters is how they perform as a team and you can't deny the fact that a single competitive win in a full year out of 7 matches is not something to write home about. There's a reason they fired Susic.

Now you guys are gonna keep coming back and saying they have so and so on the team. Who cares? They lost to Egypt, Cyprus and Israel who have even less so and so's on their teams than we do. Holland has so and so on the team though and Iceland still beat them. A good football team has to be more than the sum of it's components and they clearly are not.

Iran hasn't won a single competitive match and Bosnia beat us.

So they lost to Egypt in a friendly. But they beat the Ivory Coast and Mexico and tied Belgium (a #1 seed). Why do you not mention those?

It's been explained to you every which way and yet you're not getting it. You are also for some reason excluding their wins and making an excuse for why they beat us.

They were ranked higher, they have a better squad, and were expected to win. It's the whole "We should have beat Mexico" thing all over...

I'll say this again, the way you argue is the same as a Bosnian fan dismissing Iran because we lost to Guinea, Lebanon, UZB and Oman.

[Bi-honar]

Iran hasn't won a single competitive match and Bosnia beat us.

So they lost to Egypt in a friendly. But they beat the Ivory Coast and Mexico and tied Belgium (a #1 seed). Why do you not mention those?

I don't know what you're talking about dude, fact macto ina aslan haal nemikoni to engar.

Excluding the game against each other, here's the two teams' competitive records for 2014:

Iran 1 - 1 -1 (win against Kuwait, tie against Nigeria, loss to Argentina).
Bosnia 0 - 2 - 4 (no wins, ties against Belgium and Wales and losses to Nigeria, Argentina, Cyprus and Israel).

Khob hala they beat Mexico and Ivory Coast in a couple of friendlies too you mentioned it and I mentioning it now. Does it change their dismal competitive match record? And this is the record of the two teams vs. the same opponents, before you start calling Wales and Cyprus giants and saying we played easier teams:

Iran 0 - 1 - 0
Bosnia 0 - 0 - 2

These are facts. Sure, I'm not denying that they have a better squad on paper - count that as a fact too. They also had a better squad on paper the previous 4 or 5 times we played them. It's also a FACT that whoever is better on paper, or has more players playing in so and so league, has not, does not and will not necessarily be the better team or win the the game, or 75% of the results in Euro qualifying thus far would have gone the other way.

So please stop obsessing about and repeating who has a better team on paper and what leagues their players play in as the be all and end all to all relevant facts and take other facts into account too. Even if you don't agree with "we should have beaten them" you should at least agree with "we could have beaten them". That's all I have said and all I'm saying.

[rugs]

I don't know what you're talking about dude, fact macto ina aslan haal nemikoni to engar.

Excluding the game against each other, here's the two teams' competitive records for 2014:

Iran 1 - 1 -1 (win against Kuwait, tie against Nigeria, loss to Argentina).
Bosnia 0 - 2 - 4 (no wins, ties against Belgium and Wales and losses to Nigeria, Argentina, Cyprus and Israel).

Khob hala they beat Mexico and Ivory Coast in a couple of friendlies too you mentioned it and I mentioning it now. Does it change their dismal competitive match record? And this is the record of the two teams vs. the same opponents, before you start calling Wales and Cyprus giants and saying we played easier teams:

Iran 0 - 1 - 0
Bosnia 0 - 0 - 2

These are facts. Sure, I'm not denying that they have a better squad on paper - count that as a fact too. They also had a better squad on paper the previous 4 or 5 times we played them. It's also a FACT that whoever is better on paper, or has more players playing in so and so league, has not, does not and will not necessarily be the better team or win the the game, or 75% of the results in Euro qualifying thus far would have gone the other way.

So please stop obsessing about and repeating who has a better team on paper and what leagues their players play in as the be all and end all to all relevant facts and take other facts into account too. Even if you don't agree with "we should have beaten them" you should at least agree with "we could have beaten them". That's all I have said and all I'm saying.

Lol. You forget to mention Mexico and Ivory coast and you say "Khob hala", after constantly referring to their loss against Egypt as an example of.... I am still not sure yet...

And what does the competitive record in 2014 prove anyway? Is there something that suggests the only past 10 months of matches are significant but the past 12, 13, or 14 aren't?

I would bet good money that Wales and Cyprus are better than Lebanon and Uzbekistan.

Euro qualifying is not over. I don't see the relevancy.

In football anyone could beat anyone on any given day. That's not the point. The point is, just because Bosnia lost to Israel or Cyprus or anyone else, doesn't mean that our chances should have been better against them if we did x, y, or z.

Losses are a part of football and they beat us easily in the only match that mattered between our two teams.

[PSGman#19]

Nigeria didn't even qualify for african cup!!

[O-ZoNe]

Re: Bosnia is having a horrible EURO 2016 campaign

Nigeria didn't even qualify for african cup!!

Makes you wonder how tough our group in WC was? We may have just passed up our best chance to move on to the round of 16 in WC...

Sent from my ME173X using Tapatalk

[greatpersian]

Maybe we gave too much respect to Nigeria and Bosnia.

[PSGman#19]

Maybe we gave too much respect to Nigeria and Bosnia.

Or maybe we arent good enough

Hopefully a coach less stubborn will select youger players and make them play for scoring goals

[Abedzadeh]

Sorry to bump a somewhat older thread, but I actually just read the full response that was addressed to me.

Abed jaan, it's not a standalone match though: other than the game against TM, they didn't win a single competitive match in 2014!

BH jan, as I explained in my previous message, the Bos-Israel match WAS a stand-alone match, as it was an isolated match. The match did not occur in the context of a tournament setting whereby Israel had to play a series of international matches in short succession against other international teams prior to meeting Bosnia (in contrast to our team during the WC). Therefore, it's highly inaccurate to use this match, or others like it, as some sort of metric as to how we should have fared against Bosnia in the WC.

And there are a lot of other non-factual points in your post. We were not one of the oldest teams in the tournament.

That's completely false my friend; http://www.statista.com/statistics/3...ge-player-age/

As you can see for yourself, it is a fact that Iran had one of the oldest squads in Brazil. Statistically speaking, we were the 5th oldest team in Brazil (Arg was the oldest, Hon, Gre, Port, Urgu were tied for 2nd, Brazil and Spain were 3rd and 4th respectively). That means that 27 teams on average had a younger squad than ours, which certainly makes our team one of the oldest in Brazil (regardless of your refusal to acknowledge this fact). As I said in my previous post, 6/10 field players in TM's starting lineup were 30 or older. As I explained in detail in my previous post, this factor will greatly effect the rate of recovery of the players as they proceed from match to match to match, etc.

As for the rest of my post, everything within it was factually accurate (particularly my comments about player ages, failure to qualify for consecutive WC tourneys, failure to win the AC in decades or even be regarded as a credible title contender since 2000, etc.). Just because you don't want to acknowledge those facts, or disagree with the ultimate conclusions, doesn't mean the content of the post was in any way inaccurate, as I just showed you regarding the team age issue.

We did not have fitness issues by the time the WC rolled around and we matched or outran our opponents.

That's not true. It's one thing to be able to outrun your opponents in the first match of the group stage, and then the second match ....... but the ability to sustain that fitness level, and be able to maintain the same level of physical superiority over your opponents across several matches (i.e. tournament style) is something else. Thanks to Carlos's fitness regiment, he was able to GREATLY improve our players' fitness levels ..... but that does not mean or in any way change or alter the fact that our players were depleted/drained for the third and final match vs. Bosnia, or suggest that we did not have "fitness issues" in general (please see my previous response, as well as Rugs' posts for more clarification).

Here are the FIFA match stats vs. Bosnia --> http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/matches...tatistics.html

As per the link, Bosnia outran us in the final match, and in my humble opinion, a significant reason for that has to do with the factors that me, Rugs, and Xerxes previously explained in great detail (i.e. playing two very tough matches against two tough opponents earlier, Bosnia's playing for pride after not receiving their just rewards from their first two performances, the fitness superiority of Bosnia relative to our players due to their players playing in tough Euro leagues, the significantly younger ages of Bosnia's players compared to ours, having a deeper roster on the bench, the majority of our players playing in the very weak domestic Iranian league, etc.) I don't know why you dismiss these important and non-discountable considerations.

And we were far more experienced than Bosnia in a "tournament format" - this was their first "tournament format" for god's sake. These are all FACTS.

BH jan, our very distant WC experience (from 2006) has no relevance in terms of giving us some sort of "edge" or feeling of entitlement in 2014. As I said, it is a "fact" that only two players from our current squad, Ando and Javad, were present during our previous WC outing, which was the '06 edition (i.e. a VERY long time ago). It is also a "fact" that both of these players are over 30, play for Middle Eastern teams (in Kuwait and Esteghlal, lol) and are past their respective bests'. (I won't include AH Sadeghi here as he did not play at all in '06). I already addressed the lack of relevance of the Asian Cup to the Iran-Bosnia discussion in my prior message, and how it is not even remotely on par with a World Cup tournament, so I need not repeat it here.

I don't know how you can reasonably suggest that our squad had any kind of meaningful World Cup experience when it is a "fact" that only 2 players out of a roster of 23 have ever played in a World Cup before (not to mention a WC that was 8 years ago). Likewise, I don't see how that should justify any sort or sense of entitlement against a team like Bosnia that has players such as Dzeko, among others, who play in the UEFA Champions League. It goes without saying that players like Dzeko, Pjanic, Ibisavic, Kolasinac, etc. have sufficient experience at the highest levels, regardless of the fact that Bosnia was a tournament debutant.

The UEFA Champions League (which is also a tournament BTW) experience of Dzeko and Kolasinac far outweighs, and cannot even be considered in the same category as the so-called "experience" that Heidari, or Hajsafi may have. After reading some of the ill-informed responses here, someone who hadn't seen the match or known about our opponent and its players would have gotten the impression that we lost to Nepal or Bangladesh Bosnia is packed to the brim with players who are stars for top of the line Euro clubs teams, which include Roma, Stutgart, Schalke, Manchester City, etc. In contrast our players mostly play for IPL teams in a crappy/corrupt amateur league, and whose only major international tourney experience consists of the highly prestigious and coveted Asian Cup, lol. Sorry, but playing successive matches against Iraq, DPR Korea, and the UAE is so different in so many ways (particularly fitness-wise) than playing successive matches against Nigeria, and then Argentina, and then Bosnia.

As I said in my previous response, it is a "fact" that in 1998 Croatia also made their debut in the WC and eliminated some traditional powerhouses (previous/multiple champions Germany as well as the mighty Holland). The "fact" that Croatia was just a tournament debutant and lacked "big tourney experience" in 1998, surely did not entail that their opponents, or their opponents' fans should justifiably have felt they were entitled to an automatic victory against a team (like Croatia) making its WC debut. When you talk about your "facts", you need to consider them within the confines of their respective contexts, which you have not done in your discussion of Bosnia.

Sorry for the late response, but I actually didn't read your full reply to me until now

[Kiarash]

I don't care what some may think, but Bosnia is a shit team. I wish we tied them at least. Hopefully we will take revenge on them the next major tournament.

[Javeed]

On this day last year...

EdDzeko scored his first FIFAWorldCup finals goal v Iran. Not a bad strike either!

[FootballeKhob]

On this day last year...

EdDzeko scored his first FIFAWorldCup finals goal v Iran. Not a bad strike either!

LOOOOOL ridi. It was the 25th not the 27th of june! LOOOL.

[alireza0101]

Today I still can not sleep for that Iran result at Brasil 2014.


Their latest result:

Andorra
0 – 3
Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina
3 – 1
Israel