3rd pot. Irans first world cup 2018 Goal

[Babr]

I don't believe we have. How would we know anyway? We haven't played a dominant side since the last world cup.

Even against a pathetic Korea we got badly boxed in for continuous minutes at a time. Jalal Hosseini, as good a defender as he is, just sits way too deep and brings the entire team back with him.

We thought we had found a jewel in Ezzatollahi. Apparently we were wrong. The kid is not dependable. He could've been the key to breaking Nekounam's lazy and slow trend, but he's too hot-headed and not skillful enough.

Overall, Iran's offensive game and build-up play is extremely lacking. Almost as bad as it was in 2014. We don't even have the younger Shojaei and Dejagah anymore. And who the hell knows what this Ghoddos guy is capable of. He won't get much exposure before the WC anyway.

Defensively Iran is as good as a top 20 team can be (probably one of the best). But then again, that's only half of football.

Are you saying the team is not more skilled than 2014?
Sardar 22 goals in 28 matches.
Taremi a goal or assist in almost every cap.
We have guys like Kaveh, Gucci, Karim on bench who could have been starter in any TM since 2006.
Milad Mohammadi a very solid LB.
Either of Ghafouri, Rezaein ok choices in RB.
Pouraligaji a very solid CD. Beside Jalal who is still very reliable despite the age.
Ghoddos, Dejagah will be good choices. Dejagah actually well rested and should be key player one more time. Add JB too who needs to raise his game in NT level as well.
I agree about Ezzatollahi his game dropped but other than him we are much stronger team compare to 4 years ago. There is no question about. You never liked Nekounam anyway lol ..
But on serious note the only advantage of 2014 team compare to now was Neko-Ando duo. We don't have it now!!

4 years a go we only had Dejagah in Fulham and Gucci in Belgium. Now there are 11-12 who play outside. Not top leagues but still much much better than IPL.

 

[Bache Tehroon]

Are you saying the team is not more skilled than 2014?
Sardar 22 goals in 28 matches.
Taremi a goal or assist in almost every cap.
We have guys like Kaveh, Gucci, Karim on bench who could have been starter in any TM since 2006.
Milad Mohammadi a very solid LB.
Either of Ghafouri, Rezaein ok choices in RB.
Pouraligaji a very solid CD. Beside Jalal who is still very reliable despite the age.
Ghoddos, Dejagah will be good choices. Dejagah actually well rested and should be key player one more time. Add JB too who needs to raise his game in NT level as well.
I agree about Ezzatollahi his game dropped but other than him we are much stronger team compare to 4 years ago. There is no question about. You never liked Nekounam anyway lol ..
But on serious note the only advantage of 2014 team compare to now was Neko-Ando duo. We don't have it now!!

4 years a go we only had Dejagah in Fulham and Gucci in Belgium. Now there are 11-12 who play outside. Not top leagues but still much much better than IPL.

No way to tell.

The goals, assists, clean-sheets and all have been obtained against evidently weakened Asian opponents.

It's hard to deny the added depth in our squad, but it's also hard to make a case for added competitiveness against tougher opponents than Korea or Uzbekistan.

In the game against Russia Iran did look okay at times, but not a single soul in this world can actually quantify Russia's quality or position in football these days. They're such a shit team at times it's hard to see them beat even the likes of UAE, but they can also be half decent. Again, not a definitive test at all. Even then, Iran still looked extremely defensive against the weakest Russia in decades.

Kollan Iran doesn't have a midfield. It's basically 8 defenders and 2 strikers most times. Very hard to score goals like that. Also, pretty stupid to think Iran can ever come back from being 1-0 or 2-0 down. It's not happening. If Iran concedes a goal, it's pretty much game over. This is generally unacceptable in football, but it can work in short tournaments.

 

[TeamMeli]

No way to tell.

The goals, assists, clean-sheets and all have been obtained against evidently weakened Asian opponents.

It's hard to deny the added depth in our squad, but it's also hard to make a case for added competitiveness against tougher opponents than Korea or Uzbekistan.

In the game against Russia Iran did look okay at times, but not a single soul in this world can actually quantify Russia's quality or position in football these days. They're such a shit team at times it's hard to see them beat even the likes of UAE, but they can also be half decent. Again, not a definitive test at all. Even then, Iran still looked extremely defensive against the weakest Russia in decades.

Kollan Iran doesn't have a midfield. It's basically 8 defenders and 2 strikers most times. Very hard to score goals like that. Also, pretty stupid to think Iran can ever come back from being 1-0 or 2-0 down. It's not happening. If Iran concedes a goal, it's pretty much game over. This is generally unacceptable in football, but it can work in short tournaments.

That is true what you said about Russia, they haven't been quite the same since the collapse of the ZSSR but when are we going to know if Iran is in pot 3 or pot 4? To be fair too, the level of competition in Asia improved, take a look at Syria, they are not as bad as we thought. My question is did we do enough to save ourselves and go into pot three? I know they are doing the group draw soon and the October fifa rankings should come out. As for Russia Iran game, considering they beat Korea 4-2, well the same guy on Korea's team scored twice but they have the potential to be good. They looked good at times vs Russia but a 1-1 tie on the road is a good result. I HOPE we did enough to save ourselves. The only time Russia had some success, post ZSSR/CCCP era, was in the UEFA Euros, when Gus Hiddink was their head coach, I believe they made it to the semi finals. Other than that, they have not done much. They can beat most Asian(minus Iran, CONCACAF(minus maybe Mexico) and African teams. They can beat the Eastern Euro and lesser SA teams but they can't take the good Western Euro and SA teams, it is not like it was before, when they made it to three UEFA Euro's and won one.

 

[Sly]

Are you saying the team is not more skilled than 2014?
Sardar 22 goals in 28 matches.
Taremi a goal or assist in almost every cap.
We have guys like Kaveh, Gucci, Karim on bench who could have been starter in any TM since 2006.
Milad Mohammadi a very solid LB.
Either of Ghafouri, Rezaein ok choices in RB.
Pouraligaji a very solid CD. Beside Jalal who is still very reliable despite the age.
Ghoddos, Dejagah will be good choices. Dejagah actually well rested and should be key player one more time. Add JB too who needs to raise his game in NT level as well.
I agree about Ezzatollahi his game dropped but other than him we are much stronger team compare to 4 years ago. There is no question about. You never liked Nekounam anyway lol ..
But on serious note the only advantage of 2014 team compare to now was Neko-Ando duo. We don't have it now!!

4 years a go we only had Dejagah in Fulham and Gucci in Belgium. Now there are 11-12 who play outside. Not top leagues but still much much better than IPL.

To be fair, at that time we also had the iron man of the WC, Pouladi! We had 3 other reliable defenders in Hosseini, Montazeri and Sadeghi! Both Dejagah and Gucci were young and in European top forms. Add to that Nekounam and Teymourian, a young Haji Safi in the LAM position and a 20 year old Jahanbakhsh who'd just joined NEC. I don't think we were worse than now at that time. In fact far from it! The only advantage in today's TM is having more European experience. That's all.

In fact if we categorize TM of both times in possession of 100% reliable starters for different positions, we'd have:

TM2014: Dejagah, Gucci, Nekounam, Teymourian, Hosseini, Montazeri, Sadeghi, Pouladi, Haji Safi = 9 fully reliable starter positions.

TM2017: Hosseini, Milad Mohammadi, Rezaei/Ghafouri, maybe Pouraliganji= 4 positions to be honest.

Azmoun is out of form despite scoring goals against Asian teams for TM. He's not yet proven against European teams in TM (yes 1 goal against Russia).
Taremi: Begir nagir dare. Sometimes he plays out of this world, sometimes he can not score in front of the open goal even if his life depended on it.
Jahanbakhsh: plays in a lower level in TM
Ezatollahi: Inconsistent
Dejagah: Not very young anymore
Shojaei: Not very young anymore
Haji Safi: Not the same player of 4 years ago.
Ghoddos: Still unknown.
Torabi: would have been a great reliable player if CQ started him.
Gucci: Not a starter. hasn't scored a goal for a very long time.
Ansarifard: Very inconsistent. Not a starter.
Amiri: Slow and ineffective nowadays.

Even if you add both Azmoun and Taremi in among the reliable starters, we'd still be left with only 6 positions.

CQ and IFF really need to use the Fifa friendly days for finding those reliable starters we need! Otherwise we'll be screwed.

 

[Payandeh Iran]

Forget about individual comparisons. This is a bettr TEAM than the ine we had 3-4 years ago. However, even a good draw doesn’t necessarily mean getting through to next round but at the same time it is not far from reach.

 

[TeamMeli]

Forget about individual comparisons. This is a bettr TEAM than the ine we had 3-4 years ago. However, even a good draw doesn’t necessarily mean getting through to next round but at the same time it is not far from reach.

This is a very important WC for us for this key reason. IF we get a good draw and IF we go to the second round, when CQ leaves, the IFF will be forced to hire a good coach. IF we do not go to the second round, then they will go cheap and get a dolati coach. I happen to agree a good draw does not necessarily ensure us a 2nd round spot but this team is more experienced it is not out of reach., like it was four years ago. They have a nice mix of veterans and young players and the team is overall stacked. Even Birnavand looked good against Russia, the goal that Russia scored was not his fault, it was the one lapse we had on defense. Even without seeing the draw, I like our chances, compared to the last WC. I just hope we did enough to save ourselves and go back to pot 3.

 

[Sly]

Forget about individual comparisons. This is a bettr TEAM than the ine we had 3-4 years ago. However, even a good draw doesn’t necessarily mean getting through to next round but at the same time it is not far from reach.

THAT i agree with! We have a better TEAM than we had when we had just qualified to the WC2014! Let's see what CQ can make out of it for this WC!

 

[Babr]

Even individually...

Haghighi=Damagh or anyone else
PAG>Sadeghi
Rezaeian/Ghafouri> Montazeri(as RB)
Milad=(or even better) Pouladi as LB
Javad> Ezzatollahi
Ando>Hajsafi or Ebrahimi
Jahanbakhsh/Torabi/Ghoddos>Heydari(as RM in 2014 World Cup)
Taremi>Hajsafi(as LW)
Azmoun>Gucci(22 goals in 28 matches)
Dejagah/Ghoddos/Shojaei.. Probbaly at the same level of 4 years ago, but older in case of Masoud and Dejagah.

Overall as i said the only disadvantage compare to 14 is two DM positions.

BUT,

We have a deeper bench, way deeper, Ghafouri(or Rezaeian), Montazeri, Cheshmi, Aghaei, Karim, Kaveh, Gucci, Torabi, Ghoddos(or Shojaei if they invite him again), Amiri.

We probably sit 4-5 guys who play in Europe on bench!! When was the last time this happened in Iranian football?!

 

[Babr]

No way to tell.

The goals, assists, clean-sheets and all have been obtained against evidently weakened Asian opponents.

It's hard to deny the added depth in our squad, but it's also hard to make a case for added competitiveness against tougher opponents than Korea or Uzbekistan.

In the game against Russia Iran did look okay at times, but not a single soul in this world can actually quantify Russia's quality or position in football these days. They're such a shit team at times it's hard to see them beat even the likes of UAE, but they can also be half decent. Again, not a definitive test at all. Even then, Iran still looked extremely defensive against the weakest Russia in decades.

Kollan Iran doesn't have a midfield. It's basically 8 defenders and 2 strikers most times. Very hard to score goals like that. Also, pretty stupid to think Iran can ever come back from being 1-0 or 2-0 down. It's not happening. If Iran concedes a goal, it's pretty much game over. This is generally unacceptable in football, but it can work in short tournaments.

Again it comes back to the concept of building attacks from wingers, that doesn't mean you don't have midfielder, it is actually the other way around, the two DM play HUGE role in a defensive-minded system. Anytime each of them fail you notice it in the game. They cover lots of space compare to typical DM in an offensive space because they defend deep and on counter need to also help the attack and wingers. In this regard, both Ezzatollahi, and Hajsafi, even Ebrahimi are faster than Nekounam who was in his 30s in 2014.

Having said that, i wouldn't be surprised to see CQ start Cheshmi in the first match next to Hajsafi or Ebrahimi(because of Ezzatollahi suspension).

 

[Sly]

Even individually...

Haghighi=Damagh or anyone else
PAG>Sadeghi
Rezaeian/Ghafouri> Montazeri(as RB)
Milad=(or even better) Pouladi as LB
Javad> Ezzatollahi
Ando>Hajsafi or Ebrahimi
Jahanbakhsh/Torabi/Ghoddos>Heydari(as RM in 2014 World Cup)
Taremi>Hajsafi(as LW)
Azmoun>Gucci(22 goals in 28 matches)
Dejagah/Ghoddos/Shojaei.. Probbaly at the same level of 4 years ago, but older in case of Masoud and Dejagah.

Overall as i said the only disadvantage compare to 14 is two DM positions.

BUT,

We have a deeper bench, way deeper, Ghafouri(or Rezaeian), Montazeri, Cheshmi, Aghaei, Karim, Kaveh, Gucci, Torabi, Ghoddos(or Shojaei if they invite him again), Amiri.

We probably sit 4-5 guys who play in Europe on bench!! When was the last time this happened in Iranian football?!

Your comparisons are not always fair though. Heydari was a sub in the world cup and should not be compared with Jahanbakhsh (a starter) and Ghoddos (a probable starter). We don't even know about Ghoddos to know if he's really better than anyone in TM yet. Our RM should be compared with Dejagah in the WC2014! He was playing there while Masoud was playing as CAM and Haji Safi as LAM.

and to me.... Dejagah 2014 >>>>>>>>> anyone we have in RM at the moment.

Taremi is less of a player as a LW/LAM than Haji Safi was at that time. It's not even Taremi's real position there! And as said, Taremi is very inconsistent compared to Haji Safi of 2014 (as LAM) who was consistently our second best LAM after Khalatbari who should have been in the WC!

Dejagah is waaaaay below his own level now than back in 2014.

Amiri? I don't even think he deserves to be in TM anymore to be honest.

 

[brando]

today is the day. Oct 16th 2017
6 hours to FIFA October ranking is released.

I even cross my balls for Iran in the 3rd pot. :4kerim:

 

[brando]

FIFA ranking is released. Congratulation to Iran.
We dropped from 23th to 34th, but still this is the first ever world Cup draw with Iran in pot 3, and not pot 4 as we always use too.
Normaly we get 3 stronger opponents in the group.
This time we will get 2 stronger opponents and 1 weaker opponent! Go Iran.
First Goal achieved. Next Goal: good friendlies. Last Goal: at world cup make it to knockout fase.

:work-hard: :football: :Iran1:

 

[brando]

Iran needed minimum 8 qualified team ranked below Iran to stay in pot 3.

At this moment there are only 6 teams qualified below Iran (SRB, NIG, JAP, PAN, KOR, KSA)

What sealed the deal for Iran to stay in 3rd pot is, at least following two teams are all below Iran:

AUS/HON play off (1 team), and MRC/CIV fight in african group (1 team)

 

[brando]

btw. Thanx to Football gods USA was eliminated.
If USA (27th) instead of HON had made it to the playoff against AUS, Irans 3rd pot would no longer be garantied.

 

[brando]

Iran most likely to lose AFC 1st spot in November ranking, for the first time in many years.

World Cup Q points are so much, that just 2 games of WCQ for AUS and non for Iran in this month has made Iran drop 9 spots and AUS to gain 7.

just 2 games did this: Iran lost 81 points and AUS gained 52 points = total 133 points

Next month AUS will again have 2 matches of WCQ points to fish and Iran non.
With only 60 points now seperating IRAN and AUS, If AUS wins the November playoffs and makes it to world cup, they will 100% pass Iran in the rankings.

SEPTEMBER RANKING: IRAN (865 p - 25th) / AUS (662 p - 50th)
OCTOBER RANKING: IRAN (784 p - 34th) / AUS (714 p - 43th)

 

[Payandeh Iran]

Records are made to be btoken. We had a great run and what matters is that we got the third pot. Australia can take the top Asian spot now as it has no impact on WC groups. That being said GO HONDURAS!!!

 

[Payandeh Iran]

today is the day. Oct 16th 2017
6 hours to FIFA October ranking is released.

I even cross my balls for Iran in the 3rd pot. :4kerim:

længe leve Marlon’s testikel

 

[houmanbahal]

We dropped to 34!!! damn you Syria!!

http://www.fifa.com/fifa-world-ranking/ranking-table/men/afc.html

How did USA move up one spot after losing to T&T loool.. same goes with Turkey. They didn't even make it to the WC. And we dropped 9 spots??? this ranking is crazy.

 

[TeamMeli]

@Real Madrid jan I just woke up and got the wonderful news another friend emailed me your picture. I personally could care less about the BS FIFA rankings. After all, they have Brazil, the team that lost to Germany 7-1 #1 and Germany #2, even after winning the Confederation's Cup with their B team. What is important is what pot you are in and this is the first time Iran is in pot 3. At least we know we will have one bad team in our group, this is WONDERFUL NEWS for our beloved Team Melli I could not be happier Prost(TM).

 

[Real Madrid]

@Real Madrid jan I just woke up and got the wonderful news another friend emailed me your picture.

.
.
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:shocked::shocked::shocked:

lol why would you need my picture for ?