One major defeat, with or without the cause, has to be put in the context of 8 years of better than deserving results, changing the way TM played, gaining back the lost respect, and a lot of convincing wins in Asia.
This is about the best our football can offer at this point, if we don't want to delude ourselves. Our league is getting better but is not even close to top leagues in Asia, our stars at their best form play for mediocre teams in Europe, our sport media are destructive as sum, our major clubs are run by tugs and corrupts, our youth planning has failed except for spot occasions, our domestic managers are bunch of idiots, our sport science and medicine are primitive at best, and we are a disarrayed society with broken economy under sanctions, decades of mismanagement and political turmoil.
So when I read our friends say "success in Asia is winning cups or advancing to the second round in the WC", I have to agree. But I have to also say we are not prepared for that success coming short at different levels. As a manager however, CQ did the best with what he had, which is the definition of success IMO.
The partial but yet valuable achievements we had in Asia including going to back to back WCs, good results in WC 2018, making it to top 4 in AC after so many years of poor shows, restarting the wave of transfers to Europe, keeping the Iranians interested in TM, dominating the FIFA ranking and therefore giving our weak clubs maximal points to represent 3-4 in continental championship; are not necessarily stemming from a strong domestic football foundation. I think we owe them to the greenhouse program CQ started in our football desert, and to keeping this program constantly alive for 8 years (something totally unIranian!).
Regardless of judging CQ for good or bad, we now disrupted 8 years of consistency.