Team Melli vs. Bahrain

[maij]

In a couple of hours from now , the match will start and I should be heading to the stadium pretty soon.

The weather , is a typical August day hot and humid, although the humidity is bearable and better than a few days back. I expect that lots of drinking water will be consumed by the players tonight.

The fans in Bahrain are not extremely keen on their national team due to several reasons. The last friendly match against Kenya which Bahrain won 2-1 was quite poorly attended.

Some Team Melli fans should be attending , but the majority will be either watching the match on TV , while quite a few who still suffer from the scar that was left after Team Melli exit from the World Cup, have lost interest in this match.

At this stage , and perhaps for the first time ever , Bahrain is the favorite time to win the match. They do have a solid team , great defending , a wise and highly experienced coach in Milan Macala and finally this team has been together for many years now and gel well.

Bahrain is meeting Saudi Arabia on 5th September in the first leg of the World Cup Asian Zone play off.

[Persianking]

Damet garm maij jaan!
Thanks for the live report!:)

I hope we can beat Bahrain even though it will be difficult this time.

Anyway have fun there and if you can please post some pics later;)

[persepolisfan]

waz there a lot of iran fans?

[maij]

The whole match was disappointing. Apart from the goals , that is always pleasant to watch ( NOT the ones scored against you of course) .

There was around 1500 fans in the 27,000 capacity stadium. The only Iranian fans where a few children , mostly girls from the Iranian School , but quite vocal. Nice chants as well , but the poor girls lost stamina after the 2nd goal scored against Team Melli.

There was also a some 50 to 70 fans on the other side of the stadium who were quite subdued and obviously affected by the poor performance of Team Melli.


I always have a habit of watching coaches action in matches , I have done that a long time ago and frankly don't even know why!

One thing that surprised me quite a bit with Ghotbi is that he had little or no communication with his players during the first half. He stood up in the technical zone of his moving occasionally but mostly stationary without any attempt to guide , shout or direct his players!


In general , Team Melli is experiencing tough times. I am getting worried about the next encounters. The Asian Cup qualifiers. Thailand is not a weak team at all while Jordan , despite some set back , is still a difficult team for Iran. I was not too worried a few weeks back , but now I am.

Honestly , supporting Team Melli needs a lot of guts and patience. When was the last time that this team melli has made their fans happy ???