Will Arab national teams eventually pull ahead of team melli?

[KC McElroy]

it's not just football. Looking at the past olympics, or any international sports events, the arab nations have not performed well in any sport.
Iran has done well internationally in wrestling, weightlifting, volleyball, basketball (kind of) and are respectable in football. I maybe drawing a blank, but I don't know if the arab nations do well in ANY sport.

There is one sport they do well in. LOL at the numbers!

[Bi-honar]

I don't know what you guys are talking about - Arab teams have been ahead of TM many times before, so it's not a general case of them always having been behind and catching up or pulling ahead.

May I remind you that Algeria and Morocco have both been to the 2nd round of the world cup and even if you're talking about Arab teams in Asia, so has Saudi Arabia - a feat TM has not achieved to this day.

And if you really want to be shocked and disturbed, consider that in 8 out of the last 9 Asian Cups (since the revolution), at least one Arab team has finished ahead of TM!!!

[OFFSIDE_1]

There is one sport they do well in. LOL at the numbers!

yes, but camels aren't arabs

[KC McElroy]

yes, but camels aren't arabs

Neither is a soccer ball.

[ramingeles2000]

I don't know what you guys are talking about - Arab teams have been ahead of TM many times before, so it's not a general case of them always having been behind and catching up or pulling ahead.

May I remind you that Algeria and Morocco have both been to the 2nd round of the world cup and even if you're talking about Arab teams in Asia, so has Saudi Arabia - a feat TM has not achieved to this day.

And if you really want to be shocked and disturbed, consider that in 8 out of the last 9 Asian Cups (since the revolution), at least one Arab team has finished ahead of TM!!!

I was referring to Asian arab teams. Also, the fact that an Arab team has finished ahead of TM in 8 of the last 9 AC's has a lot to do with the fact that around 6/16 teams in each edition of the Asian Cup (almost half) of the teams are Arab - so their chances of ending up in the semis are higher

[Abbas85]

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA *deep breathe*woooh............he...he...hehe.....heheh. .....AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAH!!!! (10 more minutes of rolling on the floor clutching my sides, crying from laughter)

[Bi-honar]

I was referring to Asian arab teams. Also, the fact that an Arab team has finished ahead of TM in 8 of the last 9 AC's has a lot to do with the fact that around 6/16 teams in each edition of the Asian Cup (almost half) of the teams are Arab - so their chances of ending up in the semis are higher

Well, you put them into a single group Ramin jaan, so I'm just letting you know their accomplishments in that grouping. And the fact that there are more teams in that grouping doesn't really mean they have better chances - they're more teams in the Central Asian or South and South East Asia groupings too, but even with those numbers they haven't accomplished anything noteworthy.

Even if you want to look at them as individual teams Saudi Arabia has had a much better performance than Iran in the Asian Cup since the revolution - making the final 6 out of 9 times while Iran has not reached the final even once. In fact, they have also finished ahead of Iran in every WCQ campaign with the exception of 2014. So just because they're going through a rebuilding period, it doesn't mean they have been a shitty team or they're worse than TM - quite the contrary, they have been very good and consistent until maybe 4 years ago.

Iraq has traditionally not been good in WCQ but they have made the QF's of the last 5 Asian Cups - just like Iran - with the difference that they've actually won the tournament, while the best we achieved was 3rd place. Kuwait also outperformed TM in the early to mid 80's both in WCQ and the Asian Cup, followed by UAE in the early to late 90's.

Granted, I think that TM is currently better than all these teams, but it's not like they've never had anything on us or ever will.

[Milad-69]

saudi already did in the 90 s but iran will always be strong while these other teams will have good decades or eras because they simply dont have iran's talents iran is a mother who continuously gives birth to talented individuals and it will never stop. only great nations can compete with iran over the long run and arab nations (except maybe for egypt) are the minnows.

lol if you think natural talent outweighs methodical investment to improve the quality of a Nations football program, whether it is the domestic league or the national team, you should wake up from your dream. Mentality like this is what has allowed us to fall so far behind teams we found inferior just a few years ago.

[ramingeles2000]

Well, you put them into a single group Ramin jaan, so I'm just letting you know their accomplishments in that grouping.

Even if you want to look at them as individual teams Saudi Arabia has had a much better performance than Iran in the Asian Cup since the revolution - making the final 6 out of 9 times while Iran has not reached the final even once. In fact, they have also finished ahead of Iran in every WCQ campaign with the exception of 2014.

So just because they're going through a rebuilding period, it doesn't mean they have been a shitty team or they're worse than TM - quite the contrary, they have been very good and consistent until maybe 4 years ago.

Iraq has traditionally not been good in WCQ but they have made the QF's of the last 5 Asian Cups - just like Iran - with the difference that they've actually won the tournament, while the best we achieved was 3rd place. Kuwait also outperformed TM in the early to mid 80's both in WCQ and the Asian Cup, followed by UAE in the early to late 90's.

Granted, I think that TM is currently better than all these teams, but it's not like they've never had anything on us or ever will.

Good points. It's funny how expectations have changed over the years. I remember the build up to every Asian Cup (interviews, hype, news stories) dating back to 2000 in Lebanon. Back in 2000, the players and coaches and media would clearly state the expectation: Championship. In 2004, same thing. Less so in 2007.

Now, 14 years later, no one realistically believes that we can win it all, even the players and coaches who usually are super optimistic know to manage expectations. I have never seen expectations be this reasonable - and I think it may work in our favor. With a little luck, I think we can get to the final.

[Saam]

I don't know why people have such short memories around here. As far as I remember, since I started watching Iranian football in like 2000, our youth teams and our club teams have been garbage in the continental competitions. I remember our youth teams would never do shit while others would make it to the world championships. Even in early 2000s, the Saudi club teams were dominating the AFC CL and Iranian teams were doing nothing. I don't know why nowadays there's so much talk of Iran going into a decline because of their youth and club teams struggling lol...it's nothing new. If anything we've been more successful since we had 2 good showings in the U17 World Cup 2008 and 2013 if I'm not wrong. So we can be positive that the talent is there (2008 u17s would be around 22-23 now). So I don't think there is anything to worry about.

[IPG]

What do u mean WILL !!!
Except the last few years the Saudis have outperformed Team Melli for decades !!!!

How many finals have we had since 1976 in AC !? How many tournament wins !?

Now how many have the Saudis had !? Money buys tournaments, period.

We have no money, no proper league, no strategy, no proper management etc etc.

[Dreamer]

Well let's see.
Proper investment in their football? Check.
Youth Academies? Check.
Continuous improvements in their organizational structures? Check.
Success in club competitions? Check.

"Arab" national teams are already ahead of us in terms of structure and professionalism. The only reason why this may come as a surprise anyone, or if they want to be in denial is because of the usual racist nonsense that goes on against anyone Arab in our backwards culture.

[KC McElroy]

They get results here and there by sauding refs but the true level of their soccer is way inferior to us.

[persianfire]

Our talent pool has declined. 10 years ago the number of the legionnaires in the top Euro leagues were almost equal between Iran, Japan and Korea.

[xerexes]

If we're talking about the Persian Gulf Arab countries, other than Iraq and Saudis they will always have a major handicap due to their miniscule populations. Having a large population never guarantees success as India and China have shown, but at the same time, investment and infrastructure will only take you so far when you have such a tiny pool of talent to develop and draw from. They can copy Qatar's buy-a-national-team formula, but other than that they will be restricted to sporadic success based on 'golden generations', like Kuwait of the 80s or Bahrain of 2000-2010.