U23- Games of the XXXII Olympiad

[DaNinerMan]

These players play at senior level for their club (Belgian league, IPL) so U21 or U23 shouldn't be a problem.
Mbappé won the world cup at 19 years old.

On a side note :
- Taha seems to have a never ending injury.
- Thailand played the qualifiers but were qualified from the start for the final tournament as a host??

Yes, Thailand participated probably because its good practice for the team. But ya, Thailand qualified regardless of results.

[beri486]

They do, and can, but my point is that they have hardly been core U23 players so far.

Which is precisely why the U23 team has been a flop so far.

From what I have seen from the aforementioned trio they are one quantum step above the rest of the players.

[beri486]

Qualified teams:

Host: THA
Group Winners: QAT, BAH, IRQ, JOR, UZB, DPK, KOR, JAP, CHN, VIE
Runner Ups: IRN, SYR, AUS

The other 2 teams will be from this trio: KSA, TAJ, UAE.
KSA needs to beat UAE to advance since TAJ has the same GD
It might come down to yellow cards!

[bahbah]

anyone knows where to watch saudi uae?

[Irannn]

AFC just uploaded the match report of UZB/TJK match. wow 5 yellow cards for TJK. I can assume Saudis already knew that. that's probably why they are still 0-0 at half time with UAE. I guess that will remain as the final score.

[Nokhodi]

Disgusts me how the Saudis historically and continuously get to play the last match in so many qualification tournaments.

[DaNinerMan]

New episode of Team Melli Talk is coming soon on YouTube! Make sure to check it out!

[Irannn]

interesting note. we are tied with Syria in everything. GD. GA and even the number of yellow cards ! both teams have two ! we are lucky our qualification didn't come to that. AFC should use the coin toss to determine the qualified team !

[bahbah]

UAE scored

[Irannn]

link for KSA/UAE
https://live-stream365.com/onlinepla...ream_id=721475

I'm sure all of us will question it if Saudis score the equalizer . you can watch and judge yourself

[Saam]

Thank God Iran made it. Usually this results not counting against the fourth place team bs screws us out of qualification. Glad we got the benefit this time.

[Irannn]

surprise surprise. Saudis just scored the equalizer . I can say UAE defenders were a bit soft .

[Nokhodi]

I've been watching U23 TMs since 2003.
Believe it or not, even though this is one of the least talented TMs in terms of individual talent, they actually played some of the better football.

Let me list for you what kind of players we had and the results:

1992 Qualification
A team with players like Azizi, Shahroodi, Golmohammadi, Mirshad Majedi, Hossein KHatibi missed out right in the first round of qualification because we lost to Qatar twice and tied Yemen.

1996 Qualification
A team with Mahdavikia, Nakisa, Bagheri, Pashazadeh, Minavand, Bezik, Hamedani and Helali got knocked out by a really bad UAE team.

2000 Qualification
A team with Mahdavikia, Nekounam, Shahbazian, Yazdani, Kavianpour, Pejman Jamshidi, and Rasoul Khatibi lost to Bahrain and Lebanon and again got eliminated in the first round of qualifiers.

2004 Qualification:
A team with Rahmati, Borhani, Navidkia, Jabbari, Madanchi, Jalal Hosseini, Akbarpour, Jamishidian, Mobali, Kazemian... got to the final round but couldn't get past a very talented South Korea team. I always thought this team was the most overrated we had. Most of the players were burned out.

2008 Qualification:
A team with Kaabi, Makani, Hamooudi, Ravankhah, Kolahkaj, Amraei, Oladi and Meydavoudi played really bad and finished 3rd in a 4 team group to Saudi and Oz.
To be fair, this was probably our weakest Olympic team so not much was expected.

2012 Qualification:
A team with Ansarifard, Moslaman, Hossein Hosseini, Hajisafi, Khalilzadeh, Hamed Lak, and Kamyabinia was eliminated on a technicality because geniuses Mansourian and Afazeli couldn't figure out who had how many yellow cards on the team and played a suspended player (Kamyabinia). This team played good football but was run by illiterates and lost in the playoff to a team of overage Iraqi players.

2016 Qualification:
Lost in the Asian Cup U-23 Championship QF. We weren't too bad, but Japan was very good that year.
Our team had players like Torabi, MOhammadi brothers, Cheshmi, Norollahi, Pahlavan, Kanaani, Majid Hosseni and many others. Jahanbakhsh and Azmoun were not released by their clubs for the tournament.

In short, don't be so shortsighted.
We now have a year to get better and most importantly learn how to win, even when you play bad.

[Golefarsi]

So did we make it?

[Nokhodi]

So did we make it?

We made it to the main qualifying tournament (Asia U23 Championship) which will take place in January 2020.