ASIAN CHAMPIONS LEAGUE 2022

[Farzadfarhangni]

That’s the story of CQ……CQ = Shah in our football history.

Don't hit yourself to Left Ali alley.

You know what I meant!!!

Skocic is the decent enough coach that has gotten us result, but we are in a rush to pin IFF's inabilities on him and get rid of him without having an alternative. Just like Shah. We always are unhappy with what we have and want to get rid of and thinking the new thing will be so so great and it never works out that way. That is the mistake that we keep making.

We need to check reality once in a while. Zero chance of CQ coming back to Iran. Sanctions is far worse than ever. IFF is bankrupt and in disarray. And we have a 15 day window in june and 8 day window in Sept to prepare. Not sure if CQ with a 4 year contract yelling and screaming would have been able to get IFF going...

[O-ZoNe]

Why do people think that those of us worried about repetition of 2006 and the identical discussions we are having on this board don't want Iran to be successful, whether under Skocic or anyone else...?

Why don't we learn from history...?

Probably for the same reasons those who don't want Skocic sacked are worried about history repeating itself I.e., 1998.

Both are valid arguments. Unfortunately the commonality is IFF incompetence in both lessons that we are witnessing again.

Sent from my SM-G973W using Tapatalk

[perspolis#1]

I would never wish for Iran to concede seh chartah gol but if it floats your boat, go right to it.

No one is saying that we would have won against Spain!!! What I and perhaps others are saying is that the way we played against Spain in the first half, we would never win. If we took the game to Spain, one out of ten times, we would win and maybe one out of ten times we would get blown away. I would rather have a chance of winning than go for the guaranteed aberomandaneh loss.

Spain was not a good team in 2018. Neither was Portugal. Morocco was perhaps better or at least an equal to both. We should not play the names, and scare ourselves into playing like we did in the 1st half of Spain. CQ did the David vs Goliath thing to motivate our player to go to war. I like Skocic's psychological approach where he is telling his players that we have a legit chance against England. It is the American approach. They have a perhaps false sense of self belief and sometimes this leads to results against big teams.

The American approach includes the fact that they are the best prepped team in the WC with friendlies against anyone who matters and training camps/use of funds to maximize their chances.

Just saying "we got this" and hoping to win is more Iranian approach. Statistic wise the chance we get blown away against the big teams is greater than 1 out of 10. More like 3 out of 10 if our defense is not good. It's tough to hear but given the massive improvements in physical training in world football, "gheyrat" will only take you so far because even elite teams like Manchester city and Liverpool run 90 minutes at you and do not give upor take anyone lightly. Tactics matter more than ever.

[Farzadfarhangni]

The American approach includes the fact that they are the best prepped team in the WC with friendlies against anyone who matters and training camps/use of funds to maximize their chances.

Just saying "we got this" and hoping to win is more Iranian approach. Statistic wise the chance we get blown away against the big teams is greater than 1 out of 10. More like 3 out of 10 if our defense is not good. It's tough to hear but given the massive improvements in physical training in world football, "gheyrat" will only take you so far because even elite teams like Manchester city and Liverpool run 90 minutes at you and do not give upor take anyone lightly. Tactics matter more than ever.

And with all that preparation and organization, they still lost to Trinidad and Tobago and did not make 2018... Point is that they are not as fantastic of a team as some of their results indicate. And I attribute some of that to their attitudes, but respect your opinion if you don't.

Saying we got this is not everything, but thinking that we are going to fight goliath is not productive either. We have to believe in ourselves some.

[perspolis#1]

And with all that preparation and organization, they still lost to Trinidad and Tobago and did not make 2018... Point is that they are not as fantastic of a team as some of their results indicate. And I attribute some of that to their attitudes, but respect your opinion if you don't.
Saying we got this is not everything, but thinking that we are going to fight goliath is not productive either. We have to believe in ourselves some.

Again, without proper planning its not a discussion worth having. We are guilty of a condescending attitude too and statistically before our David vs Goliath approach under CQ our record against "Minnow Arabs" was terrible. We would lose to UAE in WCQ or tie Thailand with our so called Elite squad of Daei, Mahdavikia, Karimi etc. Every opponent should be taken seriously and analyzed to the last detail. Self belief is absolutely crucial, but I dont think we lacked it in 2014/2018. Playing 90 minutes against Argentina/Spain/Portugal needs us to be organized defensively. If you are watching the Liverpool-Villareal game, Villareal are set up defensively but in possession they absolutely do not appear lacking confidence. Even the defensive teams, Atletico etc do not lack confidence in possession.
It's not a revolutionary strategy to wait out the first half and then attack in the second like we did in all of those games.
If we are going to go to the next round:
1) Friendlies
2) Absolute maximum physical preparedness
3) Tactical Analysis of opponents
4) Setting up tactics for each game ourselves
If we lack any of the above, we don't go through

[Hosseini]

What disappoints people about Nekounam mostly is that he has a massive academy at his disposal but insists on much older players.

Because I think he's focused on results, and frankly I don't really blame him. We haven't won the champions league in a long time and Foolad seems motivated to go for it

[Farzadfarhangni]

Again, without proper planning its not a discussion worth having. We are guilty of a condescending attitude too and statistically before our David vs Goliath approach under CQ our record against "Minnow Arabs" was terrible. We would lose to UAE in WCQ or tie Thailand with our so called Elite squad of Daei, Mahdavikia, Karimi etc. Every opponent should be taken seriously and analyzed to the last detail. Self belief is absolutely crucial, but I dont think we lacked it in 2014/2018. Playing 90 minutes against Argentina/Spain/Portugal needs us to be organized defensively. If you are watching the Liverpool-Villareal game, Villareal are set up defensively but in possession they absolutely do not appear lacking confidence. Even the defensive teams, Atletico etc do not lack confidence in possession.
It's not a revolutionary strategy to wait out the first half and then attack in the second like we did in all of those games.
If we are going to go to the next round:
1) Friendlies
2) Absolute maximum physical preparedness
3) Tactical Analysis of opponents
4) Setting up tactics for each game ourselves
If we lack any of the above, we don't go through

Agree with everything you said. If we are going to go to the next round, your 1-4 is just the bear minimum...

I did not watch the first half of Liverpool vs Villa real but I have seen a wide range of teams playing wide open to fully parking the bus and I would rank Iran's performance in first half of Spain as the very extreme left of that range.

[St_Mark]

Final list of 8 teams:

Pos.		Teams	GP	Pts	W	D	L	GF	GA	+/-
A	S Arabia	Al Hilal Riyadh	5	13	4	1	0	11	3	8
B	S Arabia	Shabab Riyadh	6	16	5	1	0	18	1	17
C	Iran	Foolad Khuzestan	6	12	3	3	0	5	2	3
D	Qatar	Al Duhail SC	6	15	5	0	1	17	9	8
E	S Arabia	Al Faisaly	6	9	2	3	1	5	4	1
6	Qatar	Rayyan SC	6	13	4	1	1	10	7	3
7	UAE	Shabab Al Ahli	6	10	2	4	0	14	7	7
8	Uzbekistan	Nasaf Qarshi	6	9	2	3	1	8	5	3

Foulad will face Al-faisaly in Saudi Arabia

It has not been decided if all games will be played in one city or not but if game to be held at Al Faisaly stadium in Harmah, it's small stadium with about 8,000 capacities ( city pop /60,000)

AL MAJMA'AH SPORTS CITY STADIUM /Harma Sudair

[St_Mark]

nearby village / Harmah Sudair

[St_Mark]

Al Hilal vs Shabab Al Ahli
Al Shabab vs Nasaf

Al Duhail vs Al Rayyan
Al Faisaly vs Foulad

[milad_b]

Al Hilal is simply a better team. Al Duhail has no chance.

I've noticed that saudi teams seem to "lose" it (mentally) against qatari team.

Al hilal lost to al rayyan (ranked 8th in qatari league) today.

[oracle]

That’s the story of CQ……CQ = Shah in our football history.

sentence of the week

[St_Mark]

Per un pugno di dollari

Gomez", a Spanish player who joined Foulad with a contract worth nearly 68,000 dollars for the Asian Games, left the Khuzestan team after only 68 minutes of the game.

[kian_khosh]

Per un pugno di dollari

Gomez", a Spanish player who joined Foulad with a contract worth nearly 68,000 dollars for the Asian Games, left the Khuzestan team after only 68 minutes of the game.

68k? not even that bad financially for foolad

[DR Strangemoosh]

That's about two times the weekly salary (consider tax) of players in Qatar like Montazeri. They had him for four games so not bad for a player with a lot of European club experience