Esteghlal Fan Thread...

[Kasra.]

but kasra, you have to admit just how unlucky hejazi has been so far:

1. his goalie, talebloo, used to be the best keeper in iran. but he suddenly fails to keep up to his own previous standards, and is directly responsible for at least 50% of the conceded goals so far. although he had a decent performance against sepahan.
2. INJURIES. no team in iran has had an injury problem like ours so far. jabbari, mansourian, then foloowing them shortly yousefi and bayatinia, and for a final touch, sadeghi's 3-game ban. all that change in the roster is not that easy to handle for a coach.
3. referee decisions. no comment on that one; since im not sure if its truly bad luck, or other reasons behind this phenomenon.
4. poor finishing. this one too, i wouldnt really call it bad luck, but man, if we had scored at least on half of our opportunities (and im talking the 100% ones), we would've past all teams, including perspolis in terms of gaols scored, but hejazi can't really teach borhani how to kick the ball in the back of the net now, can he?

I agree that we have had a big amount of BAD luck. But the affect of "bad luck" can be reduced to something less. Hejazi knew that we have no attacking midfielder for subtitute. He knows Jabbari is not fit yet and Mansourian is getting old. He knows that Sadeghi is sometimes a GAV when it comes to fouls and he knows that Lotfi is a sooti. He hasn't prepared himself and the team as he should. Once again we have like 6 or 7 attackers but we lack a good extra CB and DMF and GK. Persepolis has 4 mediocre/good goalies. we have only one. Thats why I called it bi-barnamegi.

Esteghlal problems isnt' much tactical (except a finisher upfront), problem is mostly psychological. Team and Hejazi is under tremendous proessure and if there is one area I think Mr. Hejazi faild bad is in shiedling the pressure to himself and be a barrier from this pressure being transfered to players.

Next time look at Ravankhah, he is killing himself, He is trying way too hard. Borhani, he tried to kick the ball so hard to rip the net. Same with pooladi and Manyee.

Mr. Hejazi should have act as a shield to make sure this emotional pressure that is on him doesn't get transfered to his players. But he miserably failed in that regard.

This team is playing much better (considering the situation), compared to the last year team. It is just doesn't have a finsisher. Remember PP last year and how EsEs way playing really mediocare football but won while PP was playing much more attractive football but couldn't finish. This is the story of our team this year. Well, our team doesn't finish.

Mr. Hejazi is responsible no doubt, but there are other factors as well.

Ali jaan, in the end it's the result that counts. Last year even when we were behind, we played some gheyrati football and didn't wanna lose. I miss that winning mentality in this team. Teami ke mikhad bebare, 3 bar dar lahazate akhare bazi goal nemikhore. Hejazi is not able to coach the team mentally IMO.

[MR.ESTESNAII]

One problem...Borhani sucks....he has been awful and Hejazi shouldnt be paying for his dastpacholoftegi....I want someone to talk to Mr.Bohrani and ask him where are those great ****y confident attitude he had about scoring....so far he has spent half his time in offsides and half his time "fil hava kardan"...if we can get our offense going maybe we can work on defense slowly.....I want some speeed from him against Longees this weekend..hopefully

[Ali Chicago]

Agha Hameh Jaa Abieteh. Go Blue. Best of luck to my Blue boys. But beyond winning or loosing, I hope this will be a game in the spirit of fair play and joga Bonita "Beautifual game". Wish I was in Iran to go and watch my favorite team and cheer among other blue fans for my team.


Nasser Khan time to silence the critics. Just trust your guts. Ravankhah Noori Battle will be the key battle and Achillis heal of the PP.

[IranJavidan]

well, 9 hrs b4 the game. i have a very neutral feeling towards it. anything could happen, but im hopin that we kick some serious longi a$$ tomorrow

[Blue_Lover]

well, 9 hrs b4 the game. i have a very neutral feeling towards it. anything could happen, but im hopin that we kick some serious longi a$$ tomorrow

We will dude, we will crash this longi team... I don't know how much longer we have to wait since I don't know what time the game begins. Anyone awake who can tell me the time?

[amirak]

mikhastam pishapish be tamame havadaraan teame hamishe soorakhte esteghlal tasliyat begam va tosiye konam ke oonayi ke moshkele ghalbi daran baazi ro negah nakonan


( blue-lover the game starts 3:30teh time and since teh is +3:30GMT its not that hard to convert to whatever timezone your in, what gmt time zone your in, exactly that time, anyway the game starts in 3hours and 10minutes from this post )

[yashar_fasihnia]

SARVARE HARCHI LOUNGIYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
NASSER KHANE HEJAZIYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!



SARVARS 2-1 LOUNGS

Man of match: VAHIDE DASTALAYI!!! leaving the loungs frustrated as always and making a return to his peak!!

ESTEGHLAL, BEBARI BEBAZI HAMISHE SARVARI,
HAMISHE SARVARE LOUNGIHA KE HICH, SARVARE KOLE ASIYAYI!!!

BAZAM MESLE HAMISHE,
ABI PARANDE MISHE!!!!

ESTEGHLAL DUSET DARIM!
ESTEGHLAL DUSET DARIM!
ESTEGHLAL DUSET DARIM!

ALL THE SARVARS HERE, BE READY TO ONCE AGAIN, AS USUAL, PREPARE URSELVES FOR A 1,000,001 EXCUSES THE LOUNGS ARE GONNA MAKE AFTER ONCE AGAIN, THEY GO BACK WITH THEIR HEADS HUNG LOW IN SHAME!!!



im off to an iranian restaurant to watch the match and have some chelokebaba!
unfortunately, my internet is very slow the past few days and i wont be able to watch in on PFTV and give a live report of the loungs crying

BE OMIDE SARVARIYE HAMISHE DAEMIYE ESTEGHLAL...

[Kasra.]

[IranJavidan]

well, good game overall, and if it weren't for the error our defense made on pp's goal, the game was ours to win. i think that the longis are extremely lucky that they escaped a loss, and they owe that in big part to afshin ghotbi, and his good substitute.
as mentioned on IRIB, both teams entered the game with a good knowledge of their opponents, and that caused the first half of the game turning out to be very boring with a few minimal attempts on goal. what really stood out was that all 4 backs on the teams (navazi, manei, sheys and nouri) were not at all active offensively, which makes sense since they did not want to create any space behind them for a counter. a shot on goal from khalili saved by talebloo, and a one-on-one by borhani saved by roodbarian were the main events that happened in the 1st half.
in the 2nd half however, things turned around. esteghlal took the initiatives and started attacking more and 10 mins into the half, ravankhah scored on a shot from way far away and an amateur mistake by roodbarian (which im almost 100% certain that he'll be replaced by vaezi or karimi for that mistake). that goal basically changed the whole game since pp started attacking more aggressively and eses was responding with counters. finally, in the 84th minute, after some nice saves from talebloo and good defensive work from the blues, they made a mistake and bad man-marking caused a sheys centre to be headed in the net. overall, if eses players managed their game better, they easliy could've won the game with more goals; and again pp tied the game with luck.
regarding esteghlal's staff, i truly think that esteghlal management has to find a suitable addition to its coaching staff. someone who unlike the current staff, has a more modern approach to the game (such as ghotbi), and at the same time, can work well with the team and with nasser hejazi. that is, if they want to keep him.
i especially think that nasser khan's substitutions could've been better and made much earlier. i dont think adding lotfi was really necassary, since the defence was doing very well; and as mr.mohases said in the post game analysis, that just caused esteghlal to play closer to its own net (playing with 3 CBs), which is what pp wanted. anyhow, im pretty sure everyone saw the game, but here's the lineups and my rating for esteghlal players just in case:

----------------------talebloo---------------------
----------sadeghi----------------ghorbani---------
---navazi-------------------------------manei----
---------------------montazeri--------------------
--ravankhah (lotfi)-------------------pooladi(yousefi)
----------------------jabbari----------------------
--------------majidi (alizadeh)---------------------
-------------------------------borhani------------

---------------------roodbarian------------------
----------heydari------------------nosrati--------
--rezaei-----------------------------------nouri--
-----------------------------elong---------------
-------------bagheri-----------------------------
--badamaki----------aghaei (fatemi )----nikbakht--
----------------------khalili----------------------

talebloo (8.5) he was one of our best players today. everyone was saying that this game is his chance to prove himself again, and he did that. good job vahid.
sadeghi (9) also one of our best players today. some nice blocks and tackles; he's a good defender.
ghorbani (7.5) i think it was him who was supposed to mark khalili. other than that he was fine.
navazi (5) his experience in ball handling helped the team today, but navazi is a more offensive type of player, so his more defensive role didnt bring out the best in him.
manei (4.5) again, the nature of the game didnt let him shine that much. but i also think that he was one of our weaker players today.
montazeri (8) he played a good game in his DM position.
pooladi (5.5) he's a good fighter, has some nice tackles, but he still doesnt have that extra flare needed to play well in a team like esteghlal. maybe its because of his age?
ravankhah (6) thank god he scored that goal, or else he was probably our worst player today. as we all know by now, he runs well, works really hard, but lacks some intelligence and vision. he had terrible turnovers, and if he was really an offensive player, he alone couldve created some deadly attacks had he passed better. but he scored a goal so good for him.
jabbari (7) he's almost back! im sure he dribbled elong on purpose since i think it was his tackle that caused his injury? but overall, jabbari played a good game, and in a short future hopefully he's gonna be the lethal player that he always was. he couldve done better on his passing today though.
majidi (7) he was all right. i think our midfield should've been more active in the game, but overall he worked really hard and created some chances here and there for himself and borhani.
borhani (5) what can i say? this guy has to learn how to score, and overall was more inactive than usual today.


so having said all that, i hope things will start turning around for us after this game, since our only injured players are shafei and bayatinia; and nasser khan can arrange a better lineup from now on. also, our games will be relatively easier than PP's till half-season.

So, for the last time, longiya shans ovordan hesabi ke soorakh nashodan dobare, and esteghlal sarvare perspolise .

[yashar_fasihnia]

as expected, perspolis isnt really wat their fans make them to be.

a draw could be fair, but i think esteghlal was more zahrdar and hence, more deserved to win.

sadeghi was solid.
talebloo was very good. jabbari and majidi really did well in the midfield.
these players deserve a mention!

in my opinion hejazi cost us the game.
first he pulled back too early!
he shouldnt have pulled back until like the 80th minute or something!
his substitions werent good.
lotfi and alizadeh both slow and poor ball control were put in and majidi, ravankhah and pooladi, our 3 most active players in the midfield were removed.
obviously we couldnt do anything anymore in the middle and had to rely only on counters.

and ghorbani once again was poor in marking his man and didnt jump in time to head away sheys cross.

overall, i think esteghlal was more dangerous than perspolis which isnt a surprise

[Kasra.]

The good news is that BIJAN KOUSHKI is allowed to play from next week

Edit: Ey baba yashar to ham ke maro hameja donbal mikoni

[Amin_]

The turning point was the pulling back so early and Lotfi's and Majidi's substitutions.

It wasn't necessary to pull back so quickly, cause we were all over PP in the 2nd half. Hejazi just put more pressure on our defence. Also, with taking both Ravankhah and Majid out, he totally killed our chances of a quick counter.

Unfortunately we ourselves helped PP get back in this game.


I'm still proud of the team tho. They fought hard and are showing some kinda improvements. If only Borhani...ah never mind, he's a lost case anyway lol

[Kaveh]

SS played better, overall the draw was a fair result.

[Kaveh]

If only Borhani...ah never mind, he's a lost case anyway lol

All respect for Borhani, but he;s not an inborn forward.

[Kasra.]

SS played better, overall the draw was a fair result.

respect