World Cup 2026 Group G [IRAN]

[Nokhodi]

That is true! His records are not worst than Wilmots, i don’t know how someone can even mention Wilmots name lol
regarding Daei, he was very young taking over TM but yeah he didn’t do well either!
overall GN did what he was supposed to in qualification, i dont think anyone can approach anything on this, plus Uzbeks are the most improved team in Asia in last 2-3 years, spent alot in youth level, winning in youth and they see the fruits in senior level!
BUT, any half decent coach would have figured out his D core at least after almost 4 years being in charge!
playing players out of position in NT is ridiculous! It is not club!
Since he is in charge we saw all kind of combination in back 4 yet, and finally… guy like Nemati playing there often!
that is the weakness of the coach! I know Branko played Nosrati as LB but overall is laughable to play someone out of position specially in D at NT level!
bottom line, if he ends up having a better assistants around him instead of bunch of lashkar siah like Ando, Rahman, Alhoei
we may have a shot to get some decent results with him otherwise will be another deja vu!
worst is his argument will be , mage ghablan quality shodim ke alan tavagho dashtid?

Iran_19 Jan, this is the most sensible thing I’ve read this whole month about Iranian football.

I still think some of the player selection issues are related to injuries, but I agree there were better options to test.
For what it’s worth I think our lineup is pretty much set as below unless there are injuries. Only positions with some potential for change are Hardani and Hosseinzadeh.

Beiro
Hardani Shoja M. Hosseini Mimo
Ezatollahi Ghodoos
Hosseinzadeh Mohebbi
Taremi
Azmoun

[Nokhodi]

wonder same ..!?
probably try to find a college/HS soccer facility/hotel near LA..!?
& i have feeling some drama is going to go down in process of the search and booking of it..!? :/

Nabi said a spot in Irvine. I’m shocked they’re going right where the most Iranians are.

[Shahin K]

wonder same ..!?
probably try to find a college/HS soccer facility/hotel near LA..!?
& i have feeling some drama is going to go down in process of the search and booking of it..!? :/

Their prefered base is in Southern California Sofice Soccer Rancho. Lol dumb asses.

[BacheLot]

Do we know where TMs base camp will be?

wonder same ..!?
probably try to find a college/HS soccer facility/hotel near LA..!?
& i have feeling some drama is going to go down in process of the search and booking of it..!? :/

[Iran_19]

Extreme overreaction and unfair.

This easiest qualification stuff is not true.
We had the 2nd hardest group.

GN worse than Wilmots and Daei? Wilmots almost got us eliminated with 4 games to go! and Daei failed to get us into WC 2010 in a very easy group.

His player selection isn't the best, but considering TM has basically been mostly injured for the past 2 years, I'm less harsh on that.

That is true! His records are not worst than Wilmots, i don’t know how someone can even mention Wilmots name lol
regarding Daei, he was very young taking over TM but yeah he didn’t do well either!
overall GN did what he was supposed to in qualification, i dont think anyone can approach anything on this, plus Uzbeks are the most improved team in Asia in last 2-3 years, spent alot in youth level, winning in youth and they see the fruits in senior level!
BUT, any half decent coach would have figured out his D core at least after almost 4 years being in charge!
playing players out of position in NT is ridiculous! It is not club!
Since he is in charge we saw all kind of combination in back 4 yet, and finally… guy like Nemati playing there often!
that is the weakness of the coach! I know Branko played Nosrati as LB but overall is laughable to play someone out of position specially in D at NT level!
bottom line, if he ends up having a better assistants around him instead of bunch of lashkar siah like Ando, Rahman, Alhoei
we may have a shot to get some decent results with him otherwise will be another deja vu!
worst is his argument will be , mage ghablan quality shodim ke alan tavagho dashtid?

[Sam van Dam]

Do we know where TMs base camp will be?

[Pluto2000]

Extreme overreaction and unfair.

This easiest qualification stuff is not true.
We had the 2nd hardest group.

GN worse than Wilmots and Daei? Wilmots almost got us eliminated with 4 games to go! and Daei failed to get us into WC 2010 in a very easy group.

His player selection isn't the best, but considering TM has basically been mostly injured for the past 2 years, I'm less harsh on that.

I would also argue you're giving the coaching staff too much leeway here. Player selection is probably the biggest thing team melli needs right if anything. No new players have been integrated into the starting eleven since the Asian Cup. Maybe Hardani?

You got him wasting the time of all of our youth and being oddly hyper focused on playing Aria Yousefi at RB for some odd reason, when he has nowhere near the defensive qualities to play there. Calling up 30 year old Habibinejad to be reserve against Tanzania instead of Saharkhizan (LOL). In 12 games our best youth prospect has 45 minutes for the national team.

On the leadership side of things he's been passing around the Captain's armband like a cheap blunt rotation. In the last 12 games alone, here is who has had it: Taremi, Azmoun, Ezatollahi, Ghoddos, Beiranvand, Shoja, and Jahanbakhsh. Half of them fully unqualified to lead and one of them can't even speak Farsi well.

You could go on and on about all the things he's done wrong but at the end of the day he's also just been riding the Taremi/Azmoun wave CQ built...Iranian coaches won't stay for long when these 2 retire and we need to build an actual system and TEAM.

[Nokhodi]

think we were very lucky with our qualification group

We got Krygystan who were most probably the weakest team on paper out of all 18 nations participating in the final stage even then we conceded twice to them and arguably joel kojo should have scored with his 1 on 1 chance he had. we really got a good deal here- indonesia wouldve been far tougher especailly away from home with their dutch players they couldve done real damage to us

North korea - a team that called up J league-3 players in their starting 11 and Han Kwang-song was no where to be seen for their game against us for whatever reason . All together another lucky draw and this was a lot weaker than the north korea squad with jong tae see that we faced in 2010

We never had an away game in Pyongyang we played in Laos in much better conditions than the Qataris faced. We had no alienating away fixures - face it UAE and Qatar will never be the away atmosphere of an Indonesia, Japan, Iraq or a Saudi Arabia and with the high dispora in these countries they are almost home games for us at times.

Then we had a Qatar side that defensively were just strapped , had Al- Hyados retire who couldnt be replaced and were seemingly devoid of talent yet we still lost to them.

a uae team that is on the decline too - again very lucky it couldve been so much worse

All together our qualification group was full of teams that were either on the decline (UAE and Qatar) - Restricted due to fifa sanctions (North Korea) or just plain awful on paper (Krgyz Republic) so thats 4 of the teams in our group were just plain weak . We got dealt a lucky hand and Ghalenoi seems to always get away with it

and the issue is if joel kojo and no name north koreans are getting past this defence then what will chris wood and omar marmoush do? they will be thinking they've hit the jackpot .


Why aren't we trying new players? these games against afghanistan and India should be used to incorporate players like Eckert into the team instead we have over 30 year olds playing and stat padding? whats the point - it seem that they are there to protect ghalenoi's job and nothing else .



Ghalenoi's record is poor -he's done worse than wilmonts and daei and has wasted 10 fixtures in qualifying not incorporating anyone new- and his answer to journalists was that he bought in new players like noorfokan? really!?

Asian qualifying is so diluted and easy now its easy for a fake ass coach to half ass their way through at the determent of the team- when we get to the world cup these players wont have the mercy and be far more clinical than what we've faced before

Extreme overreaction and unfair.

This easiest qualification stuff is not true.
We had the 2nd hardest group.

GN worse than Wilmots and Daei? Wilmots almost got us eliminated with 4 games to go! and Daei failed to get us into WC 2010 in a very easy group.

His player selection isn't the best, but considering TM has basically been mostly injured for the past 2 years, I'm less harsh on that.

[Super Shojaei]

I agree with a lot of this, except that GN deserves anything. A halfway decent coach would likely have an 80+ winning percentage since 2023 with the incredibly weak opposition we’ve faced since GN took over. The hardest team we’ve played in this span is possibly Japan? We should all know by now in retrospect that the talent of the team carried us to that win. I’ve not seen any planning or tactic from GN in his entire tenure except hoof the ball towards goal and hope for some luck. If you rewatch the Japan game highlights, that’s literally how we scored both goals. Just lucky bounces going our way, especially the penalty that was drawn.

outside of that win, we’ve played the minnows of Asia that we’ve dominated for decades and lost many points to teams we usually beat comfortably since CQ era and even under Skocic. I give GN no credit that Sardar and Taremi could outpace Afghanistan and score a couple while conceding a goal to such tokhmi teams. The only thing GN deserves is a picture of someone slamming the door on his way out to memorialize it (I’d like a copy too lol). He is bad and has been bad for our team. Look back on highlights of any wins from 2023 until now and tell me one game where we won through a clear tactical football instead of Sardar/Taremi breaking free from a defense and stealing goals based on their pure higher level talent than opposition. GN relied on that for so long and now these two guys are washed and we can’t score anymore (but we’re still conceding!)

A good coach could slot mostly any half decent player into any position on the field and have them run their tactics to some success. The fact that without star players you are dead means you are clueless and just relying on the players to perform. Japan is an example where their team tactics are more important than one star player carrying them. That is why they’re successful and why we will get destroyed in this WC if we go there with a clueless coach.

think we were very lucky with our qualification group

We got Krygystan who were most probably the weakest team on paper out of all 18 nations participating in the final stage even then we conceded twice to them and arguably joel kojo should have scored with his 1 on 1 chance he had. we really got a good deal here- indonesia wouldve been far tougher especailly away from home with their dutch players they couldve done real damage to us

North korea - a team that called up J league-3 players in their starting 11 and Han Kwang-song was no where to be seen for their game against us for whatever reason . All together another lucky draw and this was a lot weaker than the north korea squad with jong tae see that we faced in 2010

We never had an away game in Pyongyang we played in Laos in much better conditions than the Qataris faced. We had no alienating away fixures - face it UAE and Qatar will never be the away atmosphere of an Indonesia, Japan, Iraq or a Saudi Arabia and with the high dispora in these countries they are almost home games for us at times.

Then we had a Qatar side that defensively were just strapped , had Al- Hyados retire who couldnt be replaced and were seemingly devoid of talent yet we still lost to them.

a uae team that is on the decline too - again very lucky it couldve been so much worse

All together our qualification group was full of teams that were either on the decline (UAE and Qatar) - Restricted due to fifa sanctions (North Korea) or just plain awful on paper (Krgyz Republic) so thats 4 of the teams in our group were just plain weak . We got dealt a lucky hand and Ghalenoi seems to always get away with it

and the issue is if joel kojo and no name north koreans are getting past this defence then what will chris wood and omar marmoush do? they will be thinking they've hit the jackpot .


Why aren't we trying new players? these games against afghanistan and India should be used to incorporate players like Eckert into the team instead we have over 30 year olds playing and stat padding? whats the point - it seem that they are there to protect ghalenoi's job and nothing else .



Ghalenoi's record is poor -he's done worse than wilmonts and daei and has wasted 10 fixtures in qualifying not incorporating anyone new- and his answer to journalists was that he bought in new players like noorfokan? really!?

Asian qualifying is so diluted and easy now its easy for a fake ass coach to half ass their way through at the determent of the team- when we get to the world cup these players wont have the mercy and be far more clinical than what we've faced before

[Afat11]

Well said..!!
if IFF have any serious footballing ambitions, they would bring in Sanchez immediately and demote GN to his assistant coach and he can quit if he doesnt agree..! His strength as a coach are almost precisely GN's weaknesses..! main of which are especially Game-time tactical adjustment and squad management and pre-game formations and overall game strategy based on opponents we face and giving our boys the mental fortitude to get the proper results ..!

imo, GN has done decent enough of a job so far in qualifying to warrant the trip to wc in some form of coaching role ..!
Most of our more recent bad results came after we have already qualified to WC and after he finally became bit experimental with his playing squad..! oddly i thought as a team we performed better when he finally let go of his retarded hoojoomi football and adapted a more cautious approach, in those narrow losses and draws than during the qualification phase where luckily faced a very weak, almost impossible to fk up group opponents!!
The Fact that we ultimately managed to be put in Pot B for the draw (instead of a dozen or so other nations with superior footballing pedigree ) is a testament to his achievements as a manager so far..! and that so, with a TM that's clearly in generational transition and made up of largely washed up and always half-fit ex TM stars and vasle saazi with a vastly inexperienced other domestic hopefuls/youngins..!

I agree with a lot of this, except that GN deserves anything. A halfway decent coach would likely have an 80+ winning percentage since 2023 with the incredibly weak opposition we’ve faced since GN took over. The hardest team we’ve played in this span is possibly Japan? We should all know by now in retrospect that the talent of the team carried us to that win. I’ve not seen any planning or tactic from GN in his entire tenure except hoof the ball towards goal and hope for some luck. If you rewatch the Japan game highlights, that’s literally how we scored both goals. Just lucky bounces going our way, especially the penalty that was drawn.

outside of that win, we’ve played the minnows of Asia that we’ve dominated for decades and lost many points to teams we usually beat comfortably since CQ era and even under Skocic. I give GN no credit that Sardar and Taremi could outpace Afghanistan and score a couple while conceding a goal to such tokhmi teams. The only thing GN deserves is a picture of someone slamming the door on his way out to memorialize it (I’d like a copy too lol). He is bad and has been bad for our team. Look back on highlights of any wins from 2023 until now and tell me one game where we won through a clear tactical football instead of Sardar/Taremi breaking free from a defense and stealing goals based on their pure higher level talent than opposition. GN relied on that for so long and now these two guys are washed and we can’t score anymore (but we’re still conceding!)

A good coach could slot mostly any half decent player into any position on the field and have them run their tactics to some success. The fact that without star players you are dead means you are clueless and just relying on the players to perform. Japan is an example where their team tactics are more important than one star player carrying them. That is why they’re successful and why we will get destroyed in this WC if we go there with a clueless coach.

[persian-eagle-13]

I heard 7 of them and they served in Sepah and not the military.

All 7 should be banned. including Taremi. These players need to feel the pain. For so long, they have been spoiled while average Iranians struggle. They only want to go to WC for the free lunch, and car vouchers and gold coins that they will demand, while the average Iranian does not have food to eat at night.

I really hope Trump and FIFA do not back out and ban these 7 players and also officials.

[BacheLot]

I sadly don't think so. They want an Irooni coach in USA to make a statement. That statement will be embarrassment like every other "statement" the mighty IR/IFF has tried to make in history, but it's a statement nonetheless. If IFF has any brains they'd fire him and bring in Skocic or Feliz Sanchez, someone who has some knowledge of TM football and a semblance of tactics. Apparently we offered Felix the job after CQ left in early 2023, but we couldn't wait for his availability and appointed GN instead (who was readily available strangely!). Someone like Skocic or Sanchez leading TM, easy round of 32 and good possibility of Rof16 or beyond if we get lucky and Uruguay beats Argentina in round of 32.

With GN, 1 point from NZ guaranteed. and we escape bottom of the group. Final standings calling today:

Belgium 7 pts
Egypt 5 pts
NZ 2 pts
Iran 1 pt.

If you want to save this and come back to this in June 2026, please do. Guaranteed if GN is coach, and it's sad that IFF knows this and will do nothing about it. Laziness mixed with an intent to degrade anything good we have. Nobody cares about TM in Iran anymore, and us abroad care less than in any recent memory. It is intentional. They want us to do well enough that they can say "look at the mighty Iran, easy WC qualification against minnow teams (except can't beat UZB). Oops, we sucked on the international stage, please don't flood to the streets to enjoy life, we don't prefer that! Doing just enough to keep people complacent, but overall sucking the joy out of anything enjoyable in life. This is the standard for us Iranians.

Well said..!!
if IFF have any serious footballing ambitions, they would bring in Sanchez immediately and demote GN to his assistant coach and he can quit if he doesnt agree..! His strength as a coach are almost precisely GN's weaknesses..! main of which are especially Game-time tactical adjustment and squad management and pre-game formations and overall game strategy based on opponents we face and giving our boys the mental fortitude to get the proper results ..!

imo, GN has done decent enough of a job so far in qualifying to warrant the trip to wc in some form of coaching role ..!
Most of our more recent bad results came after we have already qualified to WC and after he finally became bit experimental with his playing squad..! oddly i thought as a team we performed better when he finally let go of his retarded hoojoomi football and adapted a more cautious approach, in those narrow losses and draws than during the qualification phase where luckily faced a very weak, almost impossible to fk up group opponents!!
The Fact that we ultimately managed to be put in Pot B for the draw (instead of a dozen or so other nations with superior footballing pedigree ) is a testament to his achievements as a manager so far..! and that so, with a TM that's clearly in generational transition and made up of largely washed up and always half-fit ex TM stars and vasle saazi with a vastly inexperienced other domestic hopefuls/youngins..!

[Damavand]

An unbiased opinion on the groups with AFC teams.

[webmaster]

what are the chances some players are denied visa due to serving in the military

I heard 7 of them and they served in Sepah and not the military.

[persian-eagle-13]

I sadly don't think so. They want an Irooni coach in USA to make a statement. That statement will be embarrassment like every other "statement" the mighty IR/IFF has tried to make in history, but it's a statement nonetheless. If IFF has any brains they'd fire him and bring in Skocic or Feliz Sanchez, someone who has some knowledge of TM football and a semblance of tactics. Apparently we offered Felix the job after CQ left in early 2023, but we couldn't wait for his availability and appointed GN instead (who was readily available strangely!). Someone like Skocic or Sanchez leading TM, easy round of 32 and good possibility of Rof16 or beyond if we get lucky and Uruguay beats Argentina in round of 32.

With GN, 1 point from NZ guaranteed. and we escape bottom of the group. Final standings calling today:

Belgium 7 pts
Egypt 5 pts
NZ 2 pts
Iran 1 pt.

If you want to save this and come back to this in June 2026, please do. Guaranteed if GN is coach, and it's sad that IFF knows this and will do nothing about it. Laziness mixed with an intent to degrade anything good we have. Nobody cares about TM in Iran anymore, and us abroad care less than in any recent memory. It is intentional. They want us to do well enough that they can say "look at the mighty Iran, easy WC qualification against minnow teams (except can't beat UZB). Oops, we sucked on the international stage, please don't flood to the streets to enjoy life, we don't prefer that! Doing just enough to keep people complacent, but overall sucking the joy out of anything enjoyable in life. This is the standard for us Iranians.

I agree. with this coach and these players we will not make it out of the group even as a third place team.