U23 Asian Championship; Quarter Final; Iran - Japan [22-01-2016]

[Keano]

Just watched the highlights. First off I am really disappointed with FIFA rules, for not having such great tournament (Olympics Qualifications) set as FIFA day. Not obligating clubs to release their players for U-23 national official games is absolutely the biggest farce. I am wondering what if a certain U-23 entire team's players play abroad? does this mean the respective country's U-23 team must be deprived of its best players and only play its second tier players? It just doesn't add up TBH.

Nonetheless we obviously ran out of gas, our players were not prepared and fit enough to play over 90 minutes. Our stamina shortage in the extra time was quite noticeable, so was our confidence. We saw a complete different team in the 30 minute extra time, completely lost and nervous. Our players absolutely are in need of psychologists, I hope all our clubs will hire a psychologists and work on their players' confidence and focus, stabilizing their state of mind and composure, especially during the tough times of the game!

I am not going to put the entire blame on our fitness and endurance, as it is hard not to admit that we were nor coached with a 120 minute plan, the Japanese side surely had a full plan for beyond the 90' as we were totally dominated by our counterpart. The annoying part is that despite 3 goal advantage, the Japanese played as though they were trailing by a goal or two, while we were so set back as if we had the lead.

Our players lack of concentration and confidence in front of the goal is our biggest shortcoming in all levels of our football, look at one of our current top teams Perspolis, where tons of 100% sitters get wasted left and right week in week out.

[Malavani]

First of all, the "we are superior to the rest of Asia in individual quality" story is far from the truth. In all honesty, do you think our top players are better than Shinji Kagawa? I live in Germany but he is treated like a God by Dortmund fans.

who said that?

[Gotham]

Crawling Iraqi members here can get the f... out now. These people are full of hatred toward us. Miserable losers with inferiority complex. IR has created a deep hatred toward us by pushing these people to the edge. Now they are coming back at ordinary Iranians with full vengeance. Be careful we have no friend in the region, so watch your relations and business carefully and avoid these people. They might bring harm upon you, your family and business.

There's not a single Iraqi comment here, are you okay?

[tmfan]

First of all, the "we are superior to the rest of Asia in individual quality" story is far from the truth. In all honesty, do you think our top players are better than Shinji Kagawa? I live in Germany but he is treated like a God by Dortmund fans.

[PersianLegion]

Crawling Iraqi members here can get the f... out now. These people are full of hatred toward us. Miserable losers with inferiority complex. IR has created a deep hatred toward us by pushing these people to the edge. Now they are coming back at ordinary Iranians with full vengeance. Be careful we have no friend in the region, so watch your relations and business carefully and avoid these people. They might bring harm upon you, your family and business.

[Ando Teymourian]

I'm so tired of this "individual quality" argument....

Individual quality will get you out of the group stage, maybe. It won't win you championships.

So congrats, we have amazing individual quality. Enjoy advancing from the group stage, hope it was fun for you. Meanwhile, teams who have more than just individual quality (proper coaches, proper training, proper stamina, lack of men on the brink of insanity as technical directors....) are winning titles and going to the Olympics.

[sarbaz]

Yes football is cruel if you don't score when you should you will get scored on
However Japan had a game plan and thief subs were excellent
Khakpour was definitely out coached today
Unfortunately I did predict the outcome of today's game after watching our first 3 matches 😔😔😠😠


Now the success of our TM to make the WC 2018 is even much more important to soothe our heartache
And save our football's future

[rezabmehr]

This is another heart break for our players, fans and IR football's future. The Olympics were a chance for our young players to showcase their talents and be seen by big teams.
The players missed some great scoring chances during the game and it came back to haunt them at the end. But I also want put some of the responsibility on the coaching staff. Khakpour made a wrong decision in the game against Qatar by not putting his strongest team in the lineup and he should have done more to avoid Japan (in quarter finals) since they were the favorites in that group. Then his decision to have Mayeli Gohan as his assistant (I don't even want to go there).
A sad day in our football. Not because we lost, but because of our mismanagement and the idiots in charge. Because of our talented young players not having another shot on a world stage. Because we won't get to cheer them on this summer. And mostly, because nothing has changed.

[khodam]

If Motahari had not wasted all those chances n regular time, we'd ben cheering right now.
He's just too wasteful. Maybe if he focused on his finishing as much as his crappy hairstyle, we would have seen a different scoreline.
We must hire psychologists for our players of all ages and ALL TEAMS. Our players of all ages get too emotional and lose focus easily. That's what happened after Japan's first goal. Our lads just lost all their shape and focus, allowing Japan to seal the game immediately.
This game is the game of missed chances. And we just didn't capitalize on our possession and more importantly on at least 4 brilliant scoring chances!
But they are young and I hope they maintain this form and become a stronger future TM.
After all we pushed Asia's too team to the brink of elimination. That's something to take home and build on.

Not really! Just last week every one was saying how crappy this Japan team was. We were the most promising team in this tournament. It was for us to lose it and we did. And our disappointment was not just on one game - Thanks to our Mangers we were consistent throughout.

[Leopard]

In spite of this we really have won if we had just Sardar and Nourollai and ezatollai. CQ could have helped if he had been asked. but mihani coaches think they are good enough and deserve a million. 100k dollars/year is maximum they deserve.

[MR.ESTESNAII]

We just missed shots just like how our TM does. Yet again Iran should have had Sardar Azmoun and their main attackers. We don't know how to score. We lack the confidence infront of the goal. I suggest: Yoga lol

[Iran_19]

LOL@ people who say we have more individual skills, football is group sport, is game of tactics, planning, thinking for every minute of game and you need to have right mixture of talents, hard working players. Iran has probably 1 of many in this U23 team.
Japan played it perfectly, they knew Iran will be out of gas and had plan for OT.
As i said before, the right side hole wasn't replaced by anyone, Khakpour played with 3 defenders when Abdollahzadeh was out, he had a pretty solid game and bang Japan scores two goals from that area. This is basic of coaching.

[BacheLot]

I agree it's an inappropriate thing to say, but what has this to do with our Omid team losing in such a heartbreaking way? Today we lost on mentality, simple. Our players have much more individual quality than the Japanese, I am proud of them regardless of the score.

thats way overstating it..!! Japanese wouldnt be moving on instead of us if there were half truth to that statement..!!
Fact is in modern game of football slightly superior individual talent simply isnt as big of factor as having an Organized and Tactically Disciplined Team playing confidently with winner vigor and swag ..!!

i do agree that TM @ all levels sorely lack that Wining Mentality and thats not easily attained.. !! it would take a much more psychologically sophisticated, well experienced & respected coach/care-takers and Mostly Prior On-field Success for that to occur and become the Norm ..!!
Prior success breeds Confidence and Winner's Vigor more than anything..!!

thats why its vital not cheap out and loose CQ too...! cause the likely alternatives are Kpoor, goozoo MK, GN and such..!!

and as they say, Cheap things No good, Good Things No Cheap...!! and no way around that...

[mahestan]

Sounds like it was a stressful game as usual for Iranian football. I am glad I missed it. Frankly I am surprised they lasted 90 minutes before falling apart like that, I was expecting Japan to finish it off within the 90 minutes. On top of that, why am I not surprised there were missed chances by our players. Cheshmi missed a penalty against Qatar, we lost a bunch of scoring chances against China.

[Iran_19]

Mottahari is another version of Borhani, the guy won't cut it to A team, too wasteful, there is huge gap between him and Sardar or even Gucci and Taremi.