AFC Champions League Week 4

[PersianLegion]

ACL is almsot done for PP. We should focus for next year. This year we had a decent chance to go up to Semi but we ruined it. Departure of Alisha, Nourollahi, Maric, and Umania hurt us. Beiro was a nice addition. Amiri replacing Alisha was no upgrade. Seyed Jalal in CB alone was not enough to cover for Maric and Umania. Moving Ansari to CB and leaving our LB was the biggest mistake so far. Not being able to deal with Rezaian was another big managerial mistake of the team. Playing Rabikhah in every match and not using our young talents was another mistake. Branko looks like has 0 hope in Alvanzadeh, Chaab and even Alipour for most of the season. We were lucky Sadegh Moharami came and somehow covered RB position for us. Losing Nourollahi kept our only DMF, Kamyabinia, on pressure because of high number of matches in a short time period. Taremi needs someone to challenge his presence in line up. Someone like Sasan Ansari or another sharp striker. Taremi does not value the number of perfect goal opportunities he ruins in each match. Branko is a decent coach for PGPL standard with no plan B. He gets totally exposed against serious Asian opponents. Our Iranian coaches are worse than him anyway. When Iranian teams reach to knock out stage it shows how serious they are.

Overall, it was good chance but we blew it as it happens most of the time for Iranian teams. Our group was tougher than other Iranian teams as well. But if we can not pass the likes of Al Hilal or Al Rayan, we have no business in Semi Final.

[Nariman]

What a joke of a game - this match truly represented the level of Asia. Any decent team would have scored at least 4 goals against Branko's team today. We can just be happy that this Al whatever is such a shit-hole with amazingly crappy strikers - a team that should have been crushed easily with at least 3 goals home & away.

And the biggest joke -> Branko, especially his substitutions. His subs are the worse I personally have seen ever since I started to follow football. They are not only terrible, they are so ridiculously laughable to the point I am starting to believe Branko is just trolling us, he can’t be serious! The team needs a goal and he subs out Rafie & Mosalman, the 2 best playmakers, to bring in defenders at HOME in Azadi. To make it worse - he does this in the last 5 minutes, wasting time and destroying the offensive flow. This is NOT the first time he did this - ever since he took over Perspolis his subs have been comedy pure. Once again Branko truly thought the mighty Rabikhah will change the game in the last few minutes

And of course we have no real bench when Branko chose only 12-13 players since the start of the season and never gave a fuck about introducing other players. He picked a certain limited pool of players and he will use them blindly regardless of the situation, result or whatever we actually need. Only injuries and suspensions can stop his idiocy.

What Taremi did today with the penalty was not confidence, but dirty fucking arrogance. He cared much more about putting up a good show for himself (to repeat what he did 2 years ago), instead of actually caring about the team's result. While it’s true that Taremi, or any other PGL player, usually become too cocky/careless once "fame/money" hits them - this time it can also be blamed on Branko, whose overall arrogance and stubbornness generally can be felt inside the whole team. I truly doubt Taremi would have dared to be so careless with a coach like CQ on his side.

A Ramin Rezaeian could have been the difference today, but Branko, even if he loses all the next matches, will never accept his mistakes. A very one dimensional coach with a shady & disgusting character! More and more I am realizing what we truly missed back in 2006 with a golden generation...

btw. kudos to Esteghlal, shame to Perspolis fans! While SS actually came up with a nice Iran chorography, Perspolis fans were so “oghdei” and arrogant to come up with a meaningless "Star" chorography that actually looked like the national flag of Vietnam.

[04041374]

That star was because of 10 league titles. It's very usual in European countries to get a star for every 5th/10th championship title. F.e Milan having one star for 18 league titles

Although I think that the timing of the choreography was a bit wrong.

[eerooni]

To all the Branko supporters... Branko is a DOMESTIC coach! NOT an Int'l coach ! he showed that today! ALL HAIL CQ!!

[Nariman]

That star was because of 10 league titles. It's very usual in European countries to get a star for every 5th/10th championship title. F.e Milan having one star for 18 league titles

Although I think that the timing of the choreography was a bit wrong.

I know bro., but that's exactly the oghdei part here. This is ACL, we are playing against an arab team - should have done a similar thing like SS instead of coming with such a lame choreography about winning winning a useless domestic league.

btw. forget to mention how Alipour wasted a huge chance. Last week I really felt for him, but this time the arrogance hit him badly - he should have passed here FFS.

[PersianLegion]

What a joke of a game - this match truly represented the level of Asia. Any decent team would have scored at least 4 goals against Branko's team today. We can just be happy that this Al whatever is such a shit-hole with amazingly crappy strikers - a team that should have been crushed easily with at least 3 goals home & away.
And the biggest joke -> Branko, especially his substitutions. His subs are the worse I personally have seen ever since I started to follow football. They are not only terrible, they are so ridiculously laughable to the point I am starting to believe Branko is just trolling us, he can’t be serious! The team needs a goal and he subs out Rafie & Mosalman, the 2 best playmakers, to bring in defenders at HOME in Azadi. To make it worse - he does this in the last 5 minutes, wasting time and destroying the offensive flow. This is NOT the first time he did this - ever since he took over Perspolis his subs have been comedy pure. Once again Branko truly thought the mighty Rabikhah will change the game in the last few minutes
And of course we have no real bench when Branko chose only 12-13 players since the start of the season and never gave a fuck about introducing other players. He picked a certain limited pool of players and he will use them blindly regardless of the situation, result or whatever we actually need. Only injuries and suspensions can stop his idiocy.
What Taremi did today with the penalty was not confidence, but dirty fucking arrogance. He cared much more about putting up a good show for himself (to repeat what he did 2 years ago), instead of actually caring about the team's result. While it’s true that Taremi, or any other PGL player, usually become too cocky/careless once "fame/money" hits them - this time it can also be blamed on Branko, whose overall arrogance and stubbornness generally can be felt inside the whole team. I truly doubt Taremi would have dared to be so careless with a coach like CQ on his side.
A Ramin Rezaeian could have been the difference today, but Branko, even if he loses all the next matches, will never accept his mistakes. A very one dimensional coach with a shady & disgusting character! More and more I am realizing what we truly missed back in 2006 with a golden generation...
btw. kudos to Esteghlal, shame to Perspolis fans! While SS actually came up with a nice Iran chorography, Perspolis fans were so “oghdei” and arrogant to come up with a meaningless "Star" chorography that actually looked like the national flag of Vietnam.

I agree with much of your statement except the last part.

Our rival SS is playing much better compared to first half season because they finally switch to younger players, same thing we did last year. Defensive tactics of Mansourian won't get them much further in ACL. To be honest their ACL group is a joke compared to our group but I hope the best for them since they represent Iran in ACL anyway. This argument about star is useless. While Persepolis is using a more acceptable tradition of one star for every 10 championship, SS used that for Asian titles. Their title from 1970 is just ridiculous. That time there was no serious competition in Asia as we know it today. Their 1990 title is more legit and it came from first round of ACL in more professional format. PP has a Asian Cup winners' Cup in 1990 which has the same value considering the participant teams back then. Now Asian cup winners' cup is a second tier competition in Asia that top 10 Asian leagues won't even participate in it anymore.

We seriously need to sign a CB to move Ansari back to LB and another to replace Seyed Jalal eventually. We seriously need to sign a decent CF to switch with Taremi and let him know he should not ruin his chances so easy. If we sell Taremi to another team I will be very happy. Asaab baramoon nazashte in adam.

[Nariman]

I agree with much of your statement except the last part.

Our rival SS is playing much better compared to first half season because they finally switch to younger players, same thing we did last year. Defensive tactics of Mansourian won't get them much further in ACL. To be honest their ACL group is a joke compared to our group but I hope the best for them since they represent Iran in ACL anyway. This argument about star is useless. While Persepolis is using a more acceptable tradition of one star for every 10 championship, SS used that for Asian titles. Their title from 1970 is just ridiculous. That time there was no serious competition in Asia as we know it today. Their 1990 title is more legit and it came from first round of ACL in more professional format. PP has a Asian Cup winners' Cup in 1990 which has the same value considering the participant teams back then. Now Asian cup winners' cup is a second tier competition in Asia that top 10 Asian leagues won't even participate in it anymore.

We seriously need to sign a CB to move Ansari back to LB and another to replace Seyed Jalal eventually. We seriously need to sign a decent CF to switch with Taremi and let him know he should not ruins his chances so easy. If we sell Taremi to another team I will be very happy.

Haji akhe che rabti dasht, I am confused :S I was just saying say we should have had a "Iran" choreography as well.

[04041374]

I know bro., but that's exactly the oghdei part here. This is ACL, we are playing against an arab team - should have done a similar thing like SS instead of coming with such a lame choreography about winning winning a useless domestic league.

btw. forget to mention how Alipour wasted a huge chance. Last week I really felt for him, but this time the arrogance hit him badly - he should have passed here FFS.

I think he didn't see Amiri in that situation. Alipour needs to work on his finishing, according to 90 Telegram he has the worst shot on goal ratio in the league.

I don't agree on the league title being useless. If we were like Bayern Munich or Olympiakos, who win league and cup even before the season has started (series champion), then I would've agreed. We haven't won it for 9 years.

[PersianLegion]

^ @ Nariman: You are right I misread it but I fixed it immediately. My second paragraph was my overall feeling about PP and SS. My actual response to your last statement (last paragraph) is same as 04041374. Since I was reading another board and got them a little mixed up here. This match ruined my day.

[Keano]

This is a very typical Branko attribution (Stubbornness, and playing the very damn same line up over and over and over, for his entire 3-4 years of being at the helm of TM, no matter how the uninvited talented players performed in the league) His biggest flaw with TM was the exact same issue, his entire TM reign he refused to recognize and invite/play new talents who shone in the domestic league, and some legionnaire, such as Hashemian who at the time was undoubtedly one of our best strikers at the time. He finally and after relentless press/public pressure, gave in and invited Hashemian, however Hashemian this time declined the offer for a long time until third parties like Dadkan stepped in and met with him and personally begged him to accept the invitation.

I like Branko and aways supported him, however his stubbornness is beyond ridiculous which costs him and his teams dearly.

[PersianLegion]

^ I never forget he invited a waste of space such as Rasoul Khatibi to the team or even a 37 year old Ali Daei for WC while he left other great talents that we had at the time. I am being serious even Farhad Majidi that we blamed for staying too long in Emirate was several levels better than Khatibi or even a stubborn and slow Ali Daei.

That generation was golden with a combination of veterans and younger solid stars such as Bagheri, Mahdavikia, Ali Karimi, Hashemian, Nekounam, Kaabi, Rahman Rezai, Zandi, Ando, Shojai, Navidkia, Madanchi, Golmohamadi, and Kazemian. We could have easily create two more teams with the talents we had back then. Our first team was a formidable force; we just got unlucky that Karimi got injured and Daei was forced to the team. If we could handle the BS we could have advanced with Portugal. In that WC I truly felt our team had nothing less in talent compared to Mexico or Portugal despite Figo, Ronaldo, Deco and Pauletta being in the pitch. Old bitter memories. I loved that team and those talents specially the team which destroyed S.Korea 4-3 in AC 2004 and our team prior to WC.

CQ's team is good in defense, organization and getting result but it lacks creativity and we have no big stars to change the outcome of the match for us if something goes wrong. Now, we have reduced to cheer for the likes of Azmoun who barely scores goals in RPL! or a couple of players in Netherlands and Greece! Oh irony! it pains me to watch this specially if you have witnessed our golden era and following our players in La Liga, Bundesliga, Championship, Serie A, etc.

[mahestan]

I freaking swear I am going to lose my cool if Branko causes more damn drama with TM and hinders our chance to qualify for WC.

[redmissile]

lekhwiya & el jaish officially merged into a new club"AI Duhail SportsClub ".

[04041374]

Fight between Soria and Seyed Jalal. Branko's translator got into a fight with Omar Bary after the final whistle. And LOL @ Branko shoving Tabata.

And that's the reason: Omar Bary provoked players and fans after the game. At the end of the day, they will be the ones, who will watch our WC games from TV.

[PersianLegion]

These Qataris are so pissed off from losing to us on their home and away matches in WCQs and start a fight every damn time they come to Iran. They are up to no good. It is very obvious. Our clubs and NT should be really careful and control themselves. Qataris have obviously had a chip on their shoulder. Soria and Tabata who play for Al Rayan, were specially grilled by Qatari media after their weak performances for Qatari NT against Iranian NT in Doha and Tehran. CQ usually handles this situation very good but Branko is a weak team manager anyway. He is not like CQ who leads the team like a boss. At least, he should have controlled his translator. That dude had no business in the pitch.

I seriously think our clubs need someone to teach them how to handle agitators and provokers in international matches. Imagine what would have happened if some fans would have come to the pitch and beat the crap out of Qataris! It would mean Fifa and AFC bans for us, something that Qatari, Saudi and Emirati FAs love to hear.