Iran Friendly (November)

[ehsan singapore]

Colombia and Egypt will not happen because of politics

i get egypt, why colombia?

[PSGman#19]

i get egypt, why colombia?

Biggest US friend in South America

[sarbaz]

Comon guys

IFF is gona find some good games for us this time , I am sure

[naderb94]

Biggest US friend in South America

That doesn't mean anything... We had a friendly with Japan last year (biggest US friend in Asia)

[saeed_noro]

Bring Portugal WITH Cristiano Ronaldo to Tehran. Querioz! Do it! Iran vs. Ronaldo, 100.000 fans coming for seeing Ronaldo in Azadi. Do it man...

Another good friendly should be Panama, Costa Rica or Mexico. The chance is high to face a North American team.

[Afat11]

At this point, I don't see Iran planning friendlies with already qualified teams. First, many of those teams have already planned friendlies. Second, I don't see CQ wanting to play these teams 6 months before the World Cup for a couple of reasons.

One of the main reasons being that, for example, if we play Panama or Poland, there is a decent chance we will be drawn against them a month later. If we are drawn with them, their experience against our tactics and players may benefit them. Second, the result of such a match may have a negative mental impact on our players. Let's say we beat either team or lose to them, we do not want the players going into a match with these teams in russia with that mental bias. For example, "Oh, Panama will be so easy, we crushed them in a friendly back in November!" Or the opposite "how can we beat Poland, we just lost to them back in November." It's not smart to place this in our fans or players' minds. It potentially manipulates our expectations.

I see us playing games vs. unqualified teams like Venezuela, Bolivia, Turkey, etc. whoever doesn't have planned friendlies. This allows CQ to not expose our potential opposition to our players and tactics.

[Leicester City]

This may be unlikely, but IF things were different a friendly with the U.S. wouldn't be so bad even though we will beat them.

[Ghermez Agha]

It really wouldn't make much sense to play vs qualified teams before the draw - after the draw however we 100% should. No point in showing our cards first hand to any team that is going to be in Russia.

That being said, playing against good teams that missed out like Paraguay/Venezuela (for the South American option or Netherlands/Wales would be ideal. Russia was a good test but those kinds of friendlies are going to be very important for us, we saw there is lots we need to work on yesterday.

[Afat11]

This may be unlikely, but IF things were different a friendly with the U.S. wouldn't be so bad even though we will beat them.

I wish, but that friendly won't be happening unfortunately.

[ehsan singapore]

Bring Portugal WITH Cristiano Ronaldo to Tehran. Querioz! Do it! Iran vs. Ronaldo, 100.000 fans coming for seeing Ronaldo in Azadi. Do it man...

Another good friendly should be Panama, Costa Rica or Mexico. The chance is high to face a North American team.

i agree he can use his contact we go play in portugal or they come iran. panama is a good team we need north american team also, and south american

[Afat11]

i agree he can use his contact we go play in portugal or they come iran. panama is a good team we need north american team also, and south american

I don't mind Guatemala as a friendly to prepare for Panama or Honduras (if they qualify). Guatemala is from the same region, and did okay in the fourth round of NA qualifying. Missed the final round by one point and beat the United States in the process 2-0. I think it could be an important friendly. I think it is almost guaranteed we will face one of these two teams or an African team of either Nigeria, Morocco, or Ivory Coast. We need to win whichever game that is.

Some are wanting to play Netherlands and Portugal, but are we planning on the world cup to beat the top seed? Shouldn't we try to beat the teams that we clearly can beat? I think that is why we didn't get our second ever WC win over Angola in 2006. We should have won that game, but I think we didn't prepare the right way and were tired and demoralized.

Stamina and focus on the games we can win is most important going into Russia. Survive and tie the first seed with solid defense, tie the second seed, and beat the fourth seed and we are in the round of 16. We have a strong defense, we can do it.

[Rooyintan]

At this point, I don't see Iran planning friendlies with already qualified teams. First, many of those teams have already planned friendlies. Second, I don't see CQ wanting to play these teams 6 months before the World Cup for a couple of reasons.
One of the main reasons being that, for example, if we play Panama or Poland, there is a decent chance we will be drawn against them a month later. If we are drawn with them, their experience against our tactics and players may benefit them. Second, the result of such a match may have a negative mental impact on our players. Let's say we beat either team or lose to them, we do not want the players going into a match with these teams in russia with that mental bias. For example, "Oh, Panama will be so easy, we crushed them in a friendly back in November!" Or the opposite "how can we beat Poland, we just lost to them back in November." It's not smart to place this in our fans or players' minds. It potentially manipulates our expectations.
I see us playing games vs. unqualified teams like Venezuela, Bolivia, Turkey, etc. whoever doesn't have planned friendlies. This allows CQ to not expose our potential opposition to our players and tactics.

If we look at the 4 historical world campaigns (78, 98, 06, 14) that Team Melli participated, you can see that some pre-World Cup games were against teams that had also qualified for those world cups.

1978: played Argentina, France (WC-teams), others not-world cup teams Romania, Ghana, Wales, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia.
1998: Jamaica, Nigeria, Chile, Croatia (all WC-teams), Hungary (not-world cup team).
2006: Togo, Costa Rica, Croatia (all WC-teams), Macedonia "B", Bosnia (not-world cup teams).

Queiroz era
2014: Guinea, Angola, Trinidad-Tobago, Belarus, Montenegro (all not-world cup teams).
2018: Russia (wc-team), Togo (not-world cup team).

If you ask me, 1998 was our best preparation and our best world cup performance was that. 1978 preparation was good too , performance was good but results were not, conceded only 3 goals in game time + 1 own goal + 4 penalty goals! Our defence was rough and rusty. 1998 a win against USA and conceded an unlucky goal vs Yugoslavia. In my opinion it is good to play world cup teams.

[Afat11]

If we look at the 4 historical world campaigns (78, 98, 06, 14) that Team Melli participated, you can see that some pre-World Cup games were against teams that had also qualified for those world cups.

1978: played Argentina, France (WC-teams), others not-world cup teams Romania, Ghana, Wales, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia.
1998: Jamaica, Nigeria, Chile, Croatia (all WC-teams), Hungary (not-world cup team).
2006: Togo, Costa Rica, Croatia (all WC-teams), Macedonia "B", Bosnia (not-world cup teams).

Queiroz era
2014: Guinea, Angola, Trinidad-Tobago, Belarus, Montenegro (all not-world cup teams).
2018: Russia (wc-team), Togo (not-world cup team).

If you ask me, 1998 was our best preparation and our best world cup performance was that. 1978 preparation was good too , performance was good but results were not, conceded only 3 goals in game time + 1 own goal + 4 penalty goals! Our defence was rough and rusty. 1998 a win against USA and conceded an unlucky goal vs Yugoslavia. In my opinion it is good to play world cup teams.

After the draw, when we know we are not in the same group as teams or don't have a likelihood to meet them in the Rof16, then it makes sense to play teams in the competition. For November, I highly doubt CQ will play a team we have a chance of drawing against. If Honduras and Panama are both qualified and we happen to be in Panama's group, I 100% support playing Honduras in a friendly to prepare for Panama's style. Playing Honduras in November is dangerous, because we may be playing them in the WC. Don't want that to happen based on the reasons in my previous post.

[GolfePersique]

Honduras will play their play-off against Aussies in November!

[Afat11]

Honduras will play their play-off against Aussies in November!

You're right, then playing Panama in November is dangerous for the same reason. Must have switched them around on accident. Point is the same.