[Sat. March 17] Iran vs Sierra Leone - 8:00AM EST

[Ghermez Agha]

I can't believe this is our preparation match

What were your thoughts when we played Somali pirates as a prep in 2014?

[ehsan singapore]

Its not lol dont worry, its a non fifa day friendly so basically a joke warmup for our domestic players trying to impress CQ

we have 8 friendlies, do you remmber 2014 how many friendlies we had?i remmber was like 2-3 friendlies, we have good friendlies now

[Iranianarsenal11]

I can't believe this is our preparation match

Its not lol dont worry, its a non fifa day friendly so basically a joke warmup for our domestic players trying to impress CQ

[persiangodfather]

I can't believe this is our preparation match

[Sly]

Injuries and IR were to blame for 2006. Particularly, it was 37 year old slow sack of potato aka Mr. Daei who insisted to play and not being subbed to blame for 2006 campaign and again for 2010 failure. From 2006 till 2009 when Qotbi took over we had a time when IR took the maximum advantage from our football. 1996-2006 and then briefly around 2009 till 2011 we played an entertaining football. We qualified twice for WC and twice we went up to semi finals in AC. We had 3 players who won best Asian player awards and three players were playing in Bayern at some point. Our football was entertaining and our players were among the best in most of their clubs. Even our clubs were successful in ACL.

All agreed. but what you don't bring up is that we started to have a long period of talent drought way before CQ came to Iran. At one point in time, we had Nekounam, Teymourian and Khalatbari as our 3 best players in TM. No young prospects, no talents you could imagine would go to Europe and succeed. CQ came to our football at our worst possible period! The fact that you see we have so many players in Europe and new talents coming up now, is a change that was stimulated by CQ!

I do agree that defensive football is not in our blood (I was so against CQ in the beginning for that) but with the lack of talents we had in the beginning, you can not blame CQ to start it off like that. When you look at TM games now however, you see that we have a good defense, but we also do attack. A big change from before. I think we play much more entertaining now then we did 4-5 years ago. The other day, I did go back to our games from around 15-20 years ago when we think we had an entertaining TM. I watched some of the games and to be honest we didn't even have close to the team work that current TM puts together at times. It was all about individual brilliance of Karimi and Mahdavikia from time to time.

So I have changed my mind completely. I think as a team, we play so much better, more solid and more entertaining now than we did back in 96-2006 when only our stars shined individually. We think at that time we had an entertaining TM because frankly between 96-2006, we had some of the best players in Iran's history. But as a team, they sucked.

[Surenas]

The above comment is the most ridiculous comment I have ever seen... emm no I have heard more clueless comments to be honest by certain members.
Our old traditional tactics were always based on fast wingers, creative midfield, technical players and good play makers. Even our DM and DF were good at long shots. We were crap on defense, and I am not defending that department. Obviously CQ fixed our defense to a great extend.
Injuries and IR were to blame for 2006. Particularly, it was 37 year old slow sack of potato aka Mr. Daei who insisted to play and not being subbed to blame for 2006 campaign and again for 2010 failure. From 2006 till 2009 when Qotbi took over we had a time when IR took the maximum advantage from our football. 1996-2006 and then briefly around 2009 till 2011 we played an entertaining football. We qualified twice for WC and twice we went up to semi finals in AC. We had 3 players who won best Asian player awards and three players were playing in Bayern at some point. Our football was entertaining and our players were among the best in most of their clubs. Even our clubs were successful in ACL. Defensive football is not good for Iranian football talents and clubs. Period. Show me a single creative tactic by CQ. CQ kills the match with ultra defense and guess what the defense can not stand a chance against second tier European or first tier S.American teams. CQ is only good at defending which is good against Asian teams because of our talented players who can score goals at this level.
Our football has much more potential to stagnate with CQ. He is an excellent youth scout and overall team manager but as a tactician or effective coach he is an average ultra conservative defensive man. We have a tone of 1-0 matches when we could demolish our opponents. Example: Iran vs S.Korea in Tehran in qualifying round.
CQ defenders come here and show me something more than ultra defense by CQ. Do you want to see our NT just defend in WC or any meaningful competition? After WC, it is the time to learn from positive efforts of CQ and move on to a better stage instead of stagnating with the same old tactics.

All I remember was that I had to tremble every game, even if it was against Bahrain. We were absolutely inconsistent before CQ, sometimes we played good sometimes we lost against ridiculous teams. We had no proper tactics, we just passed the ball around and hoped Khoda helps us, then we received an Ali Jabbari shot to forget.
Ali Karimi could sometimes decide to games, sometimes he was not even existent. I'll tell you something, it's rather shameful that we've achieved so little with our golden generation, and CQ made pretty much out of 2014 as we played against Argentina. If you can't see the big progress since Queiroz I can't help you, you seem to love AK8 more than our Vatan, otherwise AK8 and his trolls wouldn't do this to our Team Melli!

[PersianLegion]

traditional iranian style involved solid attacking game plan. Hmmm, you mean the "Lets give the ball to the two best players and hope they do something" gameplan ? The one that brought us so much success that we couldnt even beat fucking angola in wC 2006 with our golden generation including the wizard himself ? Or the one that fialed to qualify for WC in South Africa? I think this is probably the most ridiculous comment I have ever seen on here, and thats saying something.

The above comment is the most ridiculous comment I have ever seen... emm no I have heard more clueless comments to be honest by certain members.

Our old traditional tactics were always based on fast wingers, creative midfield, technical players and good play makers. Even our DM and DF were good at long shots. We were crap on defense, and I am not defending that department. Obviously CQ fixed our defense to a great extend.

Injuries and IR were to blame for 2006. Particularly, it was 37 year old slow sack of potato aka Mr. Daei who insisted to play and not being subbed to blame for 2006 campaign and again for 2010 failure. From 2006 till 2009 when Qotbi took over we had a time when IR took the maximum advantage from our football. 1996-2006 and then briefly around 2009 till 2011 we played an entertaining football. We qualified twice for WC and twice we went up to semi finals in AC. We had 3 players who won best Asian player awards and three players were playing in Bayern at some point. Our football was entertaining and our players were among the best in most of their clubs. Even our clubs were successful in ACL. Defensive football is not good for Iranian football talents and clubs. Period. Show me a single creative tactic by CQ. CQ kills the match with ultra defense and guess what the defense can not stand a chance against second tier European or first tier S.American teams. CQ is only good at defending which is good against Asian teams because of our talented players who can score goals at this level.

Our football has much more potential to stagnate with CQ. He is an excellent youth scout and overall team manager but as a tactician or effective coach he is an average ultra conservative defensive man. We have a tone of 1-0 matches when we could demolish our opponents. Example: Iran vs S.Korea in Tehran in qualifying round.

CQ defenders come here and show me something more than ultra defense by CQ. Do you want to see our NT just defend in WC or any meaningful competition? After WC, it is the time to learn from positive efforts of CQ and move on to a better stage instead of stagnating with the same old tactics.

[inarsenewetrust]

Not old enough to see his miracle with ball. He is a legend no matter how CQ worshipers insult him. The illusion of grandeur will be gone after WC. CQ is a good average defensive coach and that's all. After 7 years we have gone no where other than qualifying for WC twice, no ACL title, no wins in WC, and no solid attacking plan like tradition Iranian style. Ali Karimi was our best player in the pitch and most outspoken and honest guy, if you like it or not as a former SS fan, doesn't change this fact.

traditional iranian style involved solid attacking game plan. Hmmm, you mean the "Lets give the ball to the two best players and hope they do something" gameplan ? The one that brought us so much success that we couldnt even beat fucking angola in wC 2006 with our golden generation including the wizard himself ? Or the one that fialed to qualify for WC in South Africa? I think this is probably the most ridiculous comment I have ever seen on here, and thats saying something.

[PersianLegion]

LMAOO-" no solid attacking plan like tradition Iranian style." Man, please do not act like Iran was some superior futbal nation and that CQ has brought us down to defensive mediocrity smh. This was the best qualification we have had in a very long time. Our players are in europe, we can compete with all teams because of our determined defense and counterattack offense. Yes, i am very sure you would do a much better job.

Yep, no solid attacking plan. registered in Sep 2017! How old are you? Old enough to remember our team in 2000s? I assume not. Can you explain how that counter attack helped us vs Bosina (a team that we had always defeated)? How about our defense in that match? What was the last time we played against middle weight NT in a meaningful match and won? Our best performance in past 7 years been against Chile in a friendly match. Our defense has had no real challenge after WC 2014. The only time our team played against a second tier European team we lost by 3 goals. Now come and tell me about your experience as a fan or defend CQ. I never said I am a coach to be judged by you, but as a fan I can judge our football team and our coach.

[JamB]

Not old enough to see his miracle with ball. He is a legend no matter how CQ worshipers insult him. The illusion of grandeur will be gone after WC. CQ is a good average defensive coach and that's all. After 7 years we have gone no where other than qualifying for WC twice, no ACL title, no wins in WC, and no solid attacking plan like tradition Iranian style. Ali Karimi was our best player in the pitch and most outspoken and honest guy, if you like it or not as a former SS fan, doesn't change this fact.

LMAOO-" no solid attacking plan like tradition Iranian style." Man, please do not act like Iran was some superior futbal nation and that CQ has brought us down to defensive mediocrity smh. This was the best qualification we have had in a very long time. Our players are in europe, we can compete with all teams because of our determined defense and counterattack offense. Yes, i am very sure you would do a much better job.

[ehsan singapore]

How are you surprised kaveh is in the list? He should obviously be in the list especially because he doesnt have another game until march 30...

i was assuming this is just local base players, and not legioners that is why

[ali alipour]

Not old enough to see his miracle with ball. He is a legend no matter how CQ worshipers insult him. The illusion of grandeur will be gone after WC. CQ is a good average defensive coach and that's all. After 7 years we have gone no where other than qualifying for WC twice, no ACL title, no wins in WC, and no solid attacking plan like tradition Iranian style. Ali Karimi was our best player in the pitch and most outspoken and honest guy, if you like it or not as a former SS fan, doesn't change this fact.

Im not sure how this isn't already obvious to you, but how he was as a player doesn't just excuse him and make everything he says good.

[PersianLegion]

Will do Grade A biased troll. You're right, Karimi did absolutely nothing wrong and is acting completely professional and normal.

Not old enough to see his miracle with ball. He is a legend no matter how CQ worshipers insult him. The illusion of grandeur will be gone after WC. CQ is a good average defensive coach and that's all. After 7 years we have gone no where other than qualifying for WC twice, no ACL title, no wins in WC, and no solid attacking plan like tradition Iranian style. Ali Karimi was our best player in the pitch and most outspoken and honest guy, if you like it or not as a former SS fan, doesn't change this fact.

[sirvan]

Ali Karimi was a gifted player, but as a person he is an uneducated moron with a low iq. I have no respect for people who are against the succes of Team Melli for whatever reason, it's one thing to be a dumb person but when you bother our national team with your sinister agenda and you try to damage the team spirit with your stupidity, you deserve no respect

[naderb94]

Ali Karimi is not ... mal. He is our best player ever. All Karimi haters should take a hike.

Iran vs Somali Pirates version 2. Don't we have a better team to compete against?

Will do Grade A biased troll. You're right, Karimi did absolutely nothing wrong and is acting completely professional and normal.