2022 AFC U-23 Asian Cup

[The]

Much better 2nd half (that's a difference a good coach makes).

Passing was more accurate, the game had a better flow (except when Yasin got the ball).

Yadegar was much better offensively as he spotted open teammates and made quick passes. However he was out of breath about 20 minutes after coming on.

One on one defensively our CBs did well, but as unit they looked disorganized.

Amirali is very talented, but low football I.q.

Hope Kia stays on as there's something to build on

[inarsenewetrust]

Every single international break, this team should be at PEC. Friendlies should be set up, they dont have to be with any powerhouse Euro countries. The teams in our region will be plenty good enough. Qatar, Uzbek, Oman, Tajikstan Turkmenistan, Iraq and then from europe any of Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan.

New guys should be invited, tested. Even outside of international break times, there should be additional camps this summer as most of these guys will be doing nothing.

[Nokhodi]

Every single international break, this team should be at PEC. Friendlies should be set up, they dont have to be with any powerhouse Euro countries. The teams in our region will be plenty good enough. Qatar, Uzbek, Oman, Tajikstan Turkmenistan, Iraq and then from europe any of Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan.

New guys should be invited, tested. Even outside of international break times, there should be additional camps this summer as most of these guys will be doing nothing.

I'm not sure Mahdavikia and his coaching staff work outside the FIFA windows :|

[St_Mark]

Portrait of a Failure

He said his team is 2 years younger than others..
In the end he failed against reserve team of a younger team when a win was needed.
While his team has 3 over 21 players Uzbekistan has none.



Requiem for a Dream
What do you see?
Is it your own reflection that's staring at you?
Is it the world that has changed?
Or is it you at the sound of the knell?

As expected Iran U21 failed to advance from group stage. They failed for various reasons including neglect by IFF, unqualified coach and lack of proper prepetition. Iran U23 has failed in the past while coached by Eastili, Majidi, Peyrovani and they were criticised for their plans and coaching abilities. Unfortunately, fans, Media are in love with Mahdavi kia and they failed to points to his shortcoming and weak plan and preparation.

Mahdavi kia has never been a head coach of any team prior to Iran U23. He has been assistant coach to youth teams in Germany but not reach the level to entrust to be a head coach. In Iran fans and Media presented Mahdavi Kia as a youth Coach in Germany.
His unusual agreement and demands for a long time delayed his contract and start of U23 program and Training, With IFF New admin he signed agreement but only showed up few days before training for Qualification, He requested 4 foreign coaches for qualification and that reduced to two for Championship phase.
During Qualification, Mahdavi kia decided to play with U23 team with half of the team being U21 but for Championship he decided to go with U21. His so called 2years younger team is including 3 U23 players so it’s not a U21 as he claims, while Uzbekistan and Japan are real U21 players.

Being 2 years younger is just an excuse for the bad expected results.
Mahdavi kia complain about not having friendly games, but he is not in Iran to set up training or expect friendly games. He refused to include a real Iranian assistant coach but only rely upon FCkia coaches . Shadidi experience as a coach is with young girls team . IFF organized two friendly games for him in Iraq and that did not help him but helped Iraq apparently.

Against Iraq only took one game to read his game plan and tactic and since then he was exposed with no plan B and failed tactically.
Uzbekistan and Japan attended withy U21 and as I pointed out in the past because they have various age group 15-20 with regularly attending international tournaments while Iran has no such program and currently after year and half not even U19 coach. Attending with U 21 may work for them and won’t work in Iran.
Mahdavi Kia ‘s Ideas, plan, preparation and game management was simply inadequate and he failed in every department except (loyal supporters & Media)
In the end he could not even defeat a reserve team of a younger Uzbekistan.

AFC U23 is highest competition for Iran under 23 years’ players in Asia and no need to be sacrificed for wrong decisions of a failed coach.

Despite claimers by Mahdavi kia many of these U23 won’t be included in Roster for Olympic. and this team as it is with current coach will fail in future again.

[taremiscores]

Portrait of a Failure

He said his team is 2 years younger than others..
In the end he failed against reserve team of a younger team when a win was needed.
While his team has 3 over 21 players Uzbekistan has none.



Requiem for a Dream
What do you see?
Is it your own reflection that's staring at you?
Is it the world that has changed?
Or is it you at the sound of the knell?

As expected Iran U21 failed to advance from group stage. They failed for various reasons including neglect by IFF, unqualified coach and lack of proper prepetition. Iran U23 has failed in the past while coached by Eastili, Majidi, Peyrovani and they were criticised for their plans and coaching abilities. Unfortunately, fans, Media are in love with Mahdavi kia and they failed to points to his shortcoming and weak plan and preparation.

Mahdavi kia has never been a head coach of any team prior to Iran U23. He has been assistant coach to youth teams in Germany but not reach the level to entrust to be a head coach. In Iran fans and Media presented Mahdavi Kia as a youth Coach in Germany.
His unusual agreement and demands for a long time delayed his contract and start of U23 program and Training, With IFF New admin he signed agreement but only showed up few days before training for Qualification, He requested 4 foreign coaches for qualification and that reduced to two for Championship phase.
During Qualification, Mahdavi kia decided to play with U23 team with half of the team being U21 but for Championship he decided to go with U21. His so called 2years younger team is including 3 U23 players so it’s not a U21 as he claims, while Uzbekistan and Japan are real U21 players.

Being 2 years younger is just an excuse for the bad expected results.
Mahdavi kia complain about not having friendly games, but he is not in Iran to set up training or expect friendly games. He refused to include a real Iranian assistant coach but only rely upon FCkia coaches . Shadidi experience as a coach is with young girls team . IFF organized two friendly games for him in Iraq and that did not help him but helped Iraq apparently.

Against Iraq only took one game to read his game plan and tactic and since then he was exposed with no plan B and failed tactically.
Uzbekistan and Japan attended withy U21 and as I pointed out in the past because they have various age group 15-20 with regularly attending international tournaments while Iran has no such program and currently after year and half not even U19 coach. Attending with U 21 may work for them and won’t work in Iran.
Mahdavi Kia ‘s Ideas, plan, preparation and game management was simply inadequate and he failed in every department except (loyal supporters & Media)
In the end he could not even defeat a reserve team of a younger Uzbekistan.

AFC U23 is highest competition for Iran under 23 years’ players in Asia and no need to be sacrificed for wrong decisions of a failed coach.

Despite claimers by Mahdavi kia many of these U23 won’t be included in Roster for Olympic. and this team as it is with current coach will fail in future again.

You expect coherency, planning and development in the Islamic Republic? Don't have such expectations. It's not Kia's fault, it's IFF and other factors. Same thing happened in 2012, happened in 2022, will happen in 2032 (hopefully, by God's mercy, IR won't be in power and will be in dustbin of history).

[inarsenewetrust]

^ and if they do fail, we continue 50 years of failure but at least tried alternate method.

Nobody thinks Kia is god, as you say he was not head coach anywhere so he is essentially learning on the job with regards to game management, player selection, tactical setup. That is why the more experienced Lammers who was assistant coach of Vitesse and then head of coach of danish top flight side Esbjerg for 2 years is there.

I just dont see a better alternative? No iranian coach wants this job... and resume of last ones peyrovani and estili was much worse than kia. Last Iranian coach who had great youth showing was Chamanian. They gave him another u16 to start with and they failed to even get out of the group for u17 WC qualification if memory serves correct. They lost to indonesia 2-0 or something.

And btw attacking Kia credential and suggesting Iranian HC is kind of hilarious. OK, Kia wasnt the head coach of hamburg youth sides, he was assistant. He still has very recently completed ultra competitive coaching license there. What about our domestic coaches? Most who are coaching biggest PGPL clubs dont even have their AFC license. God knows about the assistants. If these pool of coaches were so great they would have taken over same age group and showed good results. Oh right, Estili + Peyrovani. And for the ones that even without any formal qualification may be good coaches, they are all much more content to coach midtable PGPL teams than involve themselves with a project that has a high likelihood of failure, no proper support, and probably very low pay.

[rdwrrr]

Didn't much the whole games, but Yasin is really good. I think we should have him in TM already.

[PEJ]

Didn't much the whole games, but Yasin is really good. I think we should have him in TM already.

Obviously you didn’t watch enough. Very talented, but no where near ready for TM at this stage. He needs a solid year of playing at the club level to even be considered. Hope he leaves to Europe this year.

[rdwrrr]

Obviously you didn’t watch enough. Very talented, but no where near ready for TM at this stage. He needs a solid year of playing at the club level to even be considered. Hope he leaves to Europe this year.

He has very good control and is physically strong.
I can see him improve enough to join the TM in the WC, in a position that we are hurting now.

[milad_b]

If we had CQ for our U23 team we would end up with a golden generation that would shine for next 10-20 years.

[oracle]

in all 3 matches we where better team.
GUYS PLEASE
for years we wanted to be like japan
ad send our u-21 team to u-23 tournment
We never had the balls to do it
because persians want result.
persian man don't care if electricity was
out gas was out when they come home
they want HOT TEA AND DINNER.
tm omid finally grow some balls and
sent very young team to just get experience
and be ready for ac2024
be patient and support this team
and KIA AS WELL
we have asian games too to gain more experience
we will advance from our group in that
tourment.

[Under Lahaf]

Uzbekistan and Japan attended withy U21 and as I pointed out in the past because they have various age group 15-20 with regularly attending international tournaments while Iran has no such program and currently after year and half not even U19 coach. Attending with U 21 may work for them and won’t work in Iran.

genuine question;
Considering what you pointed out here that we don't have 15 -20 groups with international experience while we don't, can we really blame Kia? Perhaps the plan was to get these kids more experienced for a future in TM?

[milad_b]

I like mahdavikia and I really respect his love for iran but he is not suitable for this job.

I would rather see mahdavikia in germany becoming assistance coach and working his way to up to becoming a decen european club manager. I feel like both U23 and Mahdavikia are getting wasted at this position.

Give U23 to quality european manager to develop our youngsters and mahdavikia should try to get in europe. I think its about time for us to get a decent manager in europe.

ps: Hamburger is doing great in bundes liga 2 i wonder if he can get his assistance job back! Maybe he should try for that. I think he gave up too early

[Footyball]

the uzbeks have a specific club just for u23 players that was founded just to help their olympic team. Most of their players play tohgheter in that club.

[St_Mark]

genuine question;
Considering what you pointed out here that we don't have 15 -20 groups with international experience while we don't, can we really blame Kia? Perhaps the plan was to get these kids more experienced for a future in TM?

Simple and short answer,

U23 failed because of lack of foresight by bankrupt IFF and incompetent coach.
Early exit, 2 draw and a defeat, failure to advance from group stage is nothing short of humiliating experience, not the kind of experience young and hopeful players needed.
What they needed was winning experience and sense of belonging among top 16 u23 team in Asia and chance to compete against Japan, Korea, Saudi Arabia, Australia…
Mahdavi Kia’s idea was immature and his coaching ability very poor. What we should have done is what we did during Qualification and what Korea, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Iraq… has done.
Wise decision was to have half of the team U23 and half U21 players (all eligible) and with that we could have drastically increase our chance of success while giving positive winning experience to young player for future.
Even with not sufficient preparation and young players, Iranian team played if not better but no worse than 3 opponents and had chance to win all 3 games. What was lacking was a competent football coach.
An honourable responsible coach after failure will take responsibility for defeat but coward coaches blame others.

-----------------------------------------------------


Little more background & details

Purpose of U23 Championship
AFC U23 championship is most prestigious tournament held every two years for players born ion or after Jan 1,1999. Next to TM, U23 team is the most important national football team.
Players who work hard for years to make it to U23 national team deserve to be selected and treated fairly and since this games are held every two years most hopefuls get only one chance to represent their country and get a chance to make a name in an international games.
It is unfair and cruel to justify dismissing a better, stronger player who is eligible in favour of a younger hopeful that may or may not be available or to reach expectation in two years.
Justification
Since next Olympic games are held in July 2024 players born on or after Jan 2001 are eligible so some IFF officials and Mahdavi Kia decided it is justifiable to participate in 2022, U23 Championship with 2 years younger players much weaker team than actual U23 team so they will have experience for Olympic qualification games.

There are serious issues with this justification:

1- Playing God and telling a better player you can’t play for TM U23 so a 2 years’ younger player can get experience in future is not fair . There is no guarantee some of these U21 will reach level of expectation
2- There is no guarantee in next two years new and better players will not be available
3- There is no guarantee current U21 team will make in in Olympic qualification let alone Olympic games.
4- In two years no guarantee even Mahdavi Kia will remain as the coach
5- As was expected and it turned out attending with U21 resulted in failure and in defeat, disappointment and low moral for young players.
How does defeats and early excite turn into positive experience?

Coach & Preparations:

His plan, preparation was inadequate and his selection questionable

Without head coaching experience he was selected to U23 team. He does not live in Iran and working in Germany and U23 job is his extra job and basically he is a part time Pervezi coach. He does not stay in Iran to watch football leagues or U23 leagues. Because he did not know players list of 70 players was given to him to evaluate and select his team.

Since his selection he has only arrived in Iran for short time for few training sessions.
He demanded change of AFC u23 schedule to be in harmony with FIFA days , impossible to do in next 2 years and more friendly games , but beside few games domestically and 2 games with Iraq it was not possible because unstopped PGL & Azadeghan games and the fact himself was not in Iran.

Does he expect IFF change their league schedule to suite Mahdavi Kia’s , something that is not done for TM?
This part time parvazi coaching is pathetic and disaster. U 23 team need a full time coach who reside in Iran and watch leagues including U21 leagues.

Mahdavi Kia has success during qualification phase mainly because he selected best of U23 and not just U21 players but for Championship phase he invited over 32 U21 players with exception of 3 U23 players. After 3 training camps he selected his final list of 23 including 3 U23 players.

His questionable Selections
Ultimately it is decision of coach to select and justify his preference but if a he failed then his questionable choices and selection are fair subject for criticism
Just few sample.
He selected Yadegar Rostami 18 years old player over Hossein Nokhodkar.
*-Nokhodkar is 21 with successful experience at U16-17-U19-U23. He is playing for Golgohar and has experience playing for their first team PGL and Playoff. He was playing for U23 during qualification and scored critical goals like when he scored critical goals for U19. Rostami has played for U14 and U16 only. While at 17 he played for FCkia in Tehran U18 league and few games in liq3 with Kia U18. He plays in Pogan ii U21 team. Rostami is talented and hopefully will be a future star but currently is not as good as Nokhodkar, far from it.
Mahdavikia selected him because of his relationship with Kia Academy and he was the one who help him to find a club in Poland. His performance during U23 games did not justify invitation
*- Milad Kor 19 years old is member of r Zobahan U21 team and has not played even one minute of PGL or Azadegan game. He is good and hopefully will turn into a great CB but at this stage he cannot be compare to Houshmand who plays for Aluminium with over 2000 minutes of games for past seasons often as starter. Mahdavi Kia played him during friendly game versus Golgohar but in the end he selected two19 years old Kor & Hazbavi as U23 CB players and dismissed Houshmand. Houshmand is far experienced and better player especially with experience as RB which has been question mark in U23 D line.
*- Kalmarzi. For the last training camp in Iran Mahdavi kia invited Kalmarzi. He has not played for any National youth team of Iran and currently plays for Roda JC U21. It was a very bad decision to include untested player for champion phase and he has been useless in the games he has played.


Mahdavi Kia Coaching at AFC U23 games
One defeat, 2 draw, early exit is a failed record specially when they could have done better with what he had.
Even during friendly games in Iraq it became obvious his D line is shaky with visible flaws in defensive system , he was unable to fix it . His offensive plan as presented require a solid, sharp experienced CFW with ground and aerial abilities. While Shariatzadeh has experience and ground game ability (lack aerial efficiency), Kalmarzi was useless in both ends and a mistake.

Without solid D line & Offensive line, Mahdavi kia was checkmated by his own selection.
Our best CFW for U17-u21 has been Arya Barzegar, U23 starter for qualification round, He got red card and banned for two games. He could have been included for the third and possibly next round, He is much better than Kalmarzi.
This U21 + 3 with few U23 additions could have been successful. Alas we lost another opportunity that comes every two years with unwise decisions.

Mahdavi Kia has been invited to IFF technical committee to justify early exit. IFF TC is another useless committee that after months of debate failed to select U20 coach.
Mahdavi Kia is popular name and brand and unless he himself decide to leave, he will remain as a Parvazi coach but will fail again