2022 AFC U-23 Asian Cup

[St_Mark]

2022 AFC U-23 Asian Cup

Uzbekistan June 2022

Format 16 teams
Eligibility : Players born on or after 1 January 1999


AFCU-23 Asian Cup qualification 2022

Format 16 teams from 11 groups ( Uzbeks + 11 tops of groups + 4 best runners ups)


Qatar (Group A)

Tajikistan (Group B)

Bahrain (Group C)
Kuwait (Group D)
UAE (Group E)
Jordan (Group F)
Indonesia (Group G)
Singapore (Group H)
Chinese T (Group I)
Mongolia (Group J)
Japan (Group K)

Games will start less than a month while officially contract of coach ( Kia) has not been finalized. There is no team yet.

Group B

Tajikistan ( H )
Iran
Lebanon
Nepal

[St_Mark]

list of U23 players for selection
To help Kia

08/05/1999		Aluminium	CB	Amirmohammad	Hooshmand	22y 3m 21d
13/09/2000		Esteghlal	MF	Amir Hossein	Khodamoradi	20y 11m 16d
26/03/1999		Baderan	CB	Iman	Akbari	22y 5m 3d
18/08/2002		Baderan	CB	Hossein	Shaverdi	19y 0m 11d
07/06/1999		Esteghlal	CB	Mohammad Javad	Behafarin	22y 2m 22d
29/01/2000		Gol Gohar	CB	Erfan	Tomaj	21y 7m 0d
03/03/1999		Havadar	CB	Arsalan	Azadi	22y 5m 26d
26/03/2001		Malavan	CB	Mohammadreza	Moharami	20y 5m 3d
02/05/1999		Mashinsazi	CB	Mehdi	Rahimi	22y 3m 27d
25/01/2000		Nassaji	CB	Amirhossein	Esmaeilzadeh	21y 7m 4d
12/05/2001		Peykan	CB	Saman	Fallah	20y 3m 17d
06/04/1999		Saipa	CB	Aref	Hajeidi	22y 4m 23d
08/08/1999		Saipa	CB	Omid	Doreh	22y 0m 21d
03/04/2000		Saipa	CB	Taha	Shariati	21y 4m 26d
13/03/2000		Sepahan	CB	Amirsaman	Ranjbar	21y 5m 16d
21/01/1999		Mes Raf	CB	Houman	Rabizadeh	22y 7m 8d
14/05/2000		Mes Raf	CB	Seyed Majid	Nasiri	21y 3m 15d
22/05/1999		Foulad	DM	Aref	Gholampour	22y 3m 7d
17/01/2000		Mes	DM	Errfan	Rashidi	21y 7m 12d
09/04/2000		Nassaji	DM	Ali	Davaean	21y 4m 20d
07/09/1999		Peykan	DM	mohammad	khodabandelu	21y 11m 22d
12/12/1999		Saipa	DM	Mahyar	Jabari	21y 8m 17d
09/01/2002		Shahin B	DM	Mohammadreza	Shakibkho	19y 7m 20d
04/02/1999		Zobahan	DM	Mohammad	Soltanimehr	22y 6m 25d
30/04/1999		Aluminium	FW	Erfan	Afraz	22y 3m 30d
16/03/1999		Fajr Sepasi	FW	Farzan	Dana	22y 5m 13d
10/10/2002		Far Sepasi	FW	Arya	Barzegar	18y 10m 19d
05/01/1999		Foulad	FW	Yousef	Keyshams	22y 7m 24d
30/04/1999		Gol Gohar	FW	Erfan	Afraz	22y 3m 30d
31/01/2000		Havadar	FW	Saeed	Karimi	21y 6m 29d
23/07/1999		Mashinsazi	FW	Aydin	Ghahremani	22y 1m 6d
19/03/1999		Nassaji	FW	Sajad	Aghaei	22y 5m 10d
03/12/2000		Esteghlal	FW	Mohammadreza	Azadi	20y 8m 26d
03/03/2002		Persepolis	FW	Alireza	Khodaei	19y 5m 26d
01/07/2002		Sanatnaft	FW	Ahmad	Shariatzadeh	19y 1m 28d
23/05/1999		Sepahan	FW	Alireza	Sadeghi	22y 3m 6d
23/03/1999		Sepahan	FW	Alireza	Sadeghi	22y 5m 6d
24/02/1999		Tractor	FW	Abolfazl	Poursheikh	22y 6m 5d
09/03/1999		Zobahan	FW	Abolfazl	Akashe	22y 5m 20d
29/06/2001		Zorya	FW	Allahyar	Sayadmanesh	20y 2m 0d
29/10/1999		Aluminium	GK	Erfan	Esfandiari	21y 10m 0d
06/02/2000		Esteghlal	GK	Alireza	Ansari	21y 6m 23d
13/02/2000		Foulad	GK	Ali	Gholamzadeh	21y 6m 16d
29/08/2001		Padedeh	GK	Mohammad javad	Kia	20y 0m 0d
24/02/2000		Persepolis	GK	Amirmohammad	Yousefi	21y 6m 5d
11/12/1999		Esteghlal	Gk	Alireza	Rezaei	21y 8m 18d
13/01/2000		Peykan	GK	Meraj	Esmaeili	21y 7m 16d
09/07/1999		Saipa	GK	Parsa	Jafari	22y 1m 20d
13/01/1999		Sepahan	GK	Alireza	Keykhosravi	22y 7m 16d
28/03/1999		Tractor	GK	reza	Seif Ahmadi	22y 5m 1d
08/03/1999		Aluminium	LB	Yazdan	Yousefi	22y 5m 21d
22/10/2001		Malavan	LB	Sobhan	Pasandideh	19y 10m 7d
29/06/2000		Mashinsazi	LB	Raouf	Najari	21y 2m 0d
25/08/1999		Mes	LB	Amir	Taher	22y 0m 4d
18/06/2000		Nassaji	LB	Mustafa	Javadian	21y 2m 11d
29/10/2001		Esteghlal	LW	Fardin	Rabet	19y 10m 0d
10/02/1999		Mes	LW	Sirous	bolandnazar	22y 6m 19d
20/08/2000		Padedeh	LW	Amirhossein	Jafari	21y 0m 9d
15/02/2000		Peykan	LW	Alireza	Koushki	21y 6m 14d
24/02/2002		Shahin B	Lw	Hossein	Nokhodkar	19y 6m 5d
27/02/2000		Tractor	LW	Mohammad Javad	Ghaderi	21y 6m 2d
17/05/2000		Tractor	LW	Alireza	Fathi	21y 3m 12d
30/10/2000		Esteghlal	MF	Amirhossein	Hosseinzadeh	20y 9m 30d
21/08/2002		Foulad	MF	Alireza	Bavieh	19y 0m 8d
21/03/2000		Perspolis	MF	Mohammad	Sharifi	21y 5m 8d
09/02/2001		Saipa	MF	Amirali	Sadeghi	20y 6m 20d
24/01/2000		Sanatnaft	MF	Mohammadreza	Ghobbishavi	21y 7m 5d
11/01/2001		Sanatnaft	MF	Mohammadhossein	Zavari	20y 7m 18d
27/02/2002		Sepahan	MF	Yasin	Salmani	19y 6m 2d
19/02/1999		Zobahan	MF	Danial	Momeni	22y 6m 10d
19/01/1999		Esteghlal	RB	Arash	Dajliri	22y 7m 10d
09/02/2001		Gol Gohar	RB	Saeed	Ahani	20y 6m 20d
03/01/2000		Sanatnaft	RB	Alireza	Satavi	21y 7m 26d
27/01/2000		Esteghlal	RW	Sobhan	Khaghani	21y 7m 2d
28/07/2000		Foulad	RW	Vahid	Namdari	21y 1m 1d
02/10/2000		HNK Gorica	RW	Younes	Delfi	20y 10m 27d
27/10/2001		Malavan	RW	Mehdi	Hashemijejad	19y 10m 2d
14/02/1999		Zobahan	RW	Reza	Rahimi	22y 6m 15d
16/02/2000		Zobahan	RW	Alireza	Ghaderi	21y 6m 13d

[St_Mark]

According to Majedi ( chairman of the IFF Youth Committee) Mehdi Mahdavi Kia would like to participate with the under-21 team for AFC U23 qualification games.

*اینطور در رسانه ها گفته شد که مهدی مهدوی کیا مایل است با تیم زیر 21 سال در این بازی ها شرکت کند؟
من هم می گویم با چنین تیمی به مسابقات برود بهتر است و نظر فدراسیون فوتبال هم خوشبختانه همین است. چرا که اگر ما با بازیکنان زیر 23 سال در این مسابقات شرکت کنیم و موفق به حضور در دور نهایی بازی ها با حضور 16 تیم شویم بعد از یک سال و نیم باید بچه ها را کنار بگذاریم و از دوباره برای المپیک یک تیم نو بسازیم. اما اگر تیمی که می تواند در مسابقات ورودی المپیک شرکت کند از همین الان شکل دهیم و با این تیم وارد بازی ها شویم بچه ها تجربه کسب خواهند کرد و حتی اگر موفق نشویم به دوره نهایی بازی های این دوره صعود کنیم بچه هایی که می توانند در مقدماتی المپیک باشند تجربه چند بازی بین المللی را پشت سر خواهند گذاشت.

.
.

If true, this will not end well. Sending younger players for You19 and U23 games has been tried before in Iran and always had failed badly.

Iran U23 football teams has failed for decades because of various bad policiy and practice of Iff incompetant officials and managers.
Iranian youth teams has not advanced to even DF of AFC games for oast few years because this kind of thinking.

IFF has yet to appoint a U19 coach after departure of Temp coacg Mahabadi last year. U23 has been without a coach and a team since disaster of Estili/Majidi over year and half ago when Iran failed to advanced from group stage even with Allahyar, Mohebi, Delfi, Ghaedi, Shekari, Aghasi, Gholami, Shojaei....

Last day to submit to IFF list of 50 players is before Sep27 but coach is not in Iran yet and has not watched any U23, U19 League games.

It will not be easy task for Mahdavikia who has no experience as a head coach at this level. He failed bad as U17 coach helping Doostimehr few years ago.
Good luch to U23 and Mahdavikia

27.10.2021	AFC U23Q	Iran U23	-	Nepal U23
29.10.2021	AFC U23Q	Lebanon U23	-	Iran U23
31.10.2021	AFC U23Q	Tajikistan U23	-	Iran U23

حتی اگر موفق نشویم !!

“Anyone can have an off decade.”!!

[Doctor DOOM]

^ In a sense the idea is sound that we use U21 players.
Perhaps to bolster a few key positions, we can use 3-4 U23 players.
But overwhelmingly the U21 squad should do the job.

[inarsenewetrust]

The team will be weak in full back spots. Hardani, Jalali, Derakhshanmehr are all slightly too old.

CB should be covered with Fallah and Houshmand. Both impressive in PGPL this year.

GK is also solid, mohammad javad kia of padideh looks quite promising.

Midfield again better than previous years I think, Khodabandelu at DM, Ghobeishavi is a regular in SNA too and captain from u17 WC so he has good experience, and ofc Yasin at #10 spot, or playing as another 8 with ghobeishavi. Soltanimehr also back fit again for zob ahan, he was very solid at u20 WC with Shekari some years ago.

Wings and Forward Delfi,Allahyar are the obvious starters. LW could be a surprise. I think Shariatzadeh was one of the breakouts for SNA this year. He could play there, also nokhodkar who is very highly rated. Hosseinzadeh had great season for saipa and got move to SS to replace Ghayedi.

Also I didnt see in St. Mark list Malavan CDM Boloukbashi who has strong physique and range of pass, think Zarre gave him good mins this year. He could also be a factor.

----------Javadkia----------

??---Fallah----Houshmand---??

---------Khodabandelu (boloukbashi)----
Ghobeishavi (Soltanimehr)----------Y. Salmani

Delfi(Nokhodkar)--------Allahyar------Hosseinzadeh (Shariatzadeh)

Other bench options: Khaghani, Koushki, Barzegar

[St_Mark]

The team will be weak in full back spots. Hardani, Jalali, Derakhshanmehr are all slightly too old.

CB should be covered with Fallah and Houshmand. Both impressive in PGPL this year.

GK is also solid, mohammad javad kia of padideh looks quite promising.



,,,,,

Dear Which Jalali ?

Jalali Abolfazl ( Saipa moving Esteghlal) Was not member of recent U17, U19, U23 . You are correct he is over 23.
Ahmadreza Jalali ( Foulad) U17 WC and U19 ( C) is under 23 very good LB.
If you recal During WC U17 he was the youngest of squad who play more minutes than any other players of squad.

Unfortunately for him and other young Foulad players their coach Nekonam prefered older and experienced player type.

Ahmad Reza Jalali - International Career Summary

[St_Mark]

The team will be weak in full back spots.


GK is also solid, mohammad javad kia of padideh looks quite promising.

.
Kia is good but i think Rezaei ( Peykan to Esteghlal) has much more playing minutes of PGL games and a good keeper too. Both were member of U19


P.S


Last two games for U19 vs Tajikistan ( We are going to play their U23 team at their home soon) each played one game.


Game 2

حميدرضا رضايى،
ميلاد كر،مرتضى استكى، پيمان دادخواه، ياسين سلمانى، احمد جلالى، عليرضااسدآبادى، حسين نخودكار ، على سبحانى، على پوراسماعيل و عليرضا منظم

Game 1

محمدجواد كيا
، ميلاد كر، مرتضى استكى، عليرضا اسدآبادى، احمدرضا جلالى، ياسين سلمانى، عليرضا باويه ،حسين نخودكار، مهدى هاشمى، اميرعلى صادقى و على سبحانى

Kia , Rezaei , Niknafs



We did not have a good RB and Ahani was injured so Asadabadi a RW played RB and he was ok.

[inarsenewetrust]

Dear Which Jalali ?

Jalali Abolfazl ( Saipa moving Esteghlal) Was not member of recent U17, U19, U23 . You are correct he is over 23.
Ahmadreza Jalali ( Foulad) U17 WC and U19 ( C) is under 23 very good LB.
If you recal During WC U17 he was the youngest of squad who play more minutes than any other players of squad.

Unfortunately for him and other young Foulad players their coach Nekonam prefered older and experienced player type.

Ahmad Reza Jalali - International Career Summary

yes I was referring to abolfazl. I guess derakhshanmehr has been keeping jalali junior out of xi for foolad. Derakhshanmehr is one of the players from u20 I rated most highly and still do. His technical skills, speed, and offensive output are all very good for iranian standards. I think if he improves his positioning a bit on defensive end, gets a bit more consistent in his 1v1 defending he could do very solid in europe. Still very young himself at 23.

But in that case LB should be ok. RB is still question mark for me. Also these age groups traditionally struggle with CB. its not enough to have two individually ok CBs (I think we even had aghasi,gholami before and that failed, both went on to become TM players), whoever plays there needs to develop a strong chemistry and partnership that with the CDM provides solid foundation for rest of team to play.

Houshmand has good leadership qualities and seems like a very modern CB, good on the ball, very quick and athletic. Fallah is more aggressive ball winner from limited mins I saw, surprisingly good goal scoring threat. I hope Kia just settles on a back 4 and lets them build chemistry. The attacking mid/wing/fwd zones can be experimented and rotated more.

[St_Mark]

yes I was referring to abolfazl. I guess derakhshanmehr has been keeping jalali junior out of xi for foolad. Derakhshanmehr is one of the players from u20 I rated most highly and still do. His technical skills, speed, and offensive output are all very good for iranian standards. I think if he improves his positioning a bit on defensive end, gets a bit more consistent in his 1v1 defending he could do very solid in europe. Still very young himself at 23.

But in that case LB should be ok. RB is still question mark for me. Also these age groups traditionally struggle with CB. its not enough to have two individually ok CBs (I think we even had aghasi,gholami before and that failed, both went on to become TM players), whoever plays there needs to develop a strong chemistry and partnership that with the CDM provides solid foundation for rest of team to play.

Houshmand has good leadership qualities and seems like a very modern CB, good on the ball, very quick and athletic. Fallah is more aggressive ball winner from limited mins I saw, surprisingly good goal scoring threat. I hope Kia just settles on a back 4 and lets them build chemistry. The attacking mid/wing/fwd zones can be experimented and rotated more.

As good as he is he is one of those unlucky players that will disappont the team, coach and fan not because he is a bad player or controversia; Indeed he is nice, sweet and very capable defender but unreliable for the team. for various reasons mostly physical or sometimes mental he will miss the game. There are not much demands for this type players.
He was fantastic during U16 ( 16 P) and not bad for 2-3games with U19.For U23 he had injuries but he recovered and played very well for Sepahan untill injury then moved to Foulad , He had few good games till injury ...
He is waiting to see if Foulad will extend contract with him . Best wish for him

You are correct for Nekonam he was 2nd LB before his last injury.

[St_Mark]

yes I was referring to abolfazl. I guess derakhshanmehr has been keeping jalali junior out of xi for foolad. Derakhshanmehr is one of the players from u20 I rated most highly and still do. His technical skills, speed, and offensive output are all very good for iranian standards. I think if he improves his positioning a bit on defensive end, gets a bit more consistent in his 1v1 defending he could do very solid in europe. Still very young himself at 23.

But in that case LB should be ok. RB is still question mark for me. Also these age groups traditionally struggle with CB. its not enough to have two individually ok CBs (I think we even had aghasi,gholami before and that failed, both went on to become TM players), whoever plays there needs to develop a strong chemistry and partnership that with the CDM provides solid foundation for rest of team to play.

Houshmand has good leadership qualities and seems like a very modern CB, good on the ball, very quick and athletic. Fallah is more aggressive ball winner from limited mins I saw, surprisingly good goal scoring threat. I hope Kia just settles on a back 4 and lets them build chemistry. The attacking mid/wing/fwd zones can be experimented and rotated more.

Dear:

MahdaviKia has not arrived in Iran yet , It is not clear when his 4 german assistants will arive under this dire circumestances or if he will decide to have Iranian assistants,

He has to select players first and probably as before they have to provide him a list to pick.
Games start on Sepember 27 not much time to practice , build a team from scratch so more likely he will select more experience players even with little PGL playing time.
Once he manage to advance from Group B ( very likely except act of God) he will have time to build his team and do his own plan.

I will surprised if he does not pick Sharifi ( Perspolis) & Khaghani ( Esteghlal) because of experience.

[St_Mark]

. RB is still question mark for me..

RB is a nightmare for youth teams.

U19 RB was Ahani most experience player who has played in every teams Saipa, Peykan, Pars, Naft MS , not now Golgohar but missed most of critical games and was replaced by Asadabadi RW.

U23 Aghajanpour ( Golgahar ) i was RB but was injured and replaced by Arta ( CB player) and when he was injured he was replaced by Najarian RW who did well.

Lets wait and see what new coach decide.

[St_Mark]

Mahdavikia arrived in Tehran and met with IFF cheif . Officially he is the new coach of TM U23.

Mahdavi Kia would work as technical advisor to the Football Federation in matters.

[St_Mark]

Olympic team coordination meeting


Earlier today, the coordination meeting of our U23 was held.



A Meeting was held in the presence of Azizi Khadem, president Majediand Mehdi Mahdavi Kia . The main focus of the meeting was to examine the platforms necessary to qualify for the Paris Olympics.


Games to star in 56 day

TodayTakikestan arrived in Bahrain

Tajikistan U23 vs Bahrain U23
in Bahrain

Tajikistan host of Group B is ready for Iran

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My apology to you all

I made a big mistake on date of the games

I have been careless and reported wrong in various posts
I will try to correct them

My apology again

Games to star og Oct 27 not Sep 27

[St_Mark]

Good game to monitor for U23 coach Mahdavikia
TODAY THE YOUTH TEAM OF TAJIKISTAN (U-23) WILL HOLD A FRIENDLY MATCH WITH PEERS FROM BAHRAIN Friendly match September 3 (Friday) Beginning - at 21:15 hours Dushanbe Bahrain (U-23) - TAJIKISTAN (U-23) Manama, National Stadium