It was actually the first ever win by a UAE club on Iranian soil. Meanwhile, Sepahan defeated Lekhwiya, which means there is a 90% chance that Seapahan and Esteghlal will meet for an all-Iranian encounter in the round of 16. Sepahan 2 - Lekhwiya 1
And just to be picky, it's also quite rare to see an Iranian team beat a team from the UAE at home aswell.Most games end in draws. Would love to see a Sepahan - Esteghlal game in the next round, would really bring something to the R16 matchups.
It is said the club recieved about 3,000 ticket request from fans but Kashiwa could only provide 1,600 tickets for Guangzhou Evergrande so i believe that will be the number for away fans. Prize money is 6m CNY for the match, that is 954k USD. also here is the Official advertisement on Guangzhou Evergrande's website:
Not really, most home games against the UAE clubs have ended in comfortable wins for the Iranian teams, like Persepolis' 6-1 win last week. There had been a lot of draws lately, but the overall record is still more wins than draws. But I do agree that Iranian teams for some reason tend to struggle against UAE clubs, but it's usually away from home in UAE - which is kind of strange since the Iranian clubs seem to do well in Qatar and Saudi Arabia. By the way, this was Esteghlal's first ever home loss in ACL. So it was a historic victory for Al Jazira on many levels. This year, the UAE clubs are doing very well though. It's a pity though, as one will be eliminated. But then again, Esteghlal are struggling these days with all their injuries and internal issues and I'd not fancy their chances even if they made it to the quarter-finals.
Esteghlal 1 - 2 Al Jazira (Full Highlights) [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0F4X4gO0DY"]Esteghlal (Iran) Vs. Al Jazira (UAE) | FULL HIGHLIGHTS [ ACL 2012 - Group A ] - YouTube[/ame]
Al Gharafa 0 - 3 Perspolis FT. First half rather bad performance by PP, they fell back after scoring the 2nd. Second half much better. Didnt let Al Gharafa play so freely as they did 1st. Perspolis created more chances and scored a third goal, which put an end to the game. Referee was pretty retarded, Al-Gharafa couldnt convert or make anything out of the million freekicks they were rewarded.
Kashiwa Reysol 0-0 Guangzhou Ulsan Hyundai 1-1 Brisbane Roar Buriram United 0-2 Jeonbuk Hyundai Beijing Guoan 1-1 Fc Tokyo Pakhtakor 3-1 Al Arabi Doha Shabab Dubai 1-1 Al Hilal Riyadh
Here is how I see the performances of the Iranian clubs in their respective groups in the AFC CL so far. And how I judge their prospects. 1- Sepahan They lead their group with 7 points, having done what they were supposed to do in their games. In other words, they have won at home and even their away draw was courtesy of a last second equalizer they allowed. From what I have seen, this Sepahan team will be able to hold its own against any other side in the AFC CL and can go far. But they are still not quite as strong as last year during the group stage, when they completely dominated their group. Last year, in the middle of the AFC CL between the group stage and the knock out rounds, Sepahan lost a lot of its best players but nonetheless it still showed itself strong enough to win the competition. After all, last year, even a weakened Sepahan was able to comfortably beat the eventual CL champions eventual champions, Al Sadd of Qatar, home and away in the quarterfinals, finding itself eliminated instead due to a mix up using (what was ruled by the AFC) to have been an ineligible player. While I believe last year's Sepahan (particularly the team they had in the group stage) was far and away the best team in the AFC CL, and I don't feel that way about Sepahan this year, this Sepahan side is still good enough to go to the finals as well. They will just need to work as hard as they have and a bit of luck needs to be on their side as well. 2- Pirouzi Athletic (Perspolis) Perspolis were struggling in the Iranian league, but under their new coach, the popular and accomplished Mustafa Denizly, they have done very well in the AFC CL. They opened up with a good result, even if in a performance that was less than convincing, managing to draw Al Hilal of Saudi Arabia 1:1 away from home. They then completely trounced the UAE representative, Al Shabab, in front of 85,000 spectators at home 6:1! That was a memorable game for them and gave them the confidence to go to Qatar and defeat Al Gharafah away 3:0, courtesy of 2 early goals in the opening 5 minutes. At the moment, Perspolis look good, certainly much better than they do in the Iranian league. They have a better side in the AFC CL as well, being able to use a couple of players they aren't allowed to use at home. But something about Perspolis' performance in the second half against Al Gharafah made me think they have gained the confidence and poise to put things in order and go very far in this competition. 3- Esteghlal Esteghlal were doing very well in the Iranian league and looked set to win the league, before they were beset by several injuries to their key players. Afterwards, they dropped points and fell to 3rd place at home. Similarly, despite being in second place in their AFC CL group with merely 4 points, they are in fact struggling in the AFC CL as well. They opened up with a somewhat fortunate away win against Al Rayan courtesy of a last second goal. They struggled to an uninspiring scoreless draw against Nasaf of Uzbekistan and then lost 2:1 to Al Jazira of the UAE at home! The latter result neither entirely fair nor entirely unfair, as it was the kind of game that either side could have scored more goals then they actually scored. To me, Esteghlal's fortunes still depend on whether they can get back Andranik Teymourian and Jabari, as well as K. Rahmati. These 3 players were their 3 starting central midfield players and losing all 3 at the same time due to injury is losing more then Esteghlal has been able to handle. Especially since Teymourian is such a work horse and Jabbari was in such fine form before his injury, being Esteghlal most influential players. If they get back these players in the same form as they had them before their injuries, when Esteghlal was leading the Iranian league, they will have all that it takes to completely rebound and even win the AFC CL. Indeed, at full strength, Esteghlal are arguably the strongest Iranian club at the moment. But at their current form and without these players, Esteghlal are average. They haven't really deserved better than the results they have achieved so far in the AFC CL. In fact, if anything, I think they have been slightly fortunate as they could have easily lost not just the game they lost to Al Jazira, but even the game against the Uzbek club and were a bit lucky to win against Al Riyan as well. Anyway, good luck to all 3 Iranian clubs. Although I grew up a fan of Esteghlal, there have been times more recently that I have rooted for Perspolis instead. With Denizly now leading Perspolis, this is one of those times, as I like Denizly while I still can't forgive Mazloomi (who in fairness has done well with Esteghlal) for all his jibes and negative comments about Ghotbi and more recently Carlos Queiroz. Which is not to say I don't wish Esteghlal all the luck in the AFC CL. Against foreign clubs, I always root strongly for the Iranian side.
New time-wasting tactics by the Al Jazira players. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Px1BuAhhmF4"]Arab Goalkeeper Wastes Time In Purpose! - YouTube[/ame]
Here is another "incident" involving the same clown, in the same match. He kept aiming for the spider-cam in Azadi stadium to stop the match and waste some more time. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmKR8eq3bh0"]The goalkeeper (Ali Khaseif) hits 2 times the spidercam - YouTube[/ame]
typical Persian Gulf Arabs I saw this live and was fuming. Apart from Saudis, all these $#@!@#$ act like this
The first video was really helarious work done by the GK and I must commend the camera men to shoot it in the cam. But the second video is not for time wasting I beleive.He might aim for the camera but his luck was also with him that his aim was accurate and hit twice to the camera.He must join shooting rather than playing football.
lol he's half way there he's got the outline of the terrorist beard down (shaved lip area and allowing the rest to grow). @ Ittehad, after reading your comment I sensed praise. I hope it's an English issue. If not, then you're not doing the arab image any good. @ AFC seriously? wtf kind of an organization lets something like this slip?
I don't think kicking the cam was targeted, half the time the keepers in the AFC can't kick the bleeding football to begin with so to hit the cam twice, purely just look, wonder if he wnet to the casino latter that night!! As for the shoelace incident, really, AFC should get a hold of the video, and stamp down on it. Of coure, AFC will claim that the incident has not been reported so can't do a thing, but really, they just need to get a hold of their own competition and make a big statement out of it. CHEATING in whatever form will not be tolerated. I don't blame the keeper in slowing down the game, but if must be done, don't get caught CHEATING!!
What you guys are missing is the fact that he kicked the ball into the blue sky a dozen times hoping to catch the spider-cam before he actually caught it twice in a row. It was a deliberate attempt on his behalf to delay the match.
What I hate is the fact that the longer this goes on, the more likely it's that even our players will start doing shit like this. That's how diving became common practice in football around the world. If FIFA and AFC don't act on things like this, and they won't, one day we will see this localized behaviour everywhere (localized because you don't see such obvious and shameless cheating outside of the Persian Gulf region). Here's another famous example [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfKvz0ITj38"]Grass Rolling At Its Finest - YouTube[/ame]
It would take some extreme skill to hit the spidercam twice in a row. I'm guessing it was just a dumb coincidence.