2010 Asian Games [R]

I'm glad we won fair and square. The game was dominated by Korea all throughout. The ref disallowed a goal and made so many horrible calls against Korea, but whatever... the game was lopsided anyway. It was only a matter of time Korea would score. In the first half, the Iranians hardly ever came near the Korean PK box.

This team played 120-minute over-time matches 2 in a row, and was obviously tired to play against Iran. As a result, there weren't as much physical domination, but there still were high enough footballing class to dominate on ball possession, shots, shots on goal, corners and well, everything.

 

I am happy for you guys. Obviously, the dramatic last-minute defeat of Iran, the four-time Asian Games Champions and the most decorated and dominant football team in the history of Asian Games, who had defeated South Korea in our last three meetings in Asian Games in 1990, 2002 and 2006, meant a great deal to your fans and players who were overwhelmed with raw emotions after the match. It's good to see other teams, beside Iran, prevail in Asian Games football. Iran winning it all the time is no fun. Seeing your players cry in joy, made me realize how much this Bronze medal meant to you guys.

 

why are you stressing domination? against zob ahan you kept saying that 'result is the only thing that matters.'

 

thats strange how the koreans cry over a bronze medal asian games match yet all of the korean posters say this doesnt mean anything to them. heck, even in asian cup korean posters say they 'only care about the world cup.' well something doesnt add up here.

 

PF, Epic Fail...again and again, over and over.
Let me clear up your failure to understand and problems with arithmetic - YOU LOST. /END.

As Mani pointed out, Iran isn't scared of losing since they've had so much success in the past especially in the Asian Games - just an epic case of weakness when it mattered. It's still the 3rd place match so I'm glad we won but if we lost I'm not losing sleep. With all the grassrolling and antics by the keeper obviously Iran wanted this bad, real bad.

 

Those are obviously tears of joy, and there is congratulatory hugging involved too.

 

Sure, keep telling that to yourself.

That's exactly the kind of arrogant attitude that has kept South Korea from winning a Gold Medal at Asian Games Football since 1986. Even before the tournament started, you were declaring yourselves the champions on the Korea forum, with absolutely no recent history of success in Asian Games football to back it up with.

 

Having scored 3 goals in the span of 10 minutes, who wouldn't celebrate like that? Sorry to disappoint you guys but Koreans in general don't really know/care about Iran. We are not your rivalry nation. To the Korean players, Iran is just another strong powerhouse in West Asia who recently lost all their dignity and respect from the football fans by starting to employ grassrolling/bad manner tactics in their football.

Iranians, on the other hand, seem to have this Korean obsession in which I have no clue where that stemmed from. It's not only being seen on BS, but in Iranian society as well. I heard Korean dramas have like 90% TV rating over there. I also can't get how Iranian fans are still so proud of their 6-2 victory so much so that they're still making hundreds of relevant clips on youtube, making 6-2 banner and avatar on their football website & etc.

 

who wouldnt celebrate like that? yes it is hard to find someone who wouldnt celebrate in that situation but i found one: a team that the bronze medal is NOTHING for them and CRIED for the 2nd match in a row. again. something doesnt add up.

where is all this coming from dude? i have no idea why you are bringing random, generalized, historic Iran vs korea discussion for the 8th time this month.

 

Congratulations to the Japanese for winning the gold. They are the true winners of the tournament, winning the gold medal and using a U21 squad to boot.

I didn't see the match between Iran-SKorea, but it seems S.Korea won fair and square and I don't see any Iranian fans here disputing that. Indeed, despite the rather dramatic nature of the win, with S.Korea scoring 3 goals in 10 minutes to turn a 3:1 loss to a 4:3 win, everyone apparently agrees the S.Koreans deserved the win. So what is there exactly for Iranian and Korean fans to argue about as it relates to this game?

In fact, the game wasn't all that important to most Iranian fans or (I assume) S.Korea fans, as it was a 3rd place consolation game between two sides which probably had hoped to win the gold. Indeed, both these teams came to the tournament with overage players, a practice that I wish Iran at least had not employed.

We used overage players, as well as a couple of players who were U23 but not U21, and ended up with no medal. I think we could have accomplished as much with an exclusively U21 team and, regardless, I would have preferred to see an exclusively U21 team gain experience as it prepares itself for the upcoming OL qualifiers. Not that I honestly even care about the Olympic football tournament itself: even that tournament is flawed by design, to make sure it doesn't take away from the luster and appeal of tournaments organized by FIFA. Except, for a country like Iran, qualifying to the Olympics in football would still mean more than another Asian Games medal even if we had won one (which we didn't). Of course, even if we qualify for the Olympics, I am not sure I would be so excited featuring this bunch to the world to see. They aren't all that special anyway and we have had much better sides fail and go unnoticed.
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Btw, I noticed someone here try to put down Iran's overall (not football per se) record in these Asian Games, calling this a 3 way competition between China, S.Korea and Japan. The medal count shows this competition is owned by China. S.Korea and Japan might have a rivalry for who is 2nd, but in this tournament Japan seems to be trailing by a good margin. Indeed, in terms of medals by men alone, Japan is barely ahead of Iran with 22 gold men's medals while Iran has 18 gold men's medals. Put differently, while I am proud of our women for earning some medals including a gold despite the restrictions on them, if we segregated the men and women's medals, Iran would be right there breathing down Japan's neck for 3rd place in the rankings for this tournament. Which underlies that we have a had a very good tournament so far, in 4th place overall with 19 Gold and a total of 54 medals.

 

Results matter. That's a no-brainer. However, it'd be better if the team dominated the game AND won the game (like how S.Korea did yesterday against Iran). Seongnam and Zob Ahan's game, however, was a pretty tight game although Seongnam had a little bit more dangerous chances than Zob Ahan.

 

Of course, for an outsider like you, it might not add up. It can't be explained easily as the matter was very complicated.

There's a reason why these players cried after the match. And although the dramatic come-back was surely a part of it, it wasn't the main reason.

These players had been under tremendous pressure. It was all about the military exemption clause they had to fight under.

After the Uzbekistan game, the team had a team-talk session in which players and coaches were freely discussing their opinions. Many players burst into sobbing when they talked about how hard it is to cope with the pressure of the military exemption. (Only the gold medal would relieve them from the 2-year military service) Even the head coach Hong Myong-bo is reported to have shown tears when he realized how much that mental burden had been affecting the players.

Obviously, the stress was too big by the time Korea went to the semifinals. Time went by, and Korea couldn't score despite controlling the game. Players grew anxious, and went to overtime. Just before the end of overtime, Korea conceded the goal. That was the end of everything. These players had absolutely no reason to belong here, and their mission was failed miserably. Coach Hong Myoungbo has said that he couldn't talk to his players after the game because the entire team's mood was too devastated.

The exhausted team (Korea played 120 minute overtime games for 2 straight games) was apparently tired, but it was the mental emptiness that hurt the entire team more. Korea dominated the game, but had moments of unlucky lapses and the team fell behind 0-2 at half time.

During halftime, coach Hong told the players to not give up. He is quoted to have said "We can't just give this game up. The fans are watching, and we can't let them down like this. We need to show them what Korean football is about."

And the team came back. Park Chuyoung said after the match "We promised ourselves that we can't just stop here." It was a battle of regaining pride when no one had the energy to do so.

This moment of crying was a mixture of that bitter-sweet ending of the mental burden they had to carry all the time. The players were pretty much half-dead after the semifinal loss, and this come-back was an uphill battle against the toughest opponent of all: Themselves.

 

For players who achieved reaching the quarter-finals at the U-20 World Cup just 1 year ago, and for players like Park Chuyoung(for example) who had numerous wins against the top teams in the world with top players, there's a reason why they cried. And no, it has nothing to do with Iran. The players would've cried too even if the opponent was Malaysia or Mongolia. Beating Iran doesn't particularly make them any more proud because these players have achieved a lot more than that long ago. Iran would actually fare as a mid-low-level range team compared to the teams this particular generation has been facing the past years. So "Iran" in this particular event doesn't affect anything. It could have been Taiwan and it doesn't change the crying.

The tears were a result of a lot of mixed feelings. Sad, because they themselves know that they deserve a lot more; Happy, because they overcame mental and physical breakdown since "the failure" 2 days ago; Proud, to have kept their promise during halftime; Bitter-sweet, because they no longer have to worry about this "mission." Sorry, to the public because they feel they failed them. Helpless and emptiness, because it still doesn't change anything.

 

i just came back to this thread after caesargate and find a huge essay. cant be bothered to read it.

 

i just read caesars new set of comments. caesar i dont know if you classify my quoted post as trolling (certainly wasnt intended to be) but how can i delete it if i am on a yellow!? i guess it stays for now.

 

Guess you'll never get it then. Just go after the stats.

 

I usually don't get into this bs conversations but come on lets get real here any team likes to win and players were happy they won. For you to downplay Iran so much has no actual substance really. For example Iran's third goal puts this "Iran is a mid-range" team to bed. I know that poster likes Mani and Woorjim bring a neo-national approach to posting on a soccer board (specially sections like this which is meant to be neutral) but I don't see any excuse for you or anyone else to post crap like this which questions our understanding of the game we love and understand.

If Korea is such a ground breaking ahead of Asia team as you put them out to be they would never get scored on like Iran's third goal. If Iran is such a mid-range team then we shouldn't have talented players who can toy with two defenders and take a shot that way. come down to earth and join us in a humble way. This Iran team was packed with talent but lacked the important tactical factor. Korea team played better than Iran and deserved to win and that is where the story ends.

 

this
well said

 

The key here isn't that Iran wasn't a worthy opponent. The key is that there were other more important factors in play for the Korean team which elicited the emotional responses after the match (see Korean Football's post). I have no vested interest in what color medal the Taeguk Warriors win at the AG but I know how these players feel and why they are crying. Trust me, it's not about Iran.

 

actually probably only Iranians will understand since we have the compulsory military service as well and I know that unofficially they introduced this champion athlete pardon scheme to get around it for gold winning athletes (only in Olympic and Asian games) we still don't have it for our football team but it is on the cards. Regardless, Korean Footballs comment about Iran team and Korean players were just bunch of rubbish he knows it, you know it anyone with even limited understanding of the game knows it.

 

He's saying that simply because you guys are gloating at the fact the players are crying after an exhausting tournament. The amount of ego stroking by the Iranians in this thread is unbelievable.

Keep in mind with recent events in our country (North Korea), failure to get gold, playing 2 OT matches in a row then going 3-1 down probably stretches the players to their physical and emotional limits.

 

Iran had nothing to do with the tears after the match lol

Nearly every Zob Ahan player cried after losing to Seongnam. Did that have anything to do with losing to a Korean club? Obviously not. Those who have cried after that match would have cried regardless who the opponent was. In fact, if it was a club from Saudi Arabia (or any other team from the Gulf states) they lost to, I'm betting far less players would have cried just to remain cool and maintain pride against true rivals. See what am I getting at?

The entire Korean team was heavily criticized all throughout tournament for being the 'wrong' team. With the military exemption on the line, many people in Korea thought it was not fair to bring an U21 team and not give the U23 players a chance. To add on the pressure, Koreans still thought the players should win the gold with ease and 'make them proud'. Criticisms on the players were very personal, and I'm surprised more players didn't cry. The team also had a run of multiple emotions from losing a match at the very last minute, and just winning another.

 

you're missing the point by MILES.

I'm not "downplaying" Iran. In fact, what I'm saying is that "Iran" has nothing to do with this. It could have been Taiwan, and it still would have been a tear-fest.

This team went to the quarter-finals at the U-20 World Cup last year (Iran couldn't even get out of the group stage at the Asian preliminary round). This team tied Germany, crushed USA, crushed Paraguay, and narrowly lost to the eventual champions by 2-3) In no ways would this team be crying over winning 1 particular game against 1 particular opponent. Again, I'm not trying to downplay Iran, but to say that they were crying because they beat Iran is nonsense.